The 31st of July is the last day for aspiring and professional photographers to showcase their special shots of Scotland’s spectacular nature, as part of a contest run by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).
The fourth annual Nature Photography Competition is winding up, but SNH is still looking for pictures featuring animals, plants or landscapes across Scotland. Along with great prizes, this year’s top 30 images will be exhibited at the Edinburgh Zoo as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The exhibition will also tour key venues in Scotland during autumn and winter 2010 and throughout 2011.
Prizes
First prize is a day with professional photographer, Lorne Gill; second prize is a fantastic Panasonic 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’s theme is ‘Emotions’. SNH wants to discover 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.
This free contest celebrates Scottish Biodiversity Week, which ran from 15 to 23 May, as well as this year’s International Year of Biodiversity.
Scottish Biodiversity Week organiser, Zeshan Akhter, said: “So many of us can recall a magical moment 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 still so important to us, 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 [email protected] 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.