Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2005

The results of the 2005 BBC Wildlife Wildlife Photographer of the Year are out. Winner of the Underwater category can be viewed at:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/tem....jsp?image=3495

Yowza! Leopard seals are known to kill divers.

Cheers

James

Alex won the Animal Portraits category! You can contribute to that thread here:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10194

I spent a long time chatting to George Duffield, who took that shot. When I first saw the shot I said to Malcolm Hey, who I was with at the time that I bet it was taken by a producer of a wildlife documentary as they are the only people who get in front of such creatures. And George is just that - a documentary producer he was down there working on a film with cameraman Doug Allan, who happens to win International Photo competitions on the side! That is a bit of an exageration, but I actually asked him today if he plans to do any more underwater photography (which seemed a very strange question to ask the winner of the UW Category)!

His shot took a huge amount of persistence in very cold water and low viz. It took a long time to find a leopard seal that they felt was in the correct mood to dive with and this one was on the very last day of the trip. The patterns on the ice behind are much more beautiful when you see the print in the book or magazines.

Alex