Wildlife photographer of the year 2009 winner announced

[gez]

You can have the best oven in the world. But it dont mean you can bake bread!
gez

[hammock monkey]

At first I thought the wolf pic was a slight gyp but looking back at it, its incredible, the more I look at it the better it gets.

The yellowhammer pic is also so beautiful, makes me think its a slight shame when the fun gets taken out of the whole thing. To think things of this beauty go on around us all the time and we only ever see the tiniest glimpse.

[Blackdog]

[quote=pressld2;554561]An interesting debate...

For example Mimmi Widstrand of Sweden used a Nikon D3 + AF-S VR Nikkor 500mm f4G lens. Not surprising on it's own but she (or possibly he) was highly commended in the Ten Years and Under category! How many ten-year-olds do you know that can tote around over £10,000 of equipment? ...........

QUOTE]

Mimmi Widstrand is the youngest child of Staffan Widstrand Staffan Widstrand Photography a brilliant Swedish photographer who I was lucky enough to meet in Finland last year on a bear photography trip. It's no suprise that Mimmi has access to such good kit and a pretty good role model too...

[Richard G.]

Interesting developments in this years competition

BBC's nature photo competition judge admits: Winner photo investigated due to fraud allegations.

[Jason Green]

Thanks for the update, Richard

Originally Posted by Richard G.

Interesting developments in this years competition

BBC's nature photo competition judge admits: Winner photo investigated due to fraud allegations.

Hmmm... I think I'll await the BBC News to carry any story on this, or an official statement. I didn't think anyone but the competition organisers could comment - I'm just not sure if a judge could speak independently for it, even off-record

The points they're looking at - a bit of fur and the texture of the ear seem a bit...

Just my personal thoughts!

[acherontia]

I think the point about it jumping over rather than skulking through sound convincing. That skyline looks identical too - even down the the slightly different angle of the overlapping upright trees.
Hmmm
Trouble at ' mill, eh?

Acher

[Dutchess]

Originally Posted by Richard G.

Interesting developments in this years competition

BBC's nature photo competition judge admits: Winner photo investigated due to fraud allegations.

The background seems to be the same though!

[Ukwildlifeo]

Hmm this interesting. Best wait and see what the judges/organisers say officially

[pressld2]

I completely agree. We should wait and see what the organisers say.

My only comment at this stage is to say that it can be extremely hard to tell if a picture is of a captive animal. For example, I took this badger at Wildwood in Kent but you can't tell from the picture that it's a captive animal...



My point being that even if this turns out to be true I don't think it brings the competition into disrepute, just the photographer.

On a related point, where is the line drawn? I mean a wolf in a zoo enclosure is very clearly a captive while a polar bear on an ice floe is equally clearly not. But what about the deer in Richmond Park or the ponies in the New Forest? Which side of the line do they fall?

Dave P.

[Jason Green]

Some good points, Dave

Originally Posted by pressld2

On a related point, where is the line drawn? I mean a wolf in a zoo enclosure is very clearly a captive while a polar bear on an ice floe is equally clearly not. But what about the deer in Richmond Park or the ponies in the New Forest? Which side of the line do they fall?

I think in this case it's the fact that he hasn't declared it being captive, if that's how it turns out - though the differenciation here may not be too easy for all the reasons you state