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Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009

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by OntPhoto on Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:19 am

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Congrats to Rob Palmer and all the others. I can see why each photo was selected. Found it also helpful to read the accompanying text which gives a bit of insight as to why a particular photo may have been considered (of course many of the images speak for themselves). If an image were in the Urban and Garden Wildlife category, of course we'd not be surprised to see common subjects in the image. But it's the situation, context, interaction, composition and "spirit" of the photo that will set it apart from the others. Judging in contests is subjective of course but I think in the larger competitions, the winning images are the result of more than one judges opinion. Just my thoughts on the matter.

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by Neil Losin on Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:46 pm

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I also submitted a portfolio for the Eric Hosking Award this year, like Kari and Brandon. It's annoying that they haven't awarded it -- like Kari, I put several of my very best images in my Hosking portfolio, making them ineligible for other awards. While I'm biased with respect to my own work, Kari's and Brandon's portfolios should certainly be good enough to deserve an award in the absence of superior competition (and there probably WAS lots of competition). So what gives? It *is* a big prize... are they trying to save money?

That said, the overall winner is INCREDIBLE, camera trap or no, and Rob's winning bird behavior image is just awesome too! As always, some good choices by the judges, some questionable ones. But overall a really nice selection of images in the winners gallery.

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by George DeCamp on Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:36 pm

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Neil Losin wrote:I also submitted a portfolio for the Eric Hosking Award this year, like Kari and Brandon. It's annoying that they haven't awarded it -- like Kari, I put several of my very best images in my Hosking portfolio, making them ineligible for other awards. While I'm biased with respect to my own work, Kari's and Brandon's portfolios should certainly be good enough to deserve an award in the absence of superior competition (and there probably WAS lots of competition). So what gives? It *is* a big prize... are they trying to save money?.

Who knows why they do the things they do. There is a way to ask though;

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

They do answer e-mails and perhaps one of you or all of you could ask, can't hurt to find out so you know what to do next year. I would think you should be allowed to enter the images in other categories if they know sometimes they will not hand out the Hosking award but that is just one opinion, maybe they will change that rule if enough people say something?

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by Miguel Lasa on Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:23 pm

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Congrats to Rob Palmer, amazing shot with 100 % action !!,hope you had a great night at london NHM

[url=http://www.miguellasa.com][b]Miguel Lasa Photography[/b][/url]

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by Sebastian Erras on Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:18 pm

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Kari Post wrote:
California4Life wrote: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...
Like National Geographic, the BBC does select images that "tell a story" although they might not be technically of a very high standard. I guess I can understand that.

Of course, there are a couple images in there that I just don't get at all - easily accessible subjects doing ordinary things in an ordinary setting and without any technical excellence or skill that make them stand apart from the thousands of similar stock shots I've seen many times before. Fortunately, most of the photos are very good and interesting to look at and I can say that overall I'm pretty impressed with the selections this year.

Did anyone else notice that they didn't award the Eric Hosking Award (portfolio for photographers age 26 and under) for the second year in a row? I wonder if that will be a new trend. I feel like if they are going to keep doing that, then I'd like to know so I don't waste entering ten of my favorite images in a category that isn't even going to be judged all the way through when I could be dispersing them among all of the other categories and maybe increasing my chances of having something selected.

The thing with the Eric Hoskin Award is getting a little ridiculous.
I was also very disappointed, when I saw that they didn't pick a winner for the Eric Hoskin for the second time in a row. I send them an e-mail and I got the same response as last year. The judges thought that the portfolios were not strong enough.
Come on, it is a category for photographers aged 18-25, and setting the bar sooo high is getting ridiculous and there are enough great young photograpers out there, who entered and were not picked.

The only thing we can do, is to send them e-mails and complain.

Sebastian Erras

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by OntPhoto on Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:27 pm

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dumoulin wrote:

Most are private land and you are correct: you don't need to be a pro photographer for this kind of workshop BUT I have seen some PRO and world famous nature photographers give workshops and baiting with a mouse every 10 minutes. BTW : I would have no problem if the workshop leaders would respect the wilderness of the snowy owls (and teach that respect) and would not do this mass baiting for their customers. In Ontario I also heard that many private land owners are no longer letting photographers go on their property, thanks to workshops. I hope this situation will not occurs this winter in Quebec as all the photographers are penalized after that. And you can probably guess that local photographers would be really unhappy

Yeah, the Snowy owls sell themselves. If it's private land then the landowners are likely being paid (you would think unless the landowners are unaware). If there were no mass baiting then there would be no snowy owl workshop customers

What customer would pay money to see a snowy owl perched on top of a telephone pole all day? For what's going on here see: http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/view ... &start=120

I think there's a guy in Quebec that actually sells a map of many of the Snowy Owl locations (a photographer in Montreal told me this but I'm not sure if it's true or not but she did provide the persons name).

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by jdebraekeleer on Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:12 am

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All great images ! As for baiting wildlife ... well last week I was at a nature photography display and one of the photographers had some great images of a snowy owl. He didn't use real mice (dead or a live ???) or some other food to get the owl where he wanted him to be, but to my great amazement he did use a fishing line with a fake plastic mouse to lure the bird and make it fly into his direction.
I think it's a waist of energy for the owl especially in those difficult cold conditions. So I think under certain circumstances baiting could be an option but tha way this guy did it ... for me it is a NO NO !

[url=http://www.debraekeleer.eu][b]Jos De Braekeleer Photography[/b][/url]
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by Judd Patterson on Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:06 am

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Count me among those who are very frustrated by the competition not awarding the Eric Hosking Award two years in a row. Especially when I consider the images that won that category from 2005-2007 I simply do not understand. More than enough young talent has been demonstrated on NSN and other sites.

Well, I'm an old guy now, so I can't submit for Eric Hosking anymore. Better luck to others in the years to come.

[url=http://www.juddpatterson.com]Judd Patterson Photography[/url] | [url=http://www.facebook.com/juddpattersonphotography]Facebook[/url] | [url=http://www.birdsinfocus.com]BirdsInFocus[/url]

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by Neil Losin on Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:48 pm

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Judd Patterson wrote:Count me among those who are very frustrated by the competition not awarding the Eric Hosking Award two years in a row. Especially when I consider the images that won that category from 2005-2007 I simply do not understand. More than enough young talent has been demonstrated on NSN and other sites.

Well, I'm an old guy now, so I can't submit for Eric Hosking anymore. Better luck to others in the years to come.

Me too

This was the last year of my eligibility. I hope for the rest of you youngsters that they start awarding it again soon!

-Neil

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by Kari Post on Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:05 am

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I would like to suggest the following to anyone emailing to complain about the Eric Hosking Award issue: Recommend a rule change that would allow photos entered into the competition as part of the portfolio submission for the Eric Hosking Award to become eligible for other categories in the event that a winner for the Eric Hosking Award is not selected. I think this is better than just complaining that the BBC/Veolia/Shell (whoever runs the awards anymore) isn't giving out the award. The awards committee obviously wants to maintain a high standard of work, which is respectable. However, I do think that a rule change along the lines of what I have suggested would be a fair alternative to young entrants trying to make their mark in a very saturated field, and would increase the overall quality of entries throughout all categories of the competition.

Kari Post, former NSN Editor 2009-2013
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by George DeCamp on Fri Oct 30, 2009 6:03 am

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Kari Post wrote:I would like to suggest the following to anyone emailing to complain about the Eric Hosking Award issue: Recommend a rule change that would allow photos entered into the competition as part of the portfolio submission for the Eric Hosking Award to become eligible for other categories in the event that a winner for the Eric Hosking Award is not selected.

Exactly what I was alluding to above. If more people do it, perhaps they will listen.

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by Phil Colla on Fri Oct 30, 2009 8:57 am

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Kari, that's a really good idea.

Phil Colla
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by Brandon Holden on Fri Oct 30, 2009 12:44 pm

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All I can add is that one of my images was apparently taken by the judges out of my portfolio and became a finalist in a different category. I didn't get too much information, but uploaded the RAW, TIFF etc. etc. and in the end, I obviously didn't have anything happen with that either! At the time, I was just wondering if they just did that because I was a first-time entry and they wanted to make me feel better about not being a finalist for the Hosking award

I forgot to congratulate the winners in my last post as well! Rob's eagle shot is really something!

Brandon

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by fr0z on Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:22 am

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There are some possibilities that the wolf in the winner picture is captive animal. And the winner has said it is wild wolf.
Here is very new finnish article about it (with comparison pictures) -> http://www.suomenluonto.fi/bbc-luontoku ... -huijausta
WPY organization is investigating the case.

Some spanish pro photographer has given the documentation to the wpy organization. Because he/she is concerned about the worldwide reputation of the spanish photographers.

Janne Heimonen
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by goudswaard on Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:10 am

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Wow. Fascinated to see the outcome of the investigation.

[i]Peter Goudswaard[/i]

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by dougc on Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:04 am

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Cliff Beittel wrote:
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 you go: One can only woder if the photographer was asleep at home when the shot was taken.

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by Cliff Beittel on Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:32 am

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Wow indeed. The most visible tree trunks in the comparison shots at the above link (http://www.suomenluonto.fi/bbc-luontoku ... -huijausta) appear identical. If the wolf is captive instead of wild, then use of a photo trap isn't the main issue. With a captive animal, one might even wonder whether a remote trigger was used at all.

[b]Cliff Beittel[/b]
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by fr0z on Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:27 am

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Or how many times the wolf jumped =)

He has two samekind wolf pictures. One awarded in WPY and second awarded with highly commended in Wild Wonders. First is shot with hassy, and second is shot by Nikon D2x.
-> http://wild-wonders.com/photo_competiti ... 18+&show=3

Of course it is possible that he has two cameras with two flash setups in that jump scene.

Janne Heimonen
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by OntPhoto on Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:12 pm

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fr0z wrote:There are some possibilities that the wolf in the winner picture is captive animal. And the winner has said it is wild wolf.
Here is very new finnish article about it (with comparison pictures) -> http://www.suomenluonto.fi/bbc-luontoku ... -huijausta
WPY organization is investigating the case.

Some spanish pro photographer has given the documentation to the wpy organization. Because he/she is concerned about the worldwide reputation of the spanish photographers.

I had to use google translate to read it in english.
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... l=fi&tl=en

It shouldn't be too difficult to get to the bottom of the matter. Among other things, a photographer should be able to take someone to the location where a photo was taken if there are any questions. I'll let whatever investigation is taking place run its course and see if anything comes of it. Not implying anything but for some contests (think it was the one pairing up photogs with land/ranch owners in Texas) they even have a clause (at least when I read through it awhile ago) where photogs who participate in the contest agree to submit to a polygraph if any disputes should arise. Those are tough contest rules but it applies to all. As long as you're obeying the rules you have nothing to worry about anyways.).

Last edited by OntPhoto on Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:33 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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by OntPhoto on Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:46 pm

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dumoulin wrote:Hi Guys!

Just want to give you another "point of view" about baiting :
I live in Quebec, about 15min. from a location where snowy owls are staying mostly every year.

Near St-Jerome about 15 minutes from Mirabel?

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