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Take advantage of the colours of autumn

As the clocks go back at the end of this month and the trees start changing colour, signalling the start of autumn, it’s a great time to capture some wonderful images on your camera for the North East Wildlife Trusts’ photography competition.

The three trusts - Northumberland, Durham and Tees Valley have joined forces with the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) and the Great North Museum: Hancock to launch a brand new photography competition.

The competition, which has Hawk’s Head Photography as the main competition sponsor, with Opticron and Nestlé Fawdon also providing prizes, will be a wonderful opportunity for entrants to showcase the best of the Region’s wildlife.

Writer, broadcaster, speaker and bird guider David Lindo aka The Urban Birder is the main judge of the competition and, with the great prizes on offer, it is a competition well worth entering

There are five competition categories to enter:

Wildlife portraits - photos that capture the character, essence or traits of a species; Wildlife behaviour - photos that capture interesting, funny or amazing behaviour; Wildlife in the landscape photos that show wildlife in its habitat, landscape or settingBotanical: photos of plants, fungi and lichens; Young person’s - photos of flora and fauna taken by anyone aged 16 or under.

A maximum of five images can be entered in total; entrants must state which competition category they are entering and can submit more than one image per category. The closing date for entries is midnight ,Thursday 31 January 2013.

The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers of all ages, with some wonderful prizes on offer, including £250, Hawk’s Head Photography birds of prey and Farne Islands photography workshops, and an Opticron IS 60 ED digiscoping kit for DSLR cameras for the overall winner. The competition is open to entrants outside of the North East, but only photographs taken in the region will be eligible.

Alan Hewitt, Director of Hawk’s Head Photography said: “This is a great time of year for wildlife and nature photographers to be getting out in to the field. The quality of light can be amazing around sunrise and sunset and here in the wonderful north east we have no shortage of beautiful wildlife.

“We are lucky enough to have the Farne Islands, one of the jewels in the crown of English wildlife right on our doorsteps and at this time of year they are teaming with migratory wildlife. Our very own Hawk’s Head Photography workshops are a great opportunity to get out and photograph what is now England’s largest population of grey seals and there is always plenty more to point the lens at.”

In March 2013, the winning and runner-up images will also be displayed in the Galleria at the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle before going on tour around the region.

Images can be submitted in a digital or printed format. Low resolution images should be emailed to northeastwildlifephoto@gmail.com with details of which category the image is to be included in and where it was taken, a contact telephone number and address; entries into the Young Person’s category must also include the date of birth of the photographer.

Printed photographs should be posted to: Steve Ashton, North East Wildlife Photography Competition, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, Margrove Heritage Centre, Boosbeck, Saltburn, TS12 3BZ. The back of each photograph must show the entrant’s name, address and telephone number and which category they are to be included in and where it was taken; entries into the Young Person’s category must have the date of birth of the photographer on the back of each photograph.

For full terms and conditions of the competition visit: www.nwt.org.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .