Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year: UK winners

Page One: Overall winners

A UK teenager has been crowned Veolia Environnement Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year – the second time a Briton has won the award in successive years.

Fergus Gill from Scotland secured the title with a dramatic image entitled ‘clash of the yellowhammers’.

Fergus said he used a Nikon D300 DSLR for his winning shot which was captured from a specially set up hide in his garden.

But he had to wait two days to get the picture he was after – two male yellowhammers fighting over some oats that Fergus had placed in feeders nearby.

Last year, the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title went to Catriona Parfitt from Hampshire.

Also flying the flag for the UK this year was Sam Rowley whose image of a red deer in Richmond Park won the 11-14 Years section.

Meanwhile, Amateur Photographer magazine reader Danny Green – also from the UK and a previous winner – triumphed in the Nature in Black and White category with a photograph called ‘Starling Wave’.

The overall Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year award went to Spanish photographer José Luis Rodriguez for his photo of an Iberian wolf.

Among the category winners was Tom Schandy from Norway, who claimed victory in the Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife with a photo captioned ‘The look of a jaguar’.

Photographers this year faced huge competition after organisers received a record number of entries.

Judges admitted they had a ‘massive task’ choosing the winners after photographers from 94 countries submitted 43,000 entries – marking a 33% increase on last year.

The best 100 images in the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year will go on show at the Natural History Museum in London from tomorrow.

The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year is owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Picture (below): Fergus Gill/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009

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