Sheffield teenager, aged 16, wins award for wildlife photo

The photo, called ‘Coot in Monochrome’, was taken by 16 year-old Joshua Myers, whose award-winning photo was singled out from thousands of entries to take second place in the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2019.

Joshua took the image during a visit to Belper in Derbyshire. The youngster had entered his photo into the 16 to 18 age category in the contest and it beat off fierce competition from more than 6,500 photographs to be awarded runner-up in its category by the judges.

Joshua said: “I’m so happy that the judges liked my photograph.

“This image of a Coot was taken on a pond during a visit to Belper. I have often overlooked taking images of these birds but on this occasion I liked the way its silhouette sat among the reflected branches of the under-exposed shot.

“I made the image black and white, which I think made the otherwise overlooked bird seem quite interesting.”

Attracting a record 6,595 entries from under 19s across the UK, this year’s awards were judged by a panel of experts in wildlife photography, including TV presenter Patrick Aryee, who has joined as a new judge on the panel alongside Chris Packham and award-winning photographers Andrew Forsyth and Jules Cox.

The judging panel also included the sponsors of the awards, Philip Warner, MD of printing business Warners Midlands plc, award-winning photographer Ellie Rothnie from Nature’s Images, along with former RSPCA Young Photographer Awards overall winner Catriona Parfitt.

The competition invited entrants to submit photos that had been captured on camera or on a mobile device. The photos were then put in to various categories.

Judge and awards host Chris Packham said: “I’ve been judging the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards since they started. It’s exciting to see it move with the times, particularly with new options this year such as the Instagram category. We’re also pleased that the mobile phone and devices category continues, because as no separate camera is required, this has really opened up the competition to almost anyone.

“There are some beautiful pictures in this year’s winners.”