I’m not British Wildlife Photographer of the Year!
Yes! I’ve heard that I’m not British Wildlife Photographer of the Year!
I’ve been encouraged by my dad to enter some of my photographs to wildlife photography competitions, so I’ve been having fun wasting my money sending in my images. That’s led to paying a small fee for ritual humiliation.
My only previous success with my photographs was getting a photograph of mine printed on a biscuit box:
I wasn’t paid, and it was the size of a postage stamp, but that’s still a solid success, I’d say.
I entered my photographs for the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards first. That was a total failure:
It made me laugh, though.
Now it’s time for me to fail in the British Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
I entered a few images:
I paid my fee and one got selected, so I had to send in the high-resolution copy.
That meant I was in the running to win, or be commended, or be selected to be in the book with one of my photographs. I paid more money to buy a copy of the book in advance…
This is the selected photograph:
I even had to submit a write-up about the photograph:
Each summer I love to walk the desolate northern coast of the island of Westray in Orkney to the very end of the land, where Atlantic waves break on a barren rocky landscape of shattered stones.
I lie on the bare rocks for hours, watching the Black Guillemots, known here as Tysties, fly in from the ocean and congregate with their freshly caught fish. They sit comfortably and display their fish to one another on the cliff edges before flying to their chicks, sheltering in their rock-crevice nests.
Here’s my original adventure:, from when I took the photograph
Did I win the overall title: No.
Did I win a category prize: No.
Did I get ‘highly commended’: No
Was I in the book: Yes.
I’d love to be able to show my dad my (limited) success but his dementia now means he’s unlikely to recognise me, and is very unlikely to know what I’m talking about. I’m still grateful for his encouragement.
If you’d like to see the winners, they are here: https://www.bwpawards.org/2026-winners
Shall I try again this year?