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Picture perfect! Image of a little egret fishing steals crown in youth photo comp
Youngsters aged under 19 were invited to capture the animal kingdom on camera - or, for the first time, on a mobile device - for this year’s competition. The top prize was taken by seventeen year-old Gideon Knight from Ilford, whose winning photo was singled-out from thousands of entries.
The teenager took the winning image of the little egret early in the morning in a park in Ilford, London. Entitled ‘A Stab In The Dark’, it beat off fierce competition from more than 3,500 photographs to win the top prize in this year’s competition.
Gideon said: “ “I’m really, really happy to have made it this year as a winner. “I enjoy taking pictures of wildlife close to home. Although many of my photos look as if they could have been taken anywhere, they were actually shot within a mile of my house in an urban location.”
Describing the scene when he took the picture, Gideon added: “On a winter morning, a little egret fishes in a shallow canal in my local park. These birds are rare visitors here so I approached carefully as close as I could get without spooking it.
“The bright morning light, coupled with a shadowed area behind the bird, created this stark contrast of black and white and highlighted the droplets of water created by the fishing egret.”
Attracting entries from under 19s across England and Wales, this year’s RSPCA Young Photographer Awards were judged by a panel of experts in wildlife photography led by Springwatch presenter Chris Packham.
Judge and host Chris Packham said: “This was a very strong winning image; so stark and very graphic. It really stood out for all of us.
“It captures the moment perfectly, right down to the droplets of water. The timing was perfect and Gideon should be very proud.
“I’ve been judging the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards since they started. It’s exciting to see it move with the times, with this year’s new mobile device category. It’s a great way of making the competition accessible to virtually everyone.”
The winning images across five categories were announced during an awards ceremony hosted at the Tower of London on Friday 15 December.
Other category winners and runners up included a beautiful fox cub with a glowing outline from the sunset behind him, a huge hawk-moth sipping nectar from a flower and an iridescent beetle.
Reflecting on the strength of the competition this year, Chris added: “It’s nice to see so many photos of day-to-day animals in such a strong competition. It needs real imagination to make commonplace species interesting, showing that the photographer has been really innovative.
“There are a whole range of images this year from creatures they’ve found in their back garden, pets or animals they’ve seen while they were on holiday. It’s great these young people are going out and experiencing the environment around them and in their local area.
“There are some beautiful pictures in this year’s winners gallery and real talent shining through. This year’s entrants have been really creative and that is what we want to see.”
For a full gallery of the winning images please visit: https://young.rspca.org.uk/ypa/galleries