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British
Gas Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1990
by
Brian Pitkin
Reproduced
from in focus 39 (Dec.
1990)
The
seventh annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition
organised by BBC Wildlife Magazine in association with the
Natural History Museum and the Fauna and Flora Preservation
Society took place in November and was sponsored by British
Gas.
A
record number of more than 9000 entries from 38 countries
were received. Out of the 14 categories, Animal Portraits,
In Praise of Plants and Wild Places attracted the greatest
number, while Underwater World and Urban Wildlife attracted
the least.
UNDERWATER
WORLD
Winner
of the Underwater World category was Australian Elizabeth
Parer-Cook with a wide-angle shot of a Galapagos penguin swimming
through a shoal of anchovy. Elizabeth used a Nikonos III with
a 15 mm wide-angle lens at f5.6 for 1/60 sec. and a single
flashgun to capture a rare exciting moment. Unfortunately
Elizabeth was not present at the star-studded awards ceremony
to receive her prize of E300 from Heather Angel.
William
Hewitt from Middlesex was runner-up in the Underwater World
category with a portrait of a John Dory taken at night using
a 28 mm lens with a supplementary close-up lens at f22 for
1/60 sec,, sidelighting the ghostly profile with a single
flashgun. William was presented with a cheque for £150.
ANIMAL
BEHAVIOUR
Darryl
Torckler from New Zealand won the Animal Behaviour: All other
Animals category for an underwater shot of a Blue Cod eating
a female scarlet wrasse. Darryl was trying to take close-
up pictures using a Canon F1, with a 55 mm lens in a housing,
of a Blue Cod off South Island when the cheeky wrasse arrived
to investigate him and the Cod. At first the Cod chased the
wrasse away, but a few seconds later turned and attacked it.
After escaping once, the wrasse was finally caught and swallowed,
but not before Darryl had managed to record the event on film.
Darryl was presented with a cheque for £300 by Nell
Chalmers, Director of the Natural History Museum.
Runner-up
in the Animal Behaviour: Mammals category was a wonderful
shot of a Minke Whale taken by Bruno Zehnder from Switzerland
using a Nikon fcamera with a 180 mm lens at f5.6 for 1/250
sec. Minke Whales, the smallest of the rorquals or baleen
whales, can grow up to 30 feet in length and weigh 19 tons.
As Sir David Attenborough, who presented Bruno with his £150
prize, commented - it is sad to recall that the Minke is named
after a Norwegian whaler of the last century whose present-day
countrymen so disgracefully persist in killing these defenseless
giants.
EXHIBITION
Prints
of all of the winning slides and 40 of the commended slides,
produced by the Ilford Photo Company, together with an audio-visual
display of another 65 commended slides , including shots by
Peter Hewitt and Benny Sutton, are on display at the Natural
History Museum, London until 31 January. Further details on
071 938 9123. Two sets of the prints will tour the UK and
a third set will tour France.
Further
details from the competition office on 0272 238166.
Wildlife
Photographer of the Year
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