2005: Behaviour: Birds - Highly Commended Print
Andy Rouse (UK)
Surfing gentoo
Andy Rouse faced two problems when photographing gentoo penguins surfing onto the shore in the Falkland Islands. The first was technical. The 'burst out and skid' action was over so quickly that the only way Andy could capture it was to set his camera to a very fast autofocus. 'I would track a penguin as it porpoised under water - so when it committed itself to a wave, I was ready for it.' The second problem wasn't so easy to resolve. 'The penguins looked so funny, especially the few that landed on their backsides, that I spent half my time smiling or laughing. It made it impossible to take photos,' he says. 'In the end, I had to put my camera down and just enjoy the show.'
Canon EOS 1DS mark II with 300mm f2.8 lens, 1/2000 sec at f4; 200 ISO processed by RawShooter software.
View other winners in this category
-
Adult awards Sky chase Manuel Presti
View
-
Adult awards Common tern family Yossi Eshbol
View
-
Adult awards Pelican bath Maik Aschemann
View
-
Adult awards Crane landing Tim Laman
View
-
Adult awards The snake eagle family Jose Ruiz
View
-
Adult awards Swift dive John Aitchison
View
-
Adult awards Death squeeze Bence Máté
View
Search the online gallery
Enter a keyword to search for images from the 2005 competition
Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year is co-owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Worldwide.
All intellectual property rights in the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition images are retained by the photographer. Any reproduction of the images without prior written consent will constitute an actionable infringement. For information regarding permission to use competition images please email us.