About Me

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Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of four. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

BBC's Camera Trap Photo of the Year Competition

Many thanks to Galen Rathbun for cluing me in to the BBC's camera trapping competition.

If you have a camera trapping project and want the world to know about it this is your chance for a little glory and a $3000 grant for  your project.

The contest is geared primarily to field workers and researchers using camera traps to survey wildlife.

Maybe the doors will open in the future for purely recreational camera trappers who far outnumber the biologists.

There are three photo categories: new discoveries, animal behavior, and animal portraits.

Check out the site above.

And by the way, Galen and Francesco Rovero described a new species of elephant shrew based on Rovero's camera trap photos of the creature.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

QUOTE
If you haven't seen Joe Riis photography you should check it out. He's a SoDak native making it big with the likes of NatGeo.

http://www.joeriis.com/
amazing stuff, thanks for link
Great stuff indeed!

Joe must be a hunter as some of those are trail-monitor shots and it takes experience to place them in the right places without bait. I"m assuming those are well used game trails, but man the different types of wildgame on that one is staggering- and composition is cool too!

JoeRiis said...

Thanks so much for the kind words. I appreciate it.

Response - yes I grew up hunting in South Dakota. All of my camera trap work now is a result of my upbringing of hunting and fishing.

I don't bait. The sequence you noted of mine from Glacier NP is not necessarily a game trail. I consider that location a "landscape funnel", big valleys getting funneled down by dense tree cover. So I looked for a place in the Alpine that was more or less "an easy place to walk" for animals. Most animals don't want to work any harder than they already have to. So, if you can find landscape funnels that link big valleys or basins together, then more than likely you're going to get a lot of animals on the camera if you put a trap up. My camera in Glacier was at that location for about 5 weeks.

Thanks again, my best,
Joe

Anonymous said...

Thanks for making people aware of BBC Wildlife Magazine's camera trap photo of the year competition - and for your interesting suggestions about a new category for casual snappers. I'll consider it for next time.

We have just posted the results of our this year's competition on our website - www.discoverwildlife.com - so why not check them out.

If you've ever wanted to know what happens when a big lion sits on a small jackal, now's your chance...

Sophie Stafford, Editor, BBC Wildlife Magazine