53rd Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017

53rd Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 is organised by Natural History Museum, London for the last 52 years. It is owned by Natural History Museum Trading Company Limited. The 53rd Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 is the 53rd  edition of the photography contest and is open to both youngsters and adults. There are a large number of prizes to be won.

Natural History Museum, London is one of the largest wildlife museums in London established in 1881 and exhibits a vast range of wildlife specimen from numerous segments of natural history. Last year the contest received more than 42,000 entries from 96 countries.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 is divided into two categories:

• Young Competition: Till 17 years
• Adult Competition: 18 years and above

Top 10 Photography Contest

Theme for Adult Participation

• Categories for Adult Competition, participants can enter under any of the following 17 categories:

Young Competition Theme for Entry

• The entries must include images of nature, wildlife, environment, and/or their artistic interpretations.
• They may also depict the conservation/destruction of natural habitat, among others.

• The last date to submit entries is 15 December 2016.

Selected candidates will be awarded in the following manner:

Reward for Adult Competition

Reward for Young Competition

Note: WPY Academy held in London for a week during the time of the awards ceremony.

Exhibition of Selected Entries

The selected entries will also be awarded in the following manner:

• Exhibition: The selected entries are likely to be exhibited at the Natural History Museum, London (AND/OR)
• Touring Exhibition: The selected entries may also be toured nationally/internationally. (AND/OR)
• Online Exhibit: The entries may also be exhibited online as publicity materials related to the competition, exhibition and touring exhibition or as merchandising.

In order to participate in the competition, visit the official website and register yourself. Create your account using your e-mail address and first name.

Steps to fill the Application Form

• Register: Enter your e-mail ID and first name to register.
• Set Password: Choose a password and ‘Screen Name’. Your password must be at least 6 characters long with an alphabet, number & special character.
• Confirmation E-mail: A confirmation e-mail will be sent to you e-mail account. Click on the given link in the e-mail to confirm your registration.
• Login: Now login using your registered e-mail ID and password.
• Fill in the requisite personal details carefully and correctly and submit the form.
• Re-Login: You will again be asked to log in using your e-mail ID and password.
• After logging in, you will be directed to a Dashboard with the following three options:
  • Pay
  • Upload your entries
  • View your entries

Guidelines for Submitting the Photographs

Understanding the Themes

• Under the Earth’s Diversity theme, participants are required to capture and send images of wildlife species of any kind.
• Under the Earth’s Environment theme, participants are required to capture the environment’s diversity which frames the wildlife like landscapes, aspects of nature, impact on the planet, etc.
• The Earth’s Design’s
  • Detail category involves images related to the pattern, texture, forms and structure from an illustrative or abstract viewpoint using techniques like light or electron microscopy, macro or CT scan.
  • Impressions: This requires depicting nature via an artistic perspective.
  • Black and White: Capture images using monochromatic colour, i.e. click images that emphasise the image using black and white.
  • TIMElapse Special Award: Capture multiple image sequences with a maximum time limit of 45-90 seconds. The sequence of images must tell a story or depict a unique behaviour or event in nature which is not normally noticed.
• Documentary Theme: Under this theme, participants have to show the complex relationship between humans and the environment.
  • Wildlife Photojournalist: Single Image Award: Under this category, participants must depict the relationship in a single image. 
  • Wildlife Photojournalist: Photo Story Award: Under this category, the participants must express the relationship in a sequence of images.(Maximum 6-10 images with maximum 2 photo stories each). The jury will choose maximum 6 images.
• Portfolio Theme: Under this theme, the image must be inspirational, at the same time being clear and artistic:
  • Rising Star Portfolio Award: Participants aged between 18 and 25 years can submit image under this category.(Maximum 6-10 images with maximum 1 photo story each). The jury will choose maximum 6 images.
  • Wildlife Photographer Portfolio Award: Participants who are 26 years and above are eligible to submit their entries under this category.
• Participants in the Adult category can submit maximum 20 entries in all categories except TIMElapse, which should include maximum 3 entries.

Submission of the Application

Entries will be considered only if they are in the following format:

• JPEG images with a high-quality setting of minimum 8 in Photoshop, Adobe RGB (1998) and 1920 pixels in the longest dimension.
  • The photographs should NOT include borders, watermarks or signatures
• For TIMElapse Entries: One still images from the sequence in the above-mentioned format.
  • The complete sequence must be emailed to timelapse@nhm.ac.uk via WeTransfer.
  • They must be 720p HD quality and must play in QuickTime and should be MPEG-2 or Codec H.264.
  • MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 containers are preferred.

Application Fee: 30 pounds (Payment via Debit/Credit Card)

How to Send via WeTransfer?

• Go to the WeTransfer website.
• Select and ‘Add Files’ you want to submit.
• Press the ‘Friends email’ option and enter: timelapse@nhm.ac.uk
• Click on ‘Your Email’ option and type in your email address.
• Provide the following details in the message box:
  • Full name
  • Date of birth
  • Registered email address
  • Telephone number
• Now click ‘Transfer’ and wait for ‘Transfer Complete’ option.
• You will receive a confirmation email.

• Submit the entries on the dashboard on or before 15 December 2016 (11.30 GMT)

• The translations of both categories are available in the following 12 languages on the official website  Arabic,  Chinese,  English,  Finnish,  French,  German, Italian,  Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish

• The entries will be judged by a panel of jury.
• Their decision will be final and binding.
• The panel of the jury for the 2017 competition include:
  • Sandra Bartocha (Germany), nature and fine art photographer
  • Stella Cha (USA), creative director, The Nature Conservancy
  • Paul Harcourt Davies (Italy), nature photographer and author
  • Sekiji Kazuko (Japan), curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
  • Thomas D Mangelsen (USA), photographer
  • Kathy Moran (USA), senior editor for natural history, National Geographic Magazine
  • Dr Alexander Mustard (UK), underwater photographer
  • Thierry Vezon (France), nature photographer
• Entries which do not comply with the terms and conditions, will be disqualified.

E-mail: wildlifephotographeroftheyear@nhm.ac.uk