Category: Wildlife

October 29th is the RSPB’s national ‘Feed the Birds’ day. A very worthy cause indeed – it helps to ensure that, as the seasons change, we don’t forget about our vulnerable feathered friends in our own backyard. If you want to make a difference, visit the RSPB website to find out more.

In celebration of our feathered friends, I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some of our favourite bird pictures from recent years (above and below).

Happy Feed the Birds day…..and, of course, don’t forget to feed them, though not just today – but all winter!

At the recent Wild Photos conference (London) we had the opportunity for an impromptu Q&A with Mark Carwardine, Chairman of the judges for the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the year competition. This provided a great opportunity for us to find out more about the judging process and receive some tips on submitting potentially winning photos.

Here’s the top tips and best bits:

• Use a picture that tells a story – the adage that a picture tells a thousand words is very true for this competition.
• Don’t overlook common subjects – the judges are often bombarded with pictures of African wildlife and Japanese Macaques.
• Look for new and unusual ways of portraying wildlife, for example unusual behaviour, alternative poses, new angles
• Don’t copy winning styles from previous years – judges see this time after time and disregard ‘copied’ photos
• It is permitted to resubmit photos year after year. In fact, some shots have been resubmitted three times and only won on their third submission. If you believe you have a truly winning shot it is worth repeat submissions.
• The most popular categories are animal portraits and animals in their environment. Less popular – but becoming increasingly more so – is nature in black and white, urban wildlife and in praise of plants. Submitting into the less popular categories might increase your chances, but only because there is less competition.
• Judges love spume 🙂