Is there anything more soothing than a sleeping cygnet (cygnet)? Or what better example of the relationship between nature and urban development in the UK than the red fox, which is as common in communities as it is in the wild? In this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA), photographers from across the UK and its islands, including young, budding documentary makers, spotlight some of the region’s most beloved creatures.
Paul Hobson’s black-and-white photo of a leaping toad silhouetted in a pond near his home in Sheffield won this year’s top honors. he from in He built a glass box that could be lowered into the water and protect his camera as active amphibians jumped on top of it. Proper shooting also requires some patience, as the toad will often swim across the box and sit on it, rather than jumping over it.
Other category winners include Barry Webb’s slime mold, Sarah Darnell’s dramatic fight between two brown hares in Norfolk, Alastair Marsh’s bold portrait of a pine marten in Scotland’s Alnemohen heath, and Jamie Smart’s close-up of a leafcutter bee peering from its nest.
Smart’s bold photo won the 11 and under category, where kids get to show their stuff. There are also categories for 12 to 14 years old and 15 to 17 years old. “I love bees and have spent a lot of time this year studying them and figuring out what I can do to help the wild bees around our garden thrive,” Smart said. She built a bee hotel in her backyard and managed to capture leafcutter bee specimens poking their heads out from a safe location.
View all winning images in BWPA’s online gallery and print publication. If you would like to submit your own photos of wildlife taken in the UK, you have until 7 June to submit your photos to next year’s competition.
