Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009

They have a preview slide show up here;

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/ ... review.jsp

Probably some of the Highly Commended winners, about 40 images up so far. The winners are named this evening in London along with the Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Wow, as usual some stunning shots, and some absolute crap. I guess that's par for the course for a photo competition, we all see things a little differently!

Here is the winner;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ntest.html

Actually I like Danny's image maybe because I sat with him 2yrs ago all night in London and drank way too much Red Wine!

Should be more coming out today. Congrats to the winners.....

Well deserved top award of the wolf !!!!!!!!!
I saw his photo 6 months ago and was amazing
Jose Luis is a personal friend from Spain and I am so happy he won the big price !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
big congrats Jose Luis !!!!

Some sweet stuff ! Miguel was that a phototrap do you know ??

Lou

Miguel Lasa wrote:Well deserved top award of the wolf !!!!!!!!!

Sure is, an awesome catch!!!

Congratulations, Rob Palmer, for First Place in Bird Behavior!!!

Buonomo wrote:. . . Miguel was that a phototrap do you know ??

According to the WPOTY website, yes. I hear the complaints coming already, but I agree it's a sweet shot indeed.

Here are all winning and commended pictures of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

My favorites: this Wolverine (but that might be cuz I'd love to see one of those), this Puffin and this cold pic (probably due to my love of cold places).

Arjen

That wolverine is a stunner...interesting to see that this year's winner, the wolf, is another camera trap shot, whatever happened to the good ol' days when people were behind their cameras Also disappointing to see another wolf shot by the Finnish guy included...using bait for wildlife photography should not be allowed, in my opinion, in the most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world. Sets a terrible example. But then again maybe I'm just bitter cause I didn't win (or enter, for that matter!).

john660 wrote:That wolverine is a stunner...interesting to see that this year's winner, the wolf, is another camera trap shot, whatever happened to the good ol' days when people were behind their cameras Also disappointing to see another wolf shot by the Finnish guy included...using bait for wildlife photography should not be allowed, in my opinion, in the most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world. Sets a terrible example. But then again maybe I'm just bitter cause I didn't win (or enter, for that matter!).

Interestingly, the Scandinavian countries and those in the Benelux have a surprisingly tolerant attitude about baiting. While in Finland I thumbed through a bunch of magazines that I could not read but the message was clear through the images of live baited set-ups that there was no effort on the parts of the editors or photographers to hide anything. Finland and the Netherlands have a good population of wildlife photographers and I suspect that in that part of the world there is little to no anti-baiting movements. I had the impression that it was long accepted and common technique.

Scott Linstead wrote:Finland and the Netherlands have a good population of wildlife photographers and I suspect that in that part of the world there is little to no anti-baiting movements. I had the impression that it was long accepted and common technique.

I know there are several photography hides in Sweden/Finland where they bait mainly Brown Bears. This seems to be widely accepted.
In the Netherlands however I don't know many nature photographers that use bait and every time a baited picture shows up on a photography forum it will start a large discussion about baiting. So I wouldn't say its an accepted common technique.

But I agree that non-baited pictures are nicer as baited ones. And I also would like to see a non camera trap shot (how awesome this one might be) to be the winner.

Arjen

Let's see, no baiting and no camera traps. Others, I'm sure, would add: no sound playback, no set-ups, no help from National Georgraphic, no images shot while on assignment, no help from a local guide, no images from photo tours, no images while leading photo tours, no tame animals from national parks, no images from overshot locations, no images from secret locations, no shots marred by too much habitat, etc., etc. I think most of us can agree that the only eligible images should be our own.

Cliff Beittel wrote:Let's see, no baiting and no camera traps. Others, I'm sure, would add: no sound playback, no set-ups, no help from National Georgraphic, no images shot while on assignment, no help from a local guide, no images from photo tours, no images while leading photo tours, no tame animals from national parks, no images from overshot locations, no images from secret locations, no shots marred by too much habitat, etc., etc. I think most of us can agree that the only eligible images should be our own.

GREAT QUOTE

Absolutely, Cliff, ha-ha!

Truly stunning shot

Natureview wrote:
I know there are several photography hides in Sweden/Finland where they bait mainly Brown Bears. This seems to be widely accepted.
In the Netherlands however I don't know many nature photographers that use bait and every time a baited picture shows up on a photography forum it will start a large discussion about baiting. So I wouldn't say its an accepted common technique.

But I agree that non-baited pictures are nicer as baited ones. And I also would like to see a non camera trap shot (how awesome this one might be) to be the winner.

Arjen

You are definately in a better position than I to evaluate this topic, Arjen. My experiences are few: what I mentioned above about the magazines, an interview that I had with an editor of "Vogels" when they published one of my snowy owls where the editor casually addressed the baiting involved in the shot as if it was a given and finally, the great number of hawk owls and GGOs in flight, diving E. kingfishers and Golden Eagle shots that come out of this part of the world.

Scott Linstead wrote:You are definately in a better position than I to evaluate this topic, Arjen. My experiences are few: what I mentioned above about the magazines, an interview that I had with an editor of "Vogels" when they published one of my snowy owls where the editor casually addressed the baiting involved in the shot as if it was a given and finally, the great number of hawk owls and GGOs in flight, diving E. kingfishers and Golden Eagle shots that come out of this part of the world.

Well, most of those pictures are not made in the Netherlands, because we don't have Hawk Owls, GGO's and Golden Eagles here
And most (not all) of the baited Snowy and Great Grey Owls I've seen, were made at your side of the Atlantic. So I actually had the opinion that it was the other way around

Arjen

Natureview wrote:Well, most of those pictures are not made in the Netherlands, because we don't have Hawk Owls, GGO's and Golden Eagles here
And most (not all) of the baited Snowy and Great Grey Owls I've seen, were made at your side of the Atlantic. So I actually had the opinion that it was the other way around

Arjen

haha! Well, in that case I guess it's just an old-fashioned case of the grass appearing greener on the other side of the fence!

john660 wrote:Wow, as usual some stunning shots, and some absolute crap. I guess that's par for the course for a photo competition, we all see things a little differently!

I agree...

In addition to the amazing world-class photos, there's always some sub-par shots of rare species and/or rare events that always seem to make it in...