"Be bold and be creative" is the message

Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year which is popularly known as BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year results are out. You can find them HERE.

As I was going through the winning images Gallery I felt one thing for sure...the juries are making statements with some of their selections.

Bence Mate, a 26 year young Wildlife photographer from Hungary won the Overall Winner award for his amazing image of leaf cutter ants of Costa Rican rainforest.

My friend Nilanjan Das has won Runner up in 'Nature in Black and White' section for his black buck in the storm image. You can find it HERE.

Some of the winning images are very unconventional. For example THIS image of a Polar Bear which won the first place in 'Animal Portraits'! A picture without the head of an animal! How bold the photographer would have been to submit this image to the competition! This fact itself makes a statement that there are people out there who are really challenging the traditional norms of photography. By choosing this image as a winner the juries have silently made a statement that animal portraits doesn't necessarily mean a sharp, clean, closeup image of an animal. That has been done to death and now start looking beyond that.

Not only this particular image but there are several others of them which stand as a testimony to the creativity and boldness exhibited by the photographer. Hats off to the juries for identifying such efforts and showing the world a different set of refreshing images which tell the stories in their own different ways.

Cheers,
Ash