Anyone who uses camera-traps to create images of wild animals, or uses camera-traps as part of their research into wild animals, the BBC, its Wildlife Magazine, and sponsors Lowepro, have a competition for you. It's the 2014 BBC Wildlife Magazine Camera-trap Photo of the Year competition.
The competition has been designed with both field researchers and amateurs in mind. It's split into two divisions: Camera-trap Research Project of the Year and Camera-trap Photo of the Year, each with three categories. It's rather pleasing to see photography as a tool, as well as the gorgeous images that it's capable of creating, being honoured simultaneously.
Camera-trap Research Project of the Year
This division is open exclusively to research projects that make use of camera-traps. Images can be submitted to one of three categories:
- New behaviour: Images taken during the course of research that show behaviour never before recorded
- New reach: Images taken during research that show a species never photographed before outside its known range
- Rare species: Images taken during research that show a species that is rarely seen or never photographed in the wild
The winners of each of these categories will go forward to be judged for the title of Camera-trap Research Project of the Year and a £3,000 prize.
The judges will be selecting their winner based on the quality of the research and the importance of the images to the piece of research.
Camera-trap Photo of the Year
If you're not trying to track rare species of frog in South America or look for socialisation traits in South East Asian primates, but just like photographing the badgers in your garden, you've still a chance to put your images up for judging into one of these three categories:
- Animal portraits: like any good portrait, images should capture the character or spirit of their subject
- Animal Behaviour: A compelling image that shows interesting or unusual behaviour
- British Wildlife: Amazing images that capture the spirit and behaviour of British wildlife
The winners of these categories will see their images published in the December 2014 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine and on the BBC Wildlife Magazine website, www.discoverwildlife.com and will receive a Lowepro Flipside Sport 15L camera pack, worth £122. Then they'll go on to compete for the title Camera-trap Photographer of the Year.
The closing date for entries is 30 June 2014, and all photos must be submitted online. As always, please do read the rules and terms and conditions before submitting any photos. You can find those, together with entry details, on the Discover Wildlife website.