Hummingbird Hawk Moth, Wild Snaps 2022 Winner (c) Keith Gypps
Wild Snaps 2022
Our Wild Snaps 2022 competition is now closed. We want to say a big thank you to everyone who entered and shared their wonderful images of wildlife with us.
All 30 finalists shortlisted in the competition were exhibited at St Albans Cathedral throughout October.
The 2022 Winners and Runners-up are:
Hummingbird Hawk Moth, Wild Snaps 2022 Winner (c) Keith Gypps
Fox Cub, Wild Snaps 2022 Runner-up (c) Daniel Simpson
Kingfisher on Fishing Rod, Rivers Category Runner-up 2023 (c) John Roy
A Reminder of the Prizes
The overall winner receives:
- General Category - A NatureSpy Recon Force Elite HP5 Trail Cam + image featured on the cover of Wildlife Matters Magazine
- Under 16s Category - £150 Opticron Vouchers
- Rivers Category - £150 Opticron Vouchers
The runner-up in each category will receive:
- A pair of Opticron 8x21 binoculars
- A voucher for a free Badger Watching Experience at Tewin Orchard Nature Reserve
- A £30 voucher for the Waffle House in St Albans
Public Vote Prize
Among all those who voted, one lucky person received an exclusive one-to-one Smartphone Safari, kindly donated and provided by Jet Black Squares, a voucher for a free Badger Watching experience evening at Tewin Orchard Nature Reserve and a £10 Books on the Hill Voucher.
A reminder of all 30 finalists!
Click the photo to read more details submitted by the photographer. This feature may not be available on smartphones so please use this link instead to view the slideshow. All 30 finalists will have their photographs featured at our exhibition in St Albans Cathedral.
Fox Cub, Wild Snaps 2022 Runner-up (c) Daniel Simpson
Kingfisher on Fishing Rod, Rivers Category Runner-up 2023 (c) John Roy
Meet the judges
This year and for the first time, entries for our Wild Snaps Photography Competition were judged by an experienced and talented group of conservationists, photographers and wildlife enthusiasts. Our judging panel selected those photos which they collectively decided made the cut for our shortlist. Read on to find out more about them.
Tim Hill - HMWT Conservation Manager
Tim Hill is the Conservation Manager with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, leading on the Trust’s work in the wider countryside for wildlife and people. He has been working as conservation professional for over 30 years, beginning his career as a ranger in the Peak District National Park. In a voluntary capacity he is a Trustee of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society and Committee member of the Herts Bird Club. He spends much of his spare time looking through a camera viewfinder and his photographs have been used widely to illustrate the publications of Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. Tim has a particular fondness of wet and muddy places and the creatures that live there.
Will Jobbins
Will Jobbins is the winner of Wild Snaps 2021. He enjoys capturing our smallest animals - insects, spiders and other invertebrates. Will’s fascination with wildlife and the natural world started as soon as he could walk and his father was able to take him birdwatching every weekend.
Will uses a small, portable kit – in his words ‘just a scruffy 12-year-old Nikon DSLR and a Sigma macro lens’. It helps him to travel light when he’s crawling through muddy bushes chasing centipedes!
Competition sponsors
Founded in the UK in 1970, Opticron is a family-owned business with fifty years experience of designing, manufacturing and selling consumer optics. Whatever your age, budget or experience we aim to always provide you with the best mix of quality, choice and value plus the best customer service possible.
Our maxim “smaller, lighter, brighter, sharper” is the driving force behind the compact and lightweight equipment we offer. This focus helps us deliver innovative products such as our range of MM travelscopes and fieldscopes and the super lightweight Traveller BGA and Imagic IS binocular range.
NatureSpy is a conservation social enterprise and our philosophy is to observe, research and showcase unique glimpses of wildlife in a non-intrusive and respectful way and give others the skills, expertise and kit to do the same. We use the most advanced trail camera tech in wildlife projects all over the world and sell the best kit we use with 100% of profits going back to nature.
St Albans Cathedral is built on the site of the martyrdom of Alban, Britain’s first saint, and is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain. It hosts hundreds of events and services throughout the year and is the number one tourist destination in St Albans, attracting approximately 400,000 visitors per year from the UK and abroad. St Albans Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of St Albans which serves the people of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, the Borough of Luton and parts of the London Borough of Barnet, Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire. The Cathedral is committed to being a welcoming place for everyone, of all faiths and none.
Jet Black Squares runs Smartphone Safaris (smartphone photography masterclasses) in Hertfordshire and London showing you how to get the best out of the camera in your pocket. Not only are Smartphone Safaris a great way to learn how to take better photos without having to spend a fortune on new equipment, but also a way to get out and about either with the family, as a couple, on your own or as part of a group. A fantastic, generation-spanning activity for everyone.
Situated in the heart of the historic city of St Albans, on Holywell Hill. St Albans, Hertfordshire, just a short 20-minute train ride from the centre of London. Books on the Hill are a team of dedicated book collectors and reading enthusiasts who strive to match the right book with the right person.
The Waffle House is located within the 16th Century, Grade II listed Kingsbury watermill overlooking the River Ver in the tranquil Conservation Area of St Albans. A family business since 1978, they specialise in sweet and savoury Belgian waffles individually cooked to order with many organic and free-range ingredients.
Rules, terms and conditions
Rules
- Pictures must be taken in Hertfordshire or Middlesex or must depict wildlife that can be found in these counties.
- Images must represent the natural environment and therefore, images of animals raised or held in captivity or pets are not eligible (including livestock).
- A maximum of two photographs per photographer may be entered for each category. Multiple categories can be entered but the same images cannot be used. If entering multiple categories, please submit one form per category.
- Amateur photographers only.
- Images must not contain identifiable people.
- No wildlife or habitats should be harmed, put at risk, or unduly disturbed in the process of taking photographs - submissions that appear to have been created in a way that breaches wildlife law are not eligible.
- The detail of the photograph should not be altered, e.g. by adding or removing an insect from a bird’s beak.
- Images captured with a drone or similar technologies are not eligible.
- By entering your image, you grant to Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust the non-exclusive right to reproduce it for any purpose at any time in any media with attribution. Please see full terms and conditions below.
- Entrants under 18 must have parental or legal guardian consent prior to entering the competition.
- Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust accepts no responsibility for entries which are lost or corrupted during upload.
- We cannot judge any pictures whose details have been entered incorrectly.
- No correspondence regarding the results will be entered into.
- There is no cash alternative to the competition prize.
- We reserve the right to refuse any entry to the competition for any reason.
Terms and Conditions
Use of Drones
The recreational and non-commercial use of drones on Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust nature reserves is not permitted. Drones can cause a disturbance to wildlife and therefore, images captured by drones or similar technologies will not be eligible to enter this competition, regardless of where they were taken.