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BBC Wildlife Photographer of The Year Winners
By Jason Heller, November 1, 2008 @ 02:00 AM (EST)
This year's BBC Wildlife Photographer of The Year Competition was a boon for underwater photographers. Besides the "Underwater Wold" category, underwater images placed in "Animal Behavior", "Animals in Their Environment", "Animal Portraits", and "Nature in Black & White".
Brian Skerry nabs the top prize in the Underwater World category with his now well known shot of a southern right whale morphing Mauricio Handler. Brian also had the runner up spot as well as one of the three Specially Commended images.
Brian's winning shot is described as:
"First encounter"
'Swimming with a 14-metre-long, 70-tonne whale, off the Auckland Islands, New Zealand, was the single most incredible animal encounter I have ever had. It was probably memorable for the southern right whale, too, which became fascinated by my dive buddy. Almost certainly the whale had never encountered humans under water, and was as curious about us as we were about it.' Southern right whales live in the Southern Ocean. They are called right whales because according to hunters they are the right ones to hunt. This is because when they die their bodies float, making them easy to drag back to whaling stations. The most common cause of death for right whales these days is being hit by a ship or entangled in fishing nets. Enough have died this way to make them endangered.
Nikon D2x + 10.5mm f2.8 lens; 1/80 sec at f6.3; Subal housing.
'Swimming with a 14-metre-long, 70-tonne whale, off the Auckland Islands, New Zealand, was the single most incredible animal encounter I have ever had. It was probably memorable for the southern right whale, too, which became fascinated by my dive buddy. Almost certainly the whale had never encountered humans under water, and was as curious about us as we were about it.' Southern right whales live in the Southern Ocean. They are called right whales because according to hunters they are the right ones to hunt. This is because when they die their bodies float, making them easy to drag back to whaling stations. The most common cause of death for right whales these days is being hit by a ship or entangled in fishing nets. Enough have died this way to make them endangered.
Nikon D2x + 10.5mm f2.8 lens; 1/80 sec at f6.3; Subal housing.
The complete list of winners of the Underwater World category:
- Winner: Brian Skerry
- Runner Up: Brian Skerry
- Specially Commended: Jordi Chias
- Specially Commended: Brian Skerry
- Specially Commended:Thomas Peschak
- Highly Commended: Laurent Piechegut
- Highly Commended: Amos Nachoum
- Highly Commended: Noam Kortler
- Highly Commended: David Hall
Almost all of the winners can be found featured in the DPG PRO galleries.
Amos Nachoum's Highly Commended image
In the Animal Portrai category, Jordi Chias took Runner Up for his shot of a pilot whale calf.
Brian Skerry took Runner-Up in the Animals In Their Environment category for a shot of a lemon shark pup in the mangroves. Brian had four awards in total - you go boy!
The Nature in Black & White category winner was an underwater shot of a jellyfish by Carlos Virgili, and the Highly Commended image was of a whale shark by Fergus Kennedy.
Congratulations to all of the winners!
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