'Wet' Closing for Entries Soon
There are only a few days left of the call for entries period of our very first monthly category ‘Wet’. So, for those of you who haven’t yet entered, I thought I would share a few images from my own portfolio and those of our judges to get those creative juices flowing and inspire you.
Wet is all about the relationship between wildlife and water in its various forms. The wildlife element could be anything from the natural world from a plant, tree, or fungus, through to a fish, bird, mammal, or reptile – and everything in between of course. Just add some water to the mix and show us something creative. The water could be droplets, rain, mist, snow, ice, a river, a lake, or an ocean – the choice is yours.
The category is the design of Gail Bisson, an award-winning wildlife photographer who hails from Nova Scotia, Canada. Gail is well known for her love of birds, but she has a passionate appreciation for all forms of wildlife and is concerned about its long-term protection. This is the reason Gail has chosen to support the Nova Scotia Nature Trust, a charitable organisation which seeks to protect important areas of land for wildlife conservation throughout Nova Scotia, through land acquisition and partnerships with landowners. WildArt is pledging £0.20 for every image entered in ‘Wet’ to their Twice the Wild campaign and every dollar will be matched by federal government and external funding with four dollars to raise enough money to double their land holding by 2023, when this funding is set to run out. Click here to learn more about this organisation and their valuable work.
Supporting conservation across the globe is at the very core of the WildArt Photographer of the Year competition. There are the cash prizes for our winners on offer of course, plus the recognition and promotion that the winning images will generate for their creators. But, raising money and awareness for vital conservation causes is important to the competition. Together we can enjoy some fabulous photography and also help these conservation efforts too.
I hope you enjoy the photographs and please do get involved and enter the competition. Here is a reminder of the prizes on offer:
Each category offers the following cash prizes:
Gold Award - £500
Silver Award - £200
Bronze Award - £100
Young category winner (under 18 on 31st October 2021) - £50
All of the above winners will also receive a year’s free subscription to Wild Planet Photo Magazine, plus the magazine will choose their own favourite image from each category and the photographer will also receive a year’s free magazine subscription.
For our first category ‘Wet’ we are delighted to be able to offer an additional prize from Cotton Carrier of a Skout camera sling worth $79 for their favourite image entered in the category.
The winner of each category will go into our grand final with the 9 other category winners from which our WildArt Photographer of the Year will be chosen and a cash prize of £3,000 will be Awarded. Our Young WildArt POTY winner will similarly be chosen from our 10 category winners and receive binoculars from Swarovski Optik.
In addition, we have a prize for the best portfolio of images – to qualify to be judge for this award you have to enter at least 6 of our 10 competition categories in 2021. The prize for the winner of this Best Portfolio Award is £1,500.
Good luck to all our entrants.
Rob Read. January 2021.