"I built a glass box to house the camera and keep it dry" - amazing B&W photo of toadshot on 22.3MP DSLR wins top wildlife photography award

Photographer Pauk Hobson's striking monochrome toad image – shot from a hidden, floor-up perspective and recorded with a DSLR that turns 14 years old – just took one of the UK's top prizes, and was crowned the Overall Winner at the British Wildlife Photography Awards.

To capture his award-winning image, Hobson built a custom glass housing to keep his 22.3MP full-frame camera dry, to be able to carefully sink it to pond depth, and finally trigger the shutter with a long cable release. The result is a razor-sharp, cinematic image that captures the toad in a unique way and artistic quality.

Hobson relied on his Canon EOS 5D Mark III, paired with an EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM lens. The image A Toad Swims Across Its Woodland Pond was captured with a 1/1000 sec shutter, f/16 aperture, and ISO 1600. The DSLR belongs to Canon's iconic 5D lineage – first introduced in 2005. The 5D Mark III was the first compact full-frame DSLR aimed at prosumers - the Mark II redefined the series with a bigger sensor, pro 61-AF system, and more...

British Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026

Overall Winner and Black & White Winner
A Toad Swims Across Its Woodland Pond by Paul Hobson
Toad (Bufo bufo), Sheffield, England

Tech info
Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mark III + EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM lens
Exposure settings: 1/1000secs, f/16, ISO 1600

Hobson explains, "I am lucky to have a pond close to my house that has relatively clear water, especially in late winter and early spring before the algae starts to grow. Toads use this pond to breed in and I decided I wanted to try to capture an image looking up from the bottom of the pond.

"To try to do this I built a glass box to house the camera and keep it dry. I had to add ballast to make sure it would sink and used old tripod legs glued to its sides to keep the box level.

"I worked out the depth the box would be and set the focus so that it would capture a toad, if one swam across the surface. I triggered the camera using an adapted long cable release.

"I had to wait quite a long time until a toad swam across the surface – most of them would usually swim below it and rest on the glass."

The BWPA competition

The British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) is one of the UK's most respected nature photography competitions, celebrating the diversity and wonder of wildlife.

Photographers compete across adult and youth categories, with winning images published in a hardback book by Graffeg.

For more winning images and full results, visit the BWPA website and explore the incredible work of this year's photographers.

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