4th Nature Photography Competition open for entries

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) wants to find out what moves people about their photos of Scotland’s spectacular nature.

The fourth annual Nature Photography Competition is now underway, looking for pictures showing-casing animals, plants or landscapes across Scotland. This free contest is run by SNH and celebrates Scottish Biodiversity Week, which runs from 15 to 23 May.

This year’s theme is ‘Emotions’. The contest aims to find out more about what nature and biodiversity mean to people in Scotland. Examples of biodiversity are all around us – from earthworms to golden eagles, from the smallest blade of grass to the tallest tree, and from the flowers in the window box in a Scottish city to the vast Cairngorm plateau.

First prize is a day with professional photographer, Lorne Gill; second prize is a fantastic SLR camera; and the third prize is the book, Photographing Nature, a photo workshop book from the Brooke Institutes’ top nature photography instructor.

This year, the top 30 images will be exhibited during the Edinburgh
International Fringe Festival. The exhibition will also tour key venues in Scotland during autumn and winter 2010 and throughout 2011.

Scottish Biodiversity Week organiser, Zeshan Akhter, said: “Many of us have had those magical moments when we’ve captured something spectacular in Scotland’s countryside; I think these

images may mean even more to us nowadays, as they remind us why nature and biodiversity are so important to us still, despite many of us feeling more and more disconnected from nature.

“Whether it’s that special place we love to go or the time we had a chance glimpse of a wild animal, these moments remind us that we live within nature, not separate from it. We want to know what these moments have meant to people around Scotland and why they treasure them.”

Entrants should email their pictures of animals, plants or landscapes to bit@snh.gov.uk by 31 July 2010 as an attachment with “Photo Contest” in the subject line. Entries must be original, have a title, information on how the image moved the entrant, where in Scotland the photo was taken, and the entrant’s name and contact details. Up to two entries per person may be submitted. Winners will be notified in August and the winning entries will be posted on the website and highlighted in the Scottish Biodiversity Forum’s quarterly newsletter. For more information, see www.snh.gov.uk/biodiversityweek.