The winner of the 2016 Thomson Ecology Photography Competition is Alan Warriner with his image “Fire in the ice”. (Image: top right)
Alan wins the first prize of £200 plus royalties for the use of the photo.
The image was taken early in the morning in the icy cold of the Lake District, and it truly conveys the winter season in this atmospheric, and technically excellent shot.
Three runner-up images were also chosen. “Late Harvest” by John Holt (Image; second to top) was a favourite of the judges because it depicts British autumn-time perfectly, with a wonderful use of light. Linda Pryke also won runner-up position with her image entitled “Roebuck reds”, (Image; third to top) showing a roebuck deer surrounded by poppies and daisies at an organic farm in Norfolk. Swales Parry’s image entitled “The changeover” (Image; bottom, right) is the final runner-up, beautifully capturing a couple of gannet’s protecting their egg at Bempton Cliffs on the east Yorkshire coast.
For the second year running, the judges included Bill Doherty, the 2013 Thomson Ecology Photography Competition winner. He said of judging this year’s competition, “This was more difficult than last year. The photographers out there are taking this really seriously and submitting some fantastic images.”
The competition, now in its sixth year, has attracted a diverse selection of images from all over the UK, with many entries coming from photographers around the world. The subject of the seasons was chosen to reflect that much of our work as an ecology consultancy takes place in the summer, but some ecological activities can be done throughout the year, even in the midst of winter.
Gemma Balaam, the competition founder and organiser, said of the winning image: “This image jumped out at me as soon as I opened it, and it definitely has the wow-factor. The other judges agreed and we were happy to pick it as the overall winner. Choosing the runner-up images was extremely difficult, as we had so many really excellent images, but we are very happy with our final choice.”
Gemma goes on to say, “The competition is a great way to generate more interest in UK wildlife and the diverse ecology that is unique to the British Isles. It is also an opportunity to share some of the great images which people have taken. We are fully intending to continue running the competition, and are already looking forward to seeing what images we get next year!”
We would like to thank everyone who entered the competition. We thoroughly enjoyed looking through the images, and were genuinely impressed by the high standard of the entries.
You can view the winning images on FLickr.
