FROM dancing damselflies to blooming bluebells, 12 images capturing the wild side of Worcestershire have secured winning places in this year’s photography competition run by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.
Each year, the county’s largest nature conservation charity encourages people to enter photographs documenting the natural wonders of Worcestershire.
Winners each receive a copy of the charity’s fund-raising calendar, which features a different image each month.
This year’s overall winner is Mark Everett of Pershore, whose image will feature on the front cover of the calendar.
The striking winning photo of a kingfisher perched by the River Avon was chosen through a public vote, which was advertised across the Trust’s social media channels.
Mark said: “I was absolutely delighted to receive the news one of my photographs had been selected for September on the 2024 Worcestershire Wildlife Trust calendar and even more astounded it had been chosen as one of the four in contention for the cover image, a very prestigious honour.
“To then receive the news it had been chosen by public vote for the cover has not only made me immensely proud but also very humbled to have been picked over all the other wonderful images that had been submitted. Thank you so much.”
In a bumper year for entries, judges had the challenging task of selecting frontrunners from more than 400 images submitted by nearly 100 photographers.
All Trust staff were involved in the initial judging process. Once submissions had been whittled down, external volunteer judges, professional wildlife photographer Pete Walkden (Pete Walkden Photography) and semi-professional wildlife photographer Jason Curtis (Wyre Wildlife), helped to choose 12 winners.
Chris Farman from Dormston’s image will be the featured December shot.
Wendy Carter, competition organiser, said: “We’d like to say a huge congratulations to the winners and runners-up and a thank you to everyone who entered; we received an unprecedented number of submissions that have been a joy to look through.
“We have been able to produce another beautiful calendar this year, which would not have been possible without the support from our two external judges, Pete Walkden and Jason Curtis.
“Even in bustling towns and cities, there are pockets of nature to be found. So when you’re out and about, it’s always worth having a camera to hand; from the wonderous to the whimsical, you never know what you might discover.”
Each winning photograph features as an A4 image in the Trust’s 2024 calendar. A further 24 images by runners-up appear as smaller inserts.
Visit www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/shop for more.
Photographers can stay in touch with the Trust through their Flickr group at www.flickr.com/groups/worcestershirewildlifetrust, www.facebook.com/worcestershirewildlifetrust and Twitter account http://twitter.com/WorcsWT.
