Late autumn and winter wouldn’t be the same without the Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and outdoor Ice Rink.

The Waterhouse Gallery is now filled with amazing images of life under the sun, the moon, the stars, the rocks and water.

The Wildlife Photographer exhibition opened in October to one of the busiest weeks on record and big media attention following the 50^th competition’s awards ceremony.

The winners were announced by Sir David Attenborough and HRH The Duchess of Cambridge at our glitzy event here.

Getting close to the back-lit photographs in the exhibition is the best way to appreciate the atmosphere and drama of each. There seem to be more creative images this year, moving ones too, which are really cool, so look out for these. And it's great to see more variety in the species photographed. Especially to find creatures like snakes, spiders and scorpions caught so enigmatically on camera. And there are, as usual, some glorious winter scenes to get us in the festive mood.

Snowbird, by Edwin Sahlin from Sweden, was a finalist in the 15-17 Years category. Edwin used cheese and sausages to coax the Siberian jay captured in this shot.

Outside the Museum, the winter wonderland is all-embracing as the Ice Rink comes alive with skaters whizzing around the rink's giant Christmas tree. All framed by 1000s of fairy lights shimmering on the towering plane trees. Year after year, passers by stop to take pictures of this magical sight.

Our Ice Rink is open late every night so you can swish about on the ice after hours. There are penguin helpers for those unsure on their feet (or blades), and for non-skaters there’s a great view (and plenty of refreshments) from the café bar.

This is one of the best seasonal delights of working at the Museum, seeing this sight every morning and evening on my way in and out of ‘the office’. But one I’m sad to say I’m going to miss out on in the future.

I am leaving the Museum for pastures new. I hope you’ve enjoyed my What’s new at the Museum blog over the years. And I’m sure others will bring you news of the many exciting things coming up in the months to come.

Over and out, Rose de Freitas, What’s new at the Museum blogger.

• Visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year online gallery
• Buy tickets for the exhibiton
• Discover the Ice Rink
• Buy Ice Rink tickets
• Keep up with What’s on at the Museum this autumn and winter
  

For the first time in the illustrious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition's history, we're all invited to join a public vote for a winner in the new People's Choice Award. The new award category presents 50 incredible photographs, revealed for the first time and selected by the judges from the 41,000 international entries submitted in the 50th WPY competition across all its subject categories.

Among the fifty shades and shapes of wildlife wonder depicted you'll find beauty, magic, mischief, drama, savagery, technical brilliance and heaps of artistic talent. The People's Choice collection is now being showcased in the WPY community's online gallery.  All you need to do is enjoy the photos and select the one that moves you the most, then vote.

You can only vote once though, but after you vote, if you tweet your favourite using the hashtag #MyWPY, you'll be entered into the People's Choice Award prize draw and could win a lavish edition of the 50 Years Of Wildlife Photographer Of The Year: How Wildlife Photography Became Art book (which will also be available to purchase later in the year). Voting closes on 5 September.

Great peacock moth caterpillar by young British photographer Leela Channer: one of the fifty images you can vote for in the new WPY People's Choice Award. Select the image to enlarge.

From today we'll also be posting one of the fifty photographs each day, every weekday on our WPY Facebook page, so watch that space to see how others are reacting to each entry.

The overall winner of the People's Choice Award will be annnounced in October alongside the 100 award winning images chosen by the judges and the winning image, plus the four runners-up, in the People's Choice Award vote will be presented on our website.

Tom Ang, one of the judges in this year's 50th competition

Tom Ang, member of the 2014 judging panel, says:

'If you’ve ever puzzled over why one image wins out over another, this is your chance to have your say. But with so many outstanding shots and just one vote per person, the pressure is on to cast it wisely.'

As you are about to find out, this isn't always easy!

• See the People's Choice Award collection and cast your single vote
• Enjoy the fifty images full-screen in the lightbox
• Wildlife Photographer of the Year website
• WPY Facebook page

We have announced the 50th Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition official call for entries. To mark the occasion we also unveiled a grand new website, sure to wow all WPY fans and the nature photography community around the world.

Take a look at the website's lightbox for the full-screen experience of each award winning image from this year's collection. You can view your favourite images in the gallery and find out about the people and stories behind them and much more. We want your comments and votes on this year's winners and we want you to be part of our WPY community.

Visit www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy to explore our beautiful new website celebrating Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Select images to enlarge

Most importantly, though, we want your most outstanding wildlife photographs enterered in the 50th competition. WPY chair of the jury, Jim Brandenburg, introduces this special competition year:

'For almost 50 years, Wildlife Photographer of the Year has pushed boundaries. In the 60s we raised wildlife and nature photography from a simple scientific record into an art form... Now, as we launch our 50th competition, we are setting the stage for the future. We’ve been listening to our community, reflecting on what we do well and perhaps what we could do better to herald our new dawn.'

Gemma Ward, WPY competition manager, highlights some of the changes to the competition this year:

'The new adult categories have been simplified and their subject matter is now broader and all-encompassing rather than specific to behaviour or portraits, for example. We've made sure that all species are covered and the introduction of a category for Invertebrates should please the insect and arachnid lovers amongst you. We're really hoping this approach will encourage the full range of photographic styles and disciplines. And to increase the creative quota even further, we've introduced a new special award for moving images, TIMElapse. I really can't wait to see what entries we get this year - it's exciting.

Sticky situation by Isak Pretorius. Behaviour: Birds winner. There's an amazing story behind Isak's masterful shot of a seafaring lesser noddie trapped in the web of red-legged golden orb-web spiders, taken on a tiny island in the Seychelles.

'Creativity is the key as always. Looking at a familiar subject or a scene, that's known to you, and capturing it in a original way. From this year's competition, images like Isak Pretorius' Sticky situation and Agorastos Papatsanis' Magic mushrooms really stood out to me in the judging sessions for their almost choreographed composition and aesthetic vision.

Magic mushrooms by Agorastos Papatsanis. Creative Visions, commended. Agorastos captures two parasol muchrooms in a woodland of Greece's Grevena region, against the tree trunks behind, to fairytale effect. The slight optical illusion is the result of a double exposure, in-camera.

'We’re also looking for a wider range of subject matter from our younger entrants of 17 or under. To encourage new creative styles and ways of reporting on the world, we’ve introduced a new category called WILD-I, specifically for images taken on a mobile device, which together tell a news story. So, documentary photojournalism is an important part of the competition for both adult and younger photographers now.'

The juggling jacamar by Sander Broström. 15-17Years, specially commended. Top of Sander's Trinidad and Tobago holiday wish-list was to photograph a rufous-tailed jacamar. He found a pair nesting not far from his hotel and caught this luminous shot in a split second.

'Going back to previous years, I loved these two images (below) for their originality. It's always refreshing to see the more commonly photographed wild places and species taken from a different viewpoint. And I look forward to seeing more of nature's diversity represented over the coming weeks of the 50th competition entry period.'

Paradise performance by Tim Laman. Creative Visions, specially commended, 2010. Tim shows the brilliant colours of the king bird of paradise observing the Arfak Mountain forest from a unique perspective.

Out of the ashes by Britta Jaschinski. Nature in Black and White, highly commended, 2010. Britta's ghostly shot used a long exposure to catch the mood of the moment when a cheetah melted into the background of this blackened scene in Ndutu, Tanzania, after a huge bushfire.

So photographers everywhere, amateur and established, you now have until 27 February 2014 to submit your images into WPY 2014's 18 award categories.

Entrants compete for one of two coveted grand titles, plus a share of a prize pot worth £50,000, and the chance to be showcased in the annual exhibition that debuts at the Natural History Museum in London before touring six continents. The entries will be reviewed by an internationally renowned jury, shortly to be announced.

• Find out about entering the competition
• Take inspiration from the exhibition of 2013's winning images at the Natural History Museum
• Book exhibition tickets
• Join the WPY community
• Follow @NHM_WPY on Twitter