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Photo Competition 2011 - BBC Wildlife camera-trap photo of the year

If you use camera-traps for your research and have great images, you could win £3,000 and see your work printed in BBC Wildlife.

From clouded leopards to Arabian wolves, African wild dogs to two-toed sloths, our inaugural camera-trap photo competition, launched last April, showcased some of the world’s most exciting and elusive wildlife.

We were inundated with entries – more than 700 photos were submitted from as far away as Bhutan, Colombia and Indonesia. They featured rarely spotted species such as hog badger, bay cat and binturong, and behaviour never before seen: a bushbaby apparently hugging a bushbuck and a curious ocelot pursuing an armadillo.

We even shared in startling new discoveries, such as a flock of hoatzin feeding together in a dry riverbed.

You can see the winning images and some of the editor’s favourite entries here.



HOW TO ENTER Photo Competition 2011 - BBC Wildlife camera-trap photo of the year

So now you’ve seen how it’s done, why not enter your photos in this year’s competition?

Anyone working on a conservation project that uses remote camera technology in the field is eligible. You can enter a maximum
of eight camera-trap images in any of the three categories:

Animal Portraits Images should capture the character or spirit of their subject.

Animal Behaviour Images should show interesting or unusual behaviour.

New Discoveries Images should show something new to science, such as a species never photographed before in the wild, a species outside its known range, or behaviour never recorded before. The accompanying copy must make it clear what the discovery is.

Please study the rules (below) carefully before uploading your pictures.

The closing date is 15 July 2011.


JUDGING AND PRIZES

The images will be judged anonymously by our panel of experts.

The winner of each of the three categories will be awarded £1,000. The overall winner will be chosen from one of the three category winners and will be awarded an additional £2,000, courtesy of Páramo and the World Land Trust. (Please note that the prize money will be paid to the conservation project, not the individual photographer.)

All of the winners, up to three runners-up and up to six commended images in each category will also be published in the December 2011 issue of BBC Wildlife (on sale 24 November 2011) and/or online here.

We can’t wait to see the extraordinary images your secret cameras have captured.



MEET THE JUDGES Photo Competition 2011 - BBC Wildlife camera-trap photo of the year

Writer and TV presenter, Mark Carwardine has travelled the world, working with conservation projects. He is chairman of the judges for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and a patron of the World Land Trust.

Richard Edwards is the director of ARKive, a unique online resource using films and photos to raise awareness of the world’s threatened species, and WildPhotos, the UK’s largest nature photography symposium.

Dan Freeman is a zoologist whose career has covered scientific research, writing books and wildlife film-making. He has supported and worked with the World Land Trust since its launch in 1989.

Charlie Hamilton James “Photography is my great passion,” says Charlie, who spends as much time as possible with his camera. He knows just how hard it can be to get a good shot with a camera-trap.

Sophie Stafford has been editor of BBC Wildlife for six years and judges photography daily. She works closely with our photographers to secure the best work and loves the immediacy of camera-trap images.



The BBC Wildlife camera-trap photo of the year is supported by:

World Land Trust is an international conservation organisation that raises funds for the purchase and protection of critically threatened tropical forests and other vital wildlife habitats.

Påramo Directional Clothing Systems provide exceptional performance and unrivalled comfort outdoors. Innovative fabrics that wick away water and professionally tested designs help photographers to stay outside longer. www.naturallyparamo.co.uk


NOW READ THE RULES Photo Competition 2011 - BBC Wildlife camera-trap photo of the year

1. To read our competition terms and conditions, click here. They should be read together with those on this page as they will both govern your entry to this competition.

2. The competition is open to everyone except employees of BBC Worldwide Group, World Land Trust, Páramo and their immediate families.

3. Maximum eight entries per project.

4. No photos may be entered in more than one category.

5. The photos must have been taken in the past three years and be your own original work. You – or your organisation – must be the owner of the copyright of all photos entered. BBC Worldwide Group does not accept any liability in the publication of unlawfully reproduced photos.

6. All photos must feature wild animals in their natural habitat.

7. To enter, all photos must be uploaded to our website at www.discoverwildlife.com by the closing date of 15 July 2011.

8. All photos must be submitted as jpgs. Each jpg should be 1MB and 300dpi and may be black and white or colour.

9. All photos must be labelled with the category, your name and the subject (in this order) in the title.

10. All entries must be accompanied by an online entry form, including full details of the project and to which conservation organisation the award money should be paid.

11. BBC Wildlife takes no responsibility for corrupted or late entries.

12. BBC Wildlife and Páramo will use your data for the purposes of administering this competition and, where you have provided permission, to contact you about other products and services that we believe would be of interest.

13. The entry of any photo to the competition constitutes a grant to BBC Worldwide Group of the non-exclusive right to reproduce it for any purpose in association with the competition at any time, in any media.

14. The winners consent to the use of their photos, name and/or photograph in any publicity carried out by BBC Worldwide Group, without further compensation.

15. The photos will be judged by an independent panel appointed by BBC Wildlife. We reserve the right to change the advertised judges.

16. The judges’ decision on all matters relating to the competition is final. No correspondence will be entered into.

17. BBC Wildlife reserves the right to withhold prizes if, in the opinion of the competition judges, the quality of entries falls below the standard required.

18. The judging will take place in July–August 2011. The winners will be notified by email by October 2011.

19. The three winners and runners-up will be published in the December 2011 issue of BBC Wildlife (on sale 24 November 2011) and online at www.discoverwildlife.com

20. The prize money will be awarded by World Land Trust by December 2011.


website: http://www.discoverwildlife.com/webform/camera-trap-photo-year-2011-call-entries