What is the Daily Mail Wildlife Photography Competition?
The Daily Mail is a tabloid newspaper and website that probably isn’t the first source you think to visit when it comes to viewing or submitting wildlife and bird photos.
Many people may not be aware though that the Daily Mail has been running a wildlife photography competition since 2014. It’s called the Great British Wildlife Photography Challenge.
The Daily Mail is a publication that originates in the UK and this competition is obviously aimed at British wildlife photographers. As yet the Daily Mail does not have a competition for wildlife photography in other countries.
This competition is open to all entries of native British wildlife. For the 2021 competition, famous British actor and keen photographer Sir David Suchet is going to be a judge, along with six other judges.
Past winners of the Great British Wildlife Photography Challenge include a photo of a Red Kite. Bird photographers don’t have to worry about directly competing with other wildlife, because there are 5 categories to enter images into:
Birds
Insects
Reptiles
Fish & Molluscs
Mammals
There’s also a category for junior photographers which can include any type of wildlife.
Photos must be of wild animals in Britain, and no captive animals are allowed.
The overall winner receives a free trip to France and masterclass with a pro photographer. Category winners receive a Nikon D7500 digital camera and other goodies. In the past, many photos entered into the comp have been displayed at a free public exhibition too.
Apart from their own Great British Wildlife Photography Challenge, the Daily Mail often provides coverage on other high profile worldwide photography competitions.
The newspaper (or website in particular) is just renowned for its coverage of just about any story of interest. And it’s the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards that tend to get the most attention and coverage at the Daily Mail. This isn’t a surprise. What could be more click worthy and shareable than funny photos of animals. The Daily Mail loves viral content, and this particular light hearted wildlife photo comp ticks all the boxes.
The Daily Mail’s coverage of the comedy wildlife photo awards is quite extensive most years, although they are well known for their ability to take up a lot of space without saying a whole lot! That’s not to say the DM doesn’t have some quality journalism at times, and in this case it’s actually worth looking through their articles on the Comedy Wildlife Photo awards, such as the 2021 piece here.
You can have a browse through large size images of the top comedy photos of the year and perhaps get some new inspiration for your own photography.