For families who love spending the day together outdoors, love nature, love looking at the abundance of wildlife out there and, what’s more, love recording what they’ve seen by taking photographs, here’s a fabulous chance to turn something you enjoy doing together as a family into the chance to win some exciting prizes!
WWT’s Photography Competition 2011-2012 opens for entries today and is open to all photographers, both novice and experienced, young and old. There are four seasonal heats held over a 12 month period at each of WWT’s nine wetland centres. There are categories for photographing wetland wildlife, wetland landscapes or even to capture that wonderful moment of delight where your child feels the unexpected softness of a nene’s feathers while feeding it a handful of grain for the first time, or where a brightly coloured dragonfly lands on Grandad’s hat!
Why not make it a project for the whole family and see who can get the best shot of a swan stretching its wings, a water vole peeking out from under the reeds, or the sun setting over the wetlands? You can also vote on your favourite photograph, and get your friends and family to vote for you, in the People’s Choice category, which last year received a staggering 60,000 votes in just a three month period.
There’s even a category for the youngest members of the family – the Junior Photographer of the Year Award (under 18s are ineligible to win the other categories), offering an overall prize of a 7 day family activity holiday in mid Wales, courtesy of Mount Severn. So kids, fancy bagging a free holiday where the whole family can enjoy activities like kayaking, windsurfing or abseiling for a whole week just for taking a cracking photograph on your mobile phone? Should help you sail into Mum’s good books – and hopefully out of washing up duty for quite a few weeks!
There’s also a category for the globetrotters in the family. Whilst photographs entered into all the other categories must have been taken at one of WWT’s nine wetland wildlife centres across the UK, a new category, World Wetlands, invites entries taken of wetlands large or small, good or bad, from all over the world. These can range from puddles in Paris, lakes in Lagos to oceans in Oceana, or even one of the most extreme wetlands in the world, Antarctica.
When the competition closes on 31st August 2012, all seasonal, regional heat winners will go forward to the national grand final to be judged by a panel including photography experts and celebrities in autumn 2012. The competition is held in association with Canon, and in celebration of the Scott Antarctic Expedition Centenary, and there are some fantastic prizes up for grabs. The Wetland Wildlife category winner will receive a three day birds of prey photography workshop in the Czech Republic, courtesy of Tatra Photography; and the Wetland Landscapes category winner will receive a 6 night nature photography workshop in Cumbria, courtesy of Lakeland Photo Holidays, plus a head-to-toe outdoor clothing kit, courtesy of Regatta.
The winner of the World Wetlands category will receive a 5 night eco-tourism break for two people to New York State and the opportunity to see the wetland spectacle that is Niagara Falls, including return flights from the UK to Buffalo with United, operated by Continental Airlines, plus accommodation at the new luxurious Embassy Suites Buffalo. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will win a week’s narrowboat holiday for four in the UK, to the value of £1000, courtesy of Kate Boats. All national category winners will also receive a subscription to Birdwatching magazine.
Finally, if Mum, Dad, Gran or Grandad is a bit of a star photographer on the quiet, if they enter three or more pictures in two or more of the seasonal heats, they could even win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica, courtesy of Exodus in partnership with Quark Expeditions, in the Portfolio Photographer of the Year category.
WWT centres provide the inspiration to take great photographs. From tots to teenagers, it doesn’t matter if you have a mobile phone, an ancient camera, or the latest piece of kit, this competition is open to all. So make it snappy, take the family down to your nearest WWT centre and see if your memories of a fun day out captured on camera can bag you or the family a holiday or experience of a lifetime!
A tomb, with a direct architectural link with Stonehenge, has been found at the Carn Menyn site in the Preseli Hills. This is where the bluestones used to construct the first stone phase of Britain’s best known historic monument were quarried back in 2300BC. There are no obvious human remains still there but organic material from the tomb is being radiocarbon dated and could help cement the link between the quarry site and Stonehenge which was first put forward in 1923 by the geologist Herbert Thomas.
I hope you’re feeling hungry as September is Food Month in Southern Wales. Four fantastic festivals of food are lined up to tantalise your taste buds and make sure you enjoy the very best in Welsh food and drink.
