Winners announced
The judges have spent the morning deliberating over the many fantastic entries in our annual photography competition, so we are able to announce our winners for each category. Well done to all the winners and to those that have received highly commended. A big thank you to everyone who has taken part this year.
Botanical
Winner - John Lanthorp.
The judges loved the colours in this entry, not only of the bee orchids but in the diversity of the meadow that they are in. The way the photograph has been framed is very clear and yet shows an idea of movement within the meadow.
Highly Commended - Pat Hogarth for her photograph of some antler fungus, a quirky subject matter showing the patterns in the individual specimens and the pattern of them as a whole.
Highly Commended - Kingsmill student for her photograph of some newly emerged catkins and the detail of a single raindrop that she had noticed and capture.
Kingfisher
Winner - Pat Hoggarth.
The composition of capturing the two birds together that are interacting with each other was the thing that impressed the judges in this category. One of our iconic wildlife species on the reserve, it was great to see some behaviour shots, this being the best one.
Highly Commended - Rose Habberly has taken a nicely composed photograph and the judges liked the bokeh effect which has the subject cleared focused and the surrounding background less so yet still distinguishable.
Highly Commended - Colin Spruce. The judges liked the activity of the shot, the bird is doing something different in displaying its wings and does look quite comical which they liked.
Birdlife
Winner - Colin Spruce
This great photograph of a Tawny owl was chosen as it has been brilliantly framed by the surrounding vegetation, a difficult thing to achieve when most views of Tawny owl are very brief. The photographer has done well to capture this crips image and have the bird looking directly at the lens.
Highly Commended - Pat Hogarth for her photograph of a young blue tit. The judges liked the fact that this was a commoner species yet shows the detail of its plumage in a beautiful composition.
Highly Commended - Pat Hogarth's Cetti's warbler, a difficult species to view let alone photograph showed the beautiful plumage of this very secretive species.
Landscape
Winner - John Lanthorp
John's landscape photograph really caught the judges' eye as it caught the reflections of the fantastic autumn colours in a photograph that has great composition and great symmetry.
Highly Commended - Martin Stevens, this is one of the reserve's volunteers has taken a great view of Hempholme meadow whilst working in that area, capturing the atmosphere of the flooded meadow.
Invertebrate
Winner - Neil Carson
The judges really liked this photograph of a shield bug which appears to have alien like features and captures the imagination, giving the bug energy and a sense of fun whilst focusing in on the delicate features of this special invertebrate.
Highly Commended - Pat Hogarth. All three photographs that have been awarded "Highly Commended" are of dragonflies. The first shows the different life cycle stages of a four spot chaser as it emerges up the stems of some horsetail. The judges liked this aspect of the photograph.
Highly Commended - Alan Gray's photograph is of a broad bodied chaser and shows great attention to detail of the wings which the judges liked.
Highly Commended - Neil Cason. The clarity of this photograph of a southern hawker impressed the judges, particularly how Neil had shown the detail of the insect's eyes.
Wildfowl
Winner - Pat Hogarth.
Pat's photograph of a group of tufted ducks reflects a brief moment in time that we often see as we observe wildlife but very rarely capture. The ducks all seem to be looking at the photographer as if questioning her presence in their world as they appear to be "coming out of the picture". A great composition.
Highly Commended - Dave Ruffles. This photograph of the rare winter visitor, the red necked grebe works very well against a what appears to be a cold, grey background, typical of a winter's day.
Highly Commended - Geraldine Gray's capturing of a pair of Teal in the activity of preening highlights the colourful and delicate plumage of our smallest breeding duck.
Young photographer
All the entries for this category were submitted by the group of students that regularly come to volunteer for their Duke of Edinburgh award to help out with habitat management. They spent the morning looking at different aspects of the vegetation and landscape and capturing the shapes and colours around the reception hide.
The winner and highly commended entries cannot be named as they are students under 18 but congratulations to all of them for their fantastic photos and efforts.
Wading bird
Winner - Colin Spruce.
The judges were really impressed with the composition of Colin's photograph, the colours, the reflections and the fact that it encapsulates the bird's natural behaviour without disturbance.
Highly Commended - Unfortunately these photographs that have been selected by the judges were not named so we are unable to congratulate them, hopefully they will see that they have been successful.
Animal
Winner - Rose Habberley.
Rose's photograph of a marsh frog crawling up and maybe over the log asks the question "Where is it going? Will it get to the top?" The judges liked the split of the photo, the log, the frog and the vegetation are all given the same amount of space, neither taking over the photo. All these aspects together with the colours were what the judges were taken with.
Highly Commended - Pat Hogarth. Pat has captured a beautiful autumn day in this photograph of two hares in the surrounding field.
A fantastic display of all this year's entries is open throughout the festive season till 7th January. We are asking for each visitor to vote for their favourite photograph of the whole competition. The winner of this public vote will see their photo on the membership card for the next season 2023/2024 which starts at the beginning of April.
