The Society of Biology Photographer and Young Photographer of the Year were announced this evening (14th October) at the King’s Fund in London, as part of Biology Week.

Photographer of the Year: Billy Clapham, for ‘The Suburban Mum’: Billy, 19, has won £1000 for his image of a blackbird in his Lincolnshire back garden. (attached)

Young Photographer of the Year: Nagarjun Ram, for ‘Courage Doesn’t Always ROAR’: Nagarjun, 17, has won £500 for his image of a Leopard looking at the him from a tree in Karantaka, India.

Judge Tim Harris, from Nature Picture Library, said ‘Billy’s image of a female blackbird in a suburban garden captures a familiar subject in a bold and fresh way. Gardens provide valuable habitat for wildlife in an increasingly urbanised world, and this delightful image shows that it isn't necessary to travel to remote and inaccessible places to photograph interesting animal behaviour.’

Billy said, ‘I was lying right behind my camera and only had to wait a relatively short amount of time to get this shot of a blackbird taking some meal worm feed for her chicks. This is testament to this mum’s ability to live harmoniously alongside humans and take advantage of our generosity!’

'I'm so happy my little back garden blackbird won against all the other photos of exotic animals. This is the first of many photography competitions that I hope to take part in.'

On the Young Photographer of the Year, Tim Harris said, ‘Nagarjun's wonderful leopard image was the unanimous choice of the judges as winner of the Young Photographer category. We felt it encapsulated in a very evocative way the home and habitat theme of this year's competition.’

The theme of this year’s competition was Home, Habitat and Shelter and the Society received nearly 800 entries from around the world. The annual Photographer of the Year competition was open to amateur photographers, aged over 18 and the Young Photographer of the Year competition is open to those aged 18 and under.

The competition was judged by: Catherine Draycott (Chair), Head of Wellcome Images; Linda Pitkin, Underwater photographer; Tim Harris, Sales and Marketing Manager, Nature Picture Library and Bluegreen Pictures; and Alex Hyde, Natural history photographer and lecturer in biological photography.

The Society wishes to thank Eppendorf for their support of this competition.

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