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