From penguins to predators, Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year showcases outstanding shots of the natural world
The 2010 global search for the very best images of nature is over. Today, the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London and BBC Wildlife Magazine reveal two of the images that will help make up this year’s most prestigious showcase of wildlife photography, the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Oil beetle pose by Juan Jesus Gonzalez Ahumada is highly commended in the ‘Animal Portraits’ category and captures a black oil beetle clinging to a sprig of gorse on a cold spring morning. Close up, the beetle reminded the Spanish photographer of a beautiful alien, its abdomen almost certainly full of eggs.
© Juan Jesus Gonzalez Ahumada / Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010
Esa Malkonen’s image Back in, front out is highly commended in the ‘Nature in Black and White’ category and depicts the comings and goings of chinstrap penguins in a rookery in Antarctica. Having paired up, a male and female will devise a rota so that one sits on the eggs for up to five days at a time, while the other walks back to the sea to feed.
© Esa Malkonen / Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010
The competition, owned by the NHM and BBC Wildlife Magazine, has been running since 1964 and is sponsored by Veolia Environnement, the global environmental services company. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious contest of its type.
Each year an exhibition of winning, runner-up and commended images makes its debut at the NHM in London before touring Britain and venues around the world. More than one million visitors are expected to have seen the exhibition once the tour is complete.
Mark Carwardine, chair of the judging panel, described the competition as ‘the international measure for great wildlife photography’.
‘It plays a crucial role in raising the profile of wildlife photography and stimulating an awareness of nature conservation as the pictures are seen by millions of people around the world,’ Carwardine said.
Tickets for the exhibition – which runs from 22 October 2010 to 11 March 2011 – are available to buy at the NHM or online at www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto/exhibition.
