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Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2004

The 2004 Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition features a captivating collection of photos comprised of the winning and commended entries from the world's premier wildlife photographic competition.

Taken by leading professional and amateur photographers from countries around the world, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2004 showcases images of nature in categories such as Animals In Their Environment, The Underwater World and In Praise of Plants.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition organised by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine

Further information

Competition website
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/Wildphoto

Australian Tour for 2004-2005

Australian Museum
18 December 2004 - 6 March 2005

South Australian Museum
22 April 2005 - 22 May 2005

Western Australian Museum
Perth: 30 June 2005 -31 July 2005

Geraldton:
5 August 2005 - 4 September 2005

Newcastle Regional Library
23 September 2005 - 19 November 2005

Australian Museum
18 December 2004 - 6 March 2005

Highly Commended Print

After a day's sunbathing on the riverbank, the caiman's slow-lane lifestyle shifts up a gear, and at dusk, the gang heads off to feed in the river. The reptiles, which can grow up to three metres long, line up, stock-still with jaws agape. The water flushes across their teeth, and fish are snapped up with loud 'clops'.

Standing in the fast-flowing water at the outfall of a marshy lake in the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland, I slowly approached this row of caimans. The beauty of slow-time exposure is that, while the camera does its thing, you have hands free to swat the industrial-strength mosquitoes.

Nikon F5 with 300mm lens; Fujichrome Provia 100; tripod with ball head; strobe with fresnel lens.

Highly Commended Print

I encountered this hawksbill turtle at a reef drop-off in the southern Red Sea, and we drifted together along a light current. But then the turtle got entangled in sea whip (a horny coral with long, cylindrical filaments).

I realised she needed help, and so I pushed the sea whip carefully aside, and we continued our drift along the reef together. The turtle then paused to eat a red soft coral, which gave me a wonderful opportunity to take a series of portraits showing its powerful beak, capable of biting off chunks of the hardest of coral.

Even though hawksbills are endangered, they are still hunted for their shells as well as for food.

Nikon F90X, with 18-35mm lens; 1/125 sec at f8; Fujichrome Sensia 100; flash; Sea & Sea NX90Z housing; Sea & Sea YS120TTL flash.

Highly Commended Print

In the Amazon basin, this, the world's largest waterlily blooms for just two days. On the first night, the flower opens, attracting beetles with its scent, pure white colour and warmth (the flower actually heats up).

Later that night, the flower closes, trapping the beetles inside but providing them with food. Gradually it changes colour from white to pink to purple. On the second night, pollen is released onto the beetles, the flowers open and the beetles fly off looking for another warm flower, which they will pollinate. The first flower then closes and sinks. When I was photographing the flowers in the day, fish would jump up to nibble at the petals, which made it difficult for me to find an intact flower, even early in the morning.

Canon EOS 1V with Canon 20mm f2.8 lens; f16; Fujichrome Velvia 50; split neutral density filter.

Highly Commended Print

There was never a moment's peace in the huge colony of king penguins at Salisbury Plains on the island of South Georgia. In the breeding season, both parents take turns, day by day, to feed their single chick, and so the traffic is constant, with hordes of penguins making their way towards the ocean to fish or heading busily back to feed their young. Some have to walk up to two kilometres - each way. If they jostled too close to adults incubating eggs on their feet, they risked getting a nasty peck. I wanted to capture one king penguin commuting through this colourful chaos, and this is the picture that did it for me.

Nikon F5 with Nikkor 600mm f4 lens; 1/15 sec; Fujichrome Velvia 50.

Highly Commended Print

This desert wetland in central Australia, fed by a small underground stream, is the only source of water for thousands of kilometres. It's therefore a gathering point for birds and other animals. For humans, it's an incredibly difficult place to get to, approachable only over soft and treacherous sand. I took the shot on a sandbar standing in water, just 30 seconds after sunrise. My aim was to capture a portrait that would conjure up the spirit of this desert oasis.

Nikon F200 with 17-35mm f2.8 lens; 16 sec at f16; Velvia 50; tripod.