26 23 November 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Visit the Wildlife
Photographer of the Year
2019 exhibition at the
Natural History Museum,
South Kensington,
London, until 31 May- Tickets cost £13.95
for adults, or £10.95 for
concessions. Visit nhm.
ac.uk for more details,
including opening times
and dates. If you can’t
make it to London,
the exhibition is also
touring around various
UK venues including
Bristol, Seaton, St
Peter Port, Wallsworth,
Thatcham, Sewerby and
Lincoln. You can also see
all of the winning and
shortlisted images in
an accompanying book
- Wildlife Photographer
of the Year, Portfolio 29,
RRP £25.
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Land of the eagle
Audun Rikardsen,
Norway
Winner, Behaviour: Birds
A testament to the patience
many wildlife photographers
possess, this is an image which was
three years in the making. While
other photographers may jet off to
far-flung locations, this was shot just
a 20-minute walk from Rikardsen’s
house in Northern Norway. High on a
ledge, he positioned an old tree branch
that he hoped would make a perfect
golden eagle lookout. To this was bolted
a tripod head with a camera, flashes
and motion sensor attached, while he
built himself a small hide a short
distance nearby. From time to time,
road-kill carrion was left nearby and
very gradually, over the next three
years, the golden eagle got used to the
camera and started to use the branch
regularly to survey the coast below.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 11-24mm f/4 lens at 11mm; 1/2500
sec at f/14 (-1e/v), ISO 800, Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT
flash, Camtraptions motion sensor, Sirui tripod head
The white cliffs of Iturup
Alexey Kharitonov, Russia
Highly commended, Earth’s Environments
Taken with a drone on the remote eastern coastline of the Vetrovoy
Isthmus of Iturup, one of the southern Kuril Islands in the Russian Far East,
Kharitonov was awestruck by the pristine natural landscape revealed on his
screen. You can see a vast stretch of volcanic sand, while at the top of the sheer
white cliffs, formed of soft pumice stone, is a carpet of Kuril bamboo – the most
northerly bamboo in the world. Unpredictable weather with cloud cover and fog
dictated when Kharitonov could fly his drone, but after several attempts he
finally got the vista he wanted.
DJI Mavic Pro + 26mm f/2.2 lens; 1/3200 sec at f/2.2; ISO 100
Night Glow
Cruz Erdmann,
New Zealand
Young Wildlife Photographer
of the Year
Born and raised in Bali, Indonesia,
Cruz Erdmann captured this
beautiful image when he was just
12 years old. Having got his diver
certification aged 10, he has now
completed more than 200 dives,
inheriting his father’s old underwater
camera gear just over a year ago.
He encountered this bigfin reef squid
while on an organised night dive in
the Lembeh Strait off North Sulawesi,
Indonesia. In relatively shallow water
he discovered a pair of the squids –
this one is displaying striped courtship
patterns, with its internal reproductive
organs glowing pink. Although Erdman
was worried about the ‘backscatter’
(sand particles), photographers are not
permitted to edit them out – we think
they add to the shot’s atmosphere.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 100mm f/2.8 lens, 1/125sec at
f/29, ISO 200, Aquatica 5D Mark II Pro housing, Ikelite
DS161 strobe© AUDUN RIKARDSEN
© ALEXEY KHARITONOV© CRUZ ERDMANN