Interview
Space – Silver prize UK-based photographer Steve Palmer took home the category’s silver prize, banking £200 for his image of a great crested grebe. Featuring colourful reflections, the photo is entitled Great Crested Grebe Preening (above) Image © Steve Palmer / WAPOTY
How do you choose the conservation causes you end up supporting?
RR: Our judges individually select the conservation cause they wish to support through their contest. There are a wide range of organisations and causes from large charities who purchase land for conservation, including local wildlife sanctuaries. WildArt donates 20p from every image entered to the monthly cause. In addition, all the proceeds from entries into the young competition go into a conservation fund, awarded to the organisation chosen by the eventual WildArt Young Photographer of the Year winner. At the time of writing, we have raised in the region of £1300 – and that money is already contributing towards conservation. PN: How has the response been from sponsors? RR: They are supporters and partners as much as sponsors. The competition does not rely on financial or prize support from any external organisation. If it is offered – as in the case of Swarovski Optik, Cotton Carrier, Topaz Labs and any other additional prizes that may be provided – it’s a bit of a bonus for the entrants. Our relationships are based primarily on marketing and promotional support, leaving the competition entirely independent. All the companies we work with have been unbelievably supportive of WildArt. Like me, they also see the potential for a fresh approach to wildlife photography competitions and sponsor relationships.
monthly category. Our overall WildArt Young Photographer of the Year winner will receive a pair of Swarovski Optik binoculars. How do our readers get involved? Do they have to register to get the monthly theme? Does it cost to enter eachmonthly category? RR: Readers can enter as many of the monthly categories as they wish. All that’s needed is to visit the WAPOTY website, purchase an entry package and upload their images to us via WeTransfer. There is a fee to enter the competition, and this is determined by howmany images are entered. The costs are £6 for one image, £10 for five images and £15 for ten. Entry packages relate purely to the current month’s contest, meaning each month requires a new entry package. Entry for the young photographer competition costs £5 for five images. All the details are on our website, including the forthcoming monthly themes. Space – Bronze prize The bronze prize in the Space category was awarded to Vittorio Ricci from Italy. He won £100 for his image of an oryx herd, entitled Open Spaces (left) Image © Vittorio Ricci / WAPOTY
are running sequentially. Plus, this is a competition that offers entrants transparency, as well as the ability to get involved as much, or as little as they wish. I’ve been running a series of Facebook Live events, providing an insight into the judges and the upcoming categories, plus additional events announcing and interviewing winners. All of these welcome live chat questions from the audience. Who comes up with the themes? RR: It is important that each of the competition judges has a degree of control over their categories. As such, the concepts of each category originate from the judges themselves, while I offer some guidance and advice. All the judges have very different approaches to their “All are unbelievable nature photographers, pushing the boundaries of their craft”
organised between the subteam to discuss and agree the winners. At the end of the year, the ten category winners enter our grand final. A Zoommeeting takes place with all the judges who discuss each class, before agreeing the overall winner from this selection. Howmany entries did you receive for each round? RR: Each of the first four monthly rounds has attracted an average of 1100 images. What do readers have a chance of winning? RR: It was crucially important to make the competition entirely self-supporting. The total £13,000 cash prizes are funded by the competition. There is £3000 for the overall victor, while the winner of the Best Portfolio (drawn from entries in at least six categories) gets £1500. Each monthly category delivers prizes totalling £500 for gold, £200 for silver and £100 for bronze. Moreover, we get offered the odd additional spot prize from sponsors. For May, we were fortunately able to offer a Cotton Carrier camera system and a licence for DeNoise AI by Topaz Labs. We are also keen to encourage engagement from under 18s, who can win £50 for the youth section of each
photography, and the categories tend to reflect their individual direction and style closely. You have an impressive list of judges – how does the judging process work? RR: When I established WAPOTY, I was particularly keen to avoid judging too many images, in too short a time frame. It is imperative that every image entered in the competition receives proper scrutiny and consideration. The WildArt judging process achieves this aim through its monthly category assessments, enabling a ‘little-and- often’ approach to the proceedings, rather than biting off more than we can chew. Considering we will likely have received in excess of 11,000 images by the end of the year, that’s simply too many to assess in one go. Each of the category judges is responsible for selecting a list of the top 100 from their category entries – roughly 1100 images at the current average. The top 100 images are scrutinised again by a judging subteam, comprising the category judge, another WildArt judge of their choice and one of my picks. This always ensures a good mix of gender, geographic location and photography style. The images are scored online, before a final Zoommeeting is
Enternow For more contest details, including the upcoming monthly themes and galleries of winning entries, please visit the WildArt Photographer of
the Year website. • wildartpoty.com
Issue 89 | Photography News 15
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