2021 was another successful year for Andy with another 15 awarded images spread between 5 separate competitions. Andy enjoyed success for the second successive year in Italy’s leading wildlife photographic competition, Asferico, showing an entangled gannet being cut free from some discarded fishing net.

He also continued his positive association with Bird Photographer of the Year with another two awarded images, both of swans and both captured within 5 minutes of his home in Derbyshire.

Andy also entered Close Up Photographer of the Year for the first time, his image revealing the textural contrast between the paws of a Kamchatka brown bear, the slippery riverine rocks and the flowing water was awarded in the Animals category.

Andy’s Kamchatka brown bear images also featured in another competition that he entered for the first time, a competition with impressive global reach, the Comedy Photo Awards. One image showed a Kamchatka bear cub leaning casually on his mother, the other showed the same cub appearing to dance with his sibling.

The final images, all 8 of them, were awarded in a new competition in its inaugural year, WildArt Photographer of the Year. With 10 separate category titles spread over 10 different months, I was fortunate to receive 8 separate awards, ranging from a Third place to images that were Commended.

In terms of awards 2020 was one of Andy’s most successful. His biggest single achievement was being named the Grand Prize/Overall Winner of the Big Picture Natural World, one of the most highly regarded photographic competitions in the world. Andy’s winning image, an image entitled ‘Hare ball’, featured an ice encrusted mountain hare curled up in a ball, enduring a ferocious blizzard high in the Scottish mountains. This prestigious global prize however was not the only award that this image achieved in 2020. ‘Hare ball’ also went on to be awarded a Highly Commended in the People’s Choice Award in Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Andy’s 4th award in this, the most prestigious competition in the world. The image was additionally awarded in the Mammals category of the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards, Andy’s 5th award in this competition and his 3rd award in the last 5 years.

Andy also won his first category in the USA’s Natures Best Awards, with an image of a Kamchatka bear cub leaning on his patient mother, in addition to two other awarded images in the same competition. One of those was a close-up of a mountain hare washing herself, the other an abstract detail shot showing river water running between the legs of a stoically static Kamchatka bear balanced on some slippery rocks.

Andy’s ongoing success in Bird Photographer of the Year, having previously won the Overall title and a further 3 categories, continued into 2020 with two more awarded images, one of a shag in the Black and White category and a wintry swan which featured in Portraits. Andy also managed to achieve success in two competitions that he’d never entered before, a Highly Commended in Italy’s prestigious Asferico Awards and also another image Highly Commended in Spain’s Mont Photo.

The Asferico image yet again feature his beloved mountain hares, this time an abstract close-up showing just the alert ears of the hare. This image also went on to feature as the cover image of the accompanying portfolio book. His final awarded image of the year, in Mont Photo, featured an infant cygnet curled up on its mother’s back and as is so often the case this image was captured just 5 minutes from his home in Derbyshire.

2019 was another successful year for Andy with 5 of his images being recognised in national and international awards. His black and white image, of a standing Kamchatka brown bear, was his 4th awarded image in the prestigious European Wildlife Photographer of Year Awards. The image, an abstract close up, typifies Andy’s approach to photography and his desire to always strive to produce something unique and creative, with the end result of course still being an effective and compelling image. He was also delighted to receive another 4 awards in the British Wildlife Photography Awards, cementing his position as the competitions most successful ever entrant and taking his total number of individual awards to a staggering 31 in just 9 years, featuring not only 4 category wins but also a total of over 40 separate images. One of the awarded images from this year, of a pair of gannets that was awarded in the Coast and Marine category, also became the cover image for the Portfolio book. Andy also had an image of a mountain hare awarded in the Animal Portraits category, along with a sneaky otter in the same category. The awards were finished off this year with another awarded mountain hare image, this time in the Habitat category. The image, a sign of our times, shows a single white hare set against the stark backdrop of snow-free hills, an increasingly common occurrence as our climate continues to warm.

Though not a prolific year for awarded images I was still extremely proud and honoured to have won my 4^th category in the British Wildlife Photography Awards, and my 27^th individual award in this prestigious national competition. It was also the second consecutive year that I was a category winner having won the Animal Behaviour category the previous year.

The image, of a mountain hare high on an exposed plateau, was the product of arguably one of the most spectacular days that I’ve ever had in the Scottish mountains.

I was also pleased to learn that I had another two images featured in the Bird Photographer of the Year portfolio book, a competition with which I will always have a fond association having won both the overall title and three separate categories in previous years.

2017 has so far been another great year and I’m delighted to have won 5 categories in 4 major International photographic competitions as well as a whole host of other awarded images as well. In Bird Photographer of the Year I won the Bird Behaviour category with an image of two coots fighting whilst in the British Wildlife Photography Awards I won the Animal Behaviour category with an image of a badger scratching. In the same competition I also had another 3 other individually awarded images featuring images of mute swan cygnets and a mountain hare in the Animal Behaviour category as well as a badger in the Habitat category. The third outright category win came in the Nature Images Awards where I won the Comedy category with an image of a mountain hare stretching out its paw but this was just one of many successes in this prestigious competition. I was also fortunate to win the IUCN €3000 grant for a collection of 12 mountain hare images which I entered in the Portfolio category. In addition I also had 2 other individually awarded images, one of which won the NPL Best Image prize for the whole competition. Lastly I was also fortunate to win another Comedy category, this time in Nature Photographer of the Year, with an image of two mute swan cygnets bobbing for food. I also had a Runner-up in the Birds category with one of my favourite new images of a mute swan cygnet of her mothers’ back. My third awarded image in this competition again featured a mountain hare. All in all some 23 of my images were awarded in these global competitions.

This was certainly my best year to date in terms of competition success. I felt extremely fortunate to win the overall title of Bird Photographer of the Year 2016 as well as winning two categories in the same competition. My overall winning image of a mute swan in threat posture also won the Attention to Detail category, whilst an image of two redwings fighting won Garden Birds category. In addition I also had another 6 images published in the accompanying book. I was also delighted to have my third awarded image in the most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, with an image of three mountain hares sitting on an exposed ice field. Remarkably the exact same image was also awarded in the Mammals category of European Wildlife Photographer of the Year. I was also privileged for the third consecutive year to have a portfolio of images awarded in the British Seasons category of the British Wildlife Photography Awards, this time of the humble coot during our four distinct seasons. I was also fortunate to have another 2 individually awarded images in the same awards. These featured a gannet in the Animal Behaviour category and a badger which featured Wild Woods category.

This was a year dominated by bodies of work being awarded, as opposed to single images. A collection of 12 of my mute swan images were awarded in the Portfolio category of the Nature Images Awards as well as having another individually awarded image of some mountain hares in the Mammals category. For the second year running I also had a portfolio of four images awarded in the British Seasons category of the British Wildlife Photography Awards featuring some local mute swans in all four seasons. I also had another 4 awarded images in the same competition featuring a gannet over storm force seas in the Coast and Marine category, some red deer and mountain hares in the Black and White category and a mute swan and her cygnet in the Animal Portraits category.

The highlight of this year was winning the British Seasons category of the British Wildlife Photography Awards with a portfolio of 4 brown hare images. I also had another 3 awarded images in this competition with 2 separate badger images awarded in the Habitat category whilst a gannet portrait was awarded in the Black and White category. In addition I also enjoyed success in the Nature Images Awards with a winter collection of 12 brown hare images awarded in the Portfolio category as well as one of my all-time favourite images, a red deer in a snow covered pine forest awarded in the Mammals category.

This was the year that I won my first overall title in a major international photography competition, the Nature Images Awards, winning the coveted title of Nature Photojournalist of the Year 2012. This was achieved with a portfolio of 12 gannet images captured whilst working on assignment for National Geographic magazine. In the same competition I also had another 3 individually awarded images; a Runner-up in the Birds category with an image of a dunlin pulling up a worm, a Bengal tiger in the Man and Nature category and a katydid in the Insects category. In this year I also had my second awarded image in European Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards as my slow exposure image of a black-headed gull taking flight was awarded in the Nature’s Studio category. In the British Wildlife Photography Awards meanwhile my gannets also scooped 4 individual awards, one in the Animal Portraits category, one in Coast and Marine and two in the Habitat category. I also had another three images in the accompanying book and exhibition.

This was the first year that I won a category in a major wildlife photographic competition, winning the Animal Behaviour category in the British Wildlife Photography Awards with an image of a grey heron appearing to walk on water. In the same competition I also had another 2 individually awarded images with some coots which also featured in the Animal Behaviour category whilst a gannet soaring over storm force seas featured in the Coast and Marine category. I also had another 3 images selected for the accompanying book and exhibition. These showed a great crested grebe with an unfortunate fish, a dunlin pulling on a belligerent worm and another of my favourite images showing an expansively vertiginous view of the gannetry on the towering cliffs of Hermaness National Nature Reserve.

After many years of trying this was the year that I finally managed to get my work awarded in the most prestigious wildlife photography competition of all, Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Having waited for years to get a single image awarded I was fortunate enough that two of my images were recognised, a significant achievement considering the 50,000+ entries that the competition receives each year. The two chosen images were of a fulmar in flight over a precipitous drop which featured in the Animals in their Environment category whilst the other image, a long exposure showing the movement of gannets in flight featured in the Creative Visions category. I also achieved my first awarded image in the British Wildlife Photography Awards and had another 6 images feature in the accompanying book and exhibition.

Prior to 2009 there were far fewer competitions in which to enter though in 2004 I did achieve my first awarded image in European Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. This showed a mahout and his elephant bathing in Nepal’s Rapti River. I also achieved multiple successes in America’s Natures Best competition but their perplexing absence of any prize fund means that this is a competition that I no longer enter or support. Though the competition no longer runs I also had a category runner-up in the International Wild Bird Photography competition with an abstract image of a coot roosting.