Rocket Landing, by Morkel Erasmus

Ruby Throated Hummingbird, by Richard Dummounil

Jackal & Vulture, by Stephen Earle

Aerial Play, by Octavio Campos Salles

Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus), by Octavio Campos Salles

Aggro Malachite Kingfisher, by Morkel Erasmus

Burrowing Owl, by Mariano Fernández

Jackdaw in Flight, by Richard Peters

Hunt by Flying, by Gökhan Coral

Western marsh-harrier and its prey, by Gökhan Coral

In Full Cry, by Dave Whenham

Wagtail, by Rami Athanasious

Attack, by Vladimir Yezhov

Night Flight, by Irawan Subingar

Tawny Owl in Flight, by Mark Bridger

Bird of Prey in Flight, by Brian Deegan

In Flight Meal, by Richard Steel

Sparrow in Flight, by Tibor Jakab

In for the Kill, by Philip Higgins

Hawk Owl Flight, by Rob McKay

Humming Bird in Flight, by Dan Ripplinger

Swans in Flight, by Arman Werth

Eurasion Dove, by Spangles44

Northern Gannet in Flight, by Raymond Barlow

Great Gray Owl in Flight, by Ethan Meleg

Blue Tit in Flight, by Will & Matt Burrard-Lucas

Snowy Owl in Flight, by Richard Dumoulin

Upside Down Robin, by Austin Thomas

Barn Owl, by Bill Pound

Red Kite, by Bill Pound
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Photo Ideas

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Image copyright Mark Smith

British wildlife photographers have a chance to win a cash prize of £5,000 and their work showcased in a national touring photography exhibition as the British Wildlife Photography Awards 2012 kick off.

With an overall prize fund worth £20,000, entries have now opened for the 2012 competition. Winners and commended entrants will have their work showcased in a national touring exhibition, as well as reproduced in a book published by AA Publishing.

The Awards’ 12 categories include Animal Portraits, Animal Behaviour, Urban Wildlife, Hidden Britain, Coast and Marine, Wild Woods, Wildlife in my Backyard, Habitat, Living Landscape, British Seasons, Documentary Series and Wildlife in HD Video.

Images may be entered by purchasing ‘credits’, which cost £5 each. Entry of a single image costs 2 credits, while 3 credits lets you enter up to 5 images and 4 credits up to 10 pictures. For a full breakdown of the fee structure visit the BWPA competitions website.

Now in its fourth year, the British Wildlife Photography Awards were established to recognise the talents of wildlife photographers of all nationalities practising in Britain, whilst at the same time highlighting the great wealth and diversity of Britain’s natural history.

• View the Landscapes shortlist
• View the Action and Movement shortlist
• View the Creative Licence shortlist
• View the Documentary shortlist
• View the Family and Friendship shortlist
• View the Fashion shortlist
• View the Gardens and Plants shortlist
• View the Portraits shortlist
• View the Travel shortlist
• View the Wildlife shortlist

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Photo Ideas

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01 Ruffle a few feathers © Mark Hamblin

01 Ruffle a few feathers – shoot garden birds. In a good way

Winter is the ideal time to photograph garden birds because it’s the one time of year you can be sure they’ll flock to a feeder. All you need is a long lens (300mm+), somewhere to conceal your presence (such as a garden shed) and plenty of patience. “Preparation is key when shooting an image like this,” says wildlife photographer Mark Hamblin. “I set the branch up in my back garden near a well-established feeder, and made sure the background looked nice and light from my hide. I also chose a large branch with plenty of snow on it to make it look the part, and I waited until the snow was coming down thick and fast before venturing outside.”

“When food is scarce squabbles like this are fairly frequent, but they only last a split second so you have to get set up before the action unfolds. In this case I was already shooting the greenfinch on continuous mode, so when the female chaffinch arrived all I had to do was recompose and press the shutter release.”

Get started today…

* Expose for the background first, and pre-focus on the perch so that when you come to re-focus on an alighting bird, your lens won’t waste precious seconds hunting for a focus point.

* Ensure the background is clean and clutter-free, and set your lens’s widest aperture to blur the background.

* If you want to capture a hint of motion blur in the wing tips of a bird, set your camera’s shutter speed at around 1/500 to 1/800 sec.

* Overcast conditions are best when it comes to garden birds, as flat, even light renders feather detail much better than direct sunlight.

02 Get great group shots – photograph your friends and family with confidence

Christmas is the ideal time to photograph loved ones, but getting natural-looking group shots can be a real challenge. Our very own portrait pro Ben Brain, who’s shot more group photos than he cares to remember, has this advice: “People are used to the speed of compacts, and inevitably expect you to be just as quick with your SLR, so work out your settings – ISO, aperture, shutter speed and white balance – beforehand.” “It’s also a good idea to use a tripod: once you’ve framed your shot, you can look up, engage with the group to get them smiling, and then take the picture without having to peer through the viewfinder.”

Get started today…

* Expose for ambient light to capture Christmas lights and log fires, but use flash to bring out detail in faces.

* Tilt or swivel your flash unit to bounce it off walls or ceilings, but keep an eye out for coloured ceilings, which can create an unwanted colour cast.

* Take multiple shots to be sure of a keeper – in groups of three or more, you can almost guarantee at least one person will be blinking or looking away in many of the photos.

* Don’t wait for the perfect pose. People who are larking about while they’re getting ready to pose often look more natural.

03  Splash out with a flashgun – have fun with liquids

Whatever your tipple, the festive season is an ideal time to try your hand at photographing liquids. You might think that capturing a drink being poured is strictly for those with a sizeable studio and a patient cleaner, but all you really need is a tripod, a flashgun, and a helper to pour the drinks. One man who‘s made more of a splash than most in the advertising world is liquid specialist Jonathan Knowles, who’s shot ads for everyone from Schweppes to Smirnoff. “A flash is essential,” he explains. “I typically use a shutter speed of 1/800 sec, but even this isn’t fast enough to freeze the splash completely. The duration of the flash from a standard flashgun, however, can be as fast as 1/40,000 sec at low power, which is fast enough to freeze the motion of a speeding bullet, let alone a splash.”

Get started today…

* Position your flash behind the glass, and place a sheet of white Perspex – or a few sheets of tracing paper – between them to produce a clean white background.

* Measure out a small quantity of liquid, use a plastic jug with a fine spout for pouring, and place a container below the glass to catch inevitable spillages.

* Tilt the glass to make it easier to pour into, then straighten it in Photoshop.

* Use the actual product rather than dyed water, as alcoholic drinks react and flow differently to water.

04 Get creative with Christmas decorations – look at reflective baubles in a whole new light

Christmas lights and decorations are often photographed quite literally, which is fine if the lights themselves are very dramatic, but less interesting if they’re just wrapped around a tree. By thinking more creatively, it’s possible to come up with something more striking. Motion and zoom blur can be used to create vibrant light trails, for example, while shooting lights so that they are as out of focus as possible produces bright, circular discs that can make great abstracts. Reflective baubles are also ideal for shooting clichéd subjects in an original way.

Get started today…

* When shooting lights at night don’t rely on your camera’s suggested exposure settings – you may need to under-expose slightly to avoid burnt-out highlights.

* If you’re photographing lights, set a shutter speed of a second or more and experiment by panning or zooming in and out.

* Turn off autofocus, focus your lens as close as possible, and then crop in on lights that are close together to produce abstract patterns of brightly coloured, overlapping discs.

* Look out for reflective surfaces, but try to avoid including yourself in the reflection.

05 Pick out winter berries © Mark Hamblin

05 Pick out winter berries – isolate the colour and texture of frost-encrusted fruit

There’s something distinctly appealing about bright red berries covered in frost. Perhaps it’s because white and red work so well together, or perhaps it’s the contrast in texture between the smooth, glossy skin of the fruit and the crisp edges of the frost. Whatever the reason, winter berries make a great subject for macro photography. And wherever you live, you won’t have to travel far to find some. You’ll find rose hips like these in almost any public park in the UK. As with garden birds, one of the most important considerations when you’re photographing frosted berries is the quality of the light – in direct sunlight, it’s almost impossible to avoid blowing out bright white highlights without making the rest of the image look under-exposed. If it’s cloudy or the subject is in shade, however, it’s much easier to bring out every detail in the shadows, mid-tones and highlights. A clean, clutter-free background is also important, and with berries, light backgrounds tend to work better than dark ones, as the image above illustrates.

Get started today…

* A macro lens is recommended for shooting individual berries – standard lenses just won’t enable you to get close enough.

* To focus, set your camera on a tripod, switch your lens to manual and move the focusing ring back and forth until the part of the subject you want in focus is pin-sharp – in most cases, this will be the ice crystals nearest the camera.

* Don’t simply set the widest aperture to blur the background; a smaller aperture will allow you to get more of the berry in focus.

* If necessary, use a piece of white card to bounce light back into the shadows, or to provide a clean background.

06 Take a mug shot – create presents with a personal touch

Showing off your photos doesn’t have to be limited to prints and slide shows. There are many online companies that can print your favourite shots on almost anything you care to imagine, from jigsaws to wallpaper. Some options might not be to everyone’s taste (photo teddy bear, anyone?) but what’s overly sentimental to some might make the perfect present for others. If this all sounds just a little to cheesy for your palette, take look at the photo books offered by companies such as Blurb.com.

Get started today…

* For all manner of photo gifts try www.photobox.com or www.nelliestore.co.uk.

* If you’re thinking about canvas prints, mounted prints or posters, bear in mind the colour scheme – and the use – of the room it’s destined for.

* If you’re going big, check the size of your original image, and if necessary enlarge it in Photoshop or a dedicated interpolation package such as Genuine Fractals, which may provide better results.

07 Don’t miss a single moment – get great pics of kids opening their Christmas presents

Anyone who’s ever tried to photograph children opening presents on Christmas morning will know how difficult it can be to capture that magical moment between the wrapping being ripped off and the present being tossed aside to make way for the next! As our technique editor and father of two Paul Grogan explains, the key is to set your SLR to continuous and to follow the action. “Once kids get used to the camera they soon forget it’s there. By watching things unfold through your viewfinder, and firing off short bursts, you’re more likely to get a winning shot.”

Get started today…

* Don’t be afraid to increase the ISO – flash can kill the atmosphere, and often results in overly-bright images.

* Anticipate the moment, and shoot loads of images. Getting it right takes bags of patience – and a large memory card!

*Use continuous mode to capture every expression.

08 Shooting stars – make the sky spin, not your head

Photographing star trails might seem daunting, but it’s easier than you might think, as night owl and landscape pro Steve Sharp explains: “Even at ISO100, noise becomes very noticeable in long exposures, so you need to keep exposure times to less than ten minutes. The problem is that stars don’t move very far in ten minutes, so the answer is to take a sequence of short exposures, and then blend them together in Photoshop.”

Get started today…

* In the northern hemisphere, all stars revolve around the North Star. To locate the North Star, find the Big Dipper and then draw an imaginary line between the two outer edges of the constellation – this line will point towards the North Star.

* To combine multiple star-trail photographs, create a layer stack of all the images in Photoshop and then change the blending mode of every layer apart from the base layer to Lighten.

* Use a fairly wide aperture of f/5.6 to ensure the trails are bright and distinct in each image.

09 Photograph a Christmas market © Franz Marc Frei

09 Photograph a Christmas market – capture the colour and atmosphere of your nearest festive fayre

There are few better places to capture the spirit and colour of the festive season than a bustling Christmas market. Stalls piled high with seasonal gifts and produce all make great subjects, as do bright-eyed children gazing at toys and treats. Shooting Christmas markets brings its own unique set of challenges, not least shooting in low light, but resist the urge to use your flash on auto, as it will invariably make your shots look over-lit and slightly cool. Instead, increase your ISO and keep your shutter speed down to preserve the warm glow of the ambient light given off by candles and streetlamps. This may result in images that aren’t quite as sharp as they could be, but this can actually add to atmosphere, especially if you use motion blur.

Get started today…

* Include something that adds a sense of time and place, such as a Christmas tree or Christmas lights.

* If you must use flash, expose for the ambient light to ensure the background isn’t completely dark, and then use fill-flash to light up your subject.

* For wide shots, get up high for an overview of the whole market.

* Keep an eye out for possible abstracts and quirky details such as the bubble-blowing Father Christmas toy pictured below, left.

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53 essential photo ideas for winter

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Cats are very independent creatures and don’t take direction easily. They’re a challenge to photograph but make wonderful subject matter and are so rewarding to shoot. Even if you don’t have a pet cat, someone you know will and we recommend you hotfoot it round to their house to have a go yourself!

You‘ll need plenty of patience before you start shooting. Cats have personalities too and you need to work with them rather than end up becoming frustrated getting them to do something they don‘t want to do.

Before you shoot, take the collar off. They‘re a distraction and take the focus from the eyes. When it‘s time to shoot, choose a lens that covers the classic portrait focal length, between 50mm and 00mm. Use a centre-weighted metering mode and meter for the highlights, especially if the cat has white markings, as you don‘t want to overexpose patches of fur.

For tight face portraits, focus on the eyes and then recompose the shot. They‘re hard to see through the viewfinder, but try not to crop out the whiskers as they provide personality.

Clean background

Distracting background

White wall

Locations

Outside in the garden provides plenty of light and space for you to get some great shots. Tidy up any distracting clutter, such as garden hoses or furniture. Rocky loves sitting underneath his favourite deck chair, so after we packed it away we were free to shoot him out in the open.

Getting on their level is part and parcel of good technique for natural-looking portraits. Keep checking the background for anything distracting and adjust your composition to remove it. The simplest way to do this is shoot slightly from above eye level so the grass and cat‘s body becomes the background.

Shoot more upright compositions for head-on portraits and avoid chopping off paws, whiskers, etc, unless you‘re cropping in tight on the eyes and face. For wider pictures include some space in the frame and shoot with the cat‘s face on one third of the frame, or shoot their whole body from side-on.

Getting good garden wildlife shots can be made a lot simpler with a few basic tips. By using the right kind of feeder and a bit of a bit of fruit you’ll be able to attract more life to your garden images. We show you not only what to feed birds and butterflies, but how to present their food for the best possible pictures.

Feed birds with a flat wire feeder

These are better than tube feeders because they enable more birds to feed at once and are also completely squirrel-proof. Terry makes his, which cost less than £5, from a sheet of small gauge-wire mesh measuring 100x50cm.

The mesh is folded in half and crimped along the side edges. He fills it with peanuts and folds over the top. As well as birds that come to feed, the shower of broken peanut pieces on the floor will attract the odd badger.

Put bird food mix into bark

Feeding from drilled holes in an old tree trunk or a log is a good idea, as youíll have a natural-looking backdrop. Terry makes his feed, which camouflages in with the bark, using 500g of lard, 700g of bird peanuts and 100g of wholemeal flour blitzed together in a food processor to make a paste.

Usual diners include tits, woodpeckers, magpies, jays and nuthatch, and wood and yellow-necked mice at night.

Attract butterflies with plums

Fermenting plums are useful attractants for butterflies, particularly red admirals. As well as moths, including our most beautiful, the red underwing, which can be seen flying in September. They like to get quite merry on the alcoholic plum juice.