Call for entries in Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition

The Natural History Museum is calling for entries in the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The closing date for entries is Thursday 23 February (23.59 GMT).

To enter the competition online, please follow the link at www.nhm.ac.uk Please note, there is a £20 entry fee.

Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 Competition Now Open

The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 competition is now open and they are once again seeking innovative and inspiring wildlife images.
Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year champions ethical wildlife photography – specifically the representation of the natural world as faithfully as possible, free of excessive digital manipulation, with honesty in all captioning, and total regard for the welfare of the animals and their environment.

Entry Categories

Images of nature including wildlife, plants and fungi, landscapes, man’s impact on the environment (both positive and negative) are eligible and can be entered into the following categories:
1. Animals in their Environment
2. Behaviour: Birds
3. Behaviour: Mammals
4. Behaviour: All Other Animals
5. Underwater World
6. Animal Portraits
7. In Praise of Plants and Fungi
8. Urban Wildlife
9. Nature in Black and White
10. Creative Visions of Nature
11. Wild Places
12. Special Portfolio Award: Eric Hosking Award
13. Special Portfolio Award: Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year
14. Special Award: Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife
15. Special Award: One Earth

CONTEST PRIZE & TERMS

Prize Details: The overall winner of the title of Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year will receive £10,000.00.
Each Category winner will receive £500.00 and each runner-up will receive £250.00.
Special Award winners will receive £1,000.00 and each runner-up will receive £500.00.
Eligibility: The Competition is open to anyone
Copyright: The copyright in all images submitted to the Competition will remain with the copyright holder who will be credited in accordance with the Competition’s guidelines.
Usage Rights: By entering the Competition, each entrant grants to the Owners a non-exclusive irrevocable licence to reproduce, publish, and communicate to the public by any means and exhibit their image and copies of their image in all media throughout the world in relation to the Competition and the Exhibition including but not limited to all use in the context of:
Judging the Competition.
Display in the Exhibition.
Inclusion in the Portfolio Book and magazine or similar
Inclusion within interactive elements associated with the Competition and or Exhibition (now known or hereafter created) available for viewing or download from the Owners’ website.
Inclusion in promotional, press and marketing materials associated with the Competition and or the Exhibition
Inclusion in merchandising associated with the Competition and or the Exhibition.
In some of the above circumstances, commercial opportunities may exist for winning photographers to benefit from the use of their image: where a commercial benefit is likely to arise, permission will be sought in advance and terms and conditions will be agreed.
Winning images will be used by the Owners for a period of eighteen (18) months from the announcement of the winners and thereafter the Owners may keep the winning images within an archive (electronic or otherwise) for a further period of five (5) years, after which permission will be sought from the photographers should their images be used in connection with the Competition and or Exhibition.
To find out more, go to the official site here

Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010 highly commended images

The world’s most prestigious wildlife photography competition, Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year, has revealed some of the commended images from this year’s competition.

There's five listed here, these are among the selection that will join more than 100 other prize-winning photographs, including the overall winning images, when the exhibition debuts at the Natural History Museum, London on 22 October 2010. It will then tour nationally and internationally after its launch in the capital. More than one million visitors are expected to have seen the exhibition once the tour is complete.

A carcass-eye view by Juergen Ross (Germany). Category: Behaviour: Mammals - Highly Commended. A feeding lioness is framed by the carcass of a giraffe at South Africa's Kruger National Park

Picture: Jürgen Ross / Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The thoughtful baboon by Adrian Bailey (South Africa). Category: Behaviour: Mammals - Highly Commended. Each morning, thousands of Cape turtle doves flock to a trickling seep at Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, the only source of water for miles around. Birds of prey, meanwhile, line up in trees on nearby cliffs and pick off the drinking doves. This young male baboon finds one of the victims on the ground.
Picture: Adrian Bailey / Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Fishing frenzy by Tomasz Racznyski (Poland). Category: Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife - Highly Commended. A black-browed albatross has just surfaced after diving for the discarded horse mackerel and is being set upon by a rabble of other birds. On a trawler in the South Pacific, fish falling from the nets as they are pulled up are an irresistible lure.
Picture: Tomasz Racznyski / Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Sunset moment by Olivier Puccia (France). Category: Urban Wildlife - Highly Commended. Overlooking Ramtek in Maharashtra, western India, Hanuman langurs find the highest point from which to admire the sunset. Squeezed out of their forest homes by deforestation and the spread of human habitation, Hanuman langurs have become part of urban life in many parts of India.
Picture: Olivier Puccia / Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The ant-shepherd and its little flock by Matt Cole (UK). Category: Behaviour: All Other Animals - Highly Commended. A Black Ant (Lasius niger) herding Black Bean Aphids (Aphis fabae), to 'milk' their honeydew (an ant stroking the aphids with its feelers to encourage them to excrete drops of honeydew). Taken in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire.
Picture: Matt Cole / Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year


The 2010 search has now been completed, and the winning and commended images will be on show in the exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, from 22 October 2010. As a photographer I have strongly recommend you visit this exhibition, I make a point in my schedule to visit it every year and it never disappoints. You will love it. To book tickets, please follow the link here

The winning and commended images from 2009 have been published as a hardcover book;  Wildlife Photographer of Year: Portfolio 19  (Amazon US).