Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

Today I went to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and was transported across the world to see images capturing the beauty and wonder of nature on this planet. From underwater emperor penguins in the Ross Sea of Antarctica to action shots of four cheetahs hunting a gazelle calf in a Tanzanian national park, to the gorgeous detail of frost on Pasque flowers in the hills of Germany. In every image there was something to admire.

Pasque Perfection by Daniel Eggert/ Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

 It is an event that I look forward to every year, and this exhibition was not a disappointment. It lived up to its high standards of displaying the best wildlife photography in the world. There were over 48,000 images from 98 countries that entered the competition and the top 100 photos were chosen for the public to view.

View of the splendid National History Museum

Set in the grand Natural History Museum, a huge and impressive piece of architecture, standing like a cathedral, the crowds enter the building to be greeted by the iconic skeleton dinosaur. It is a building that inspires you to exclaim with a small thrill; ‘this is London’.

Inside the museum, the dinosaur is an unforgettable sight to see

This is perhaps why the exhibition is so appealing. So many of us now live the city life where our day-to-day experience involves time spent on tubes, staring at computer screens, hearing police cars and dashing across the  city to meet friends and family. An exhibition like this can open your eyes and remind you of the astounding beauty of nature across the world and at home, inhabiting landscapes and environments that are both familiar and exotic.

One of the most stunning photographs was Aurora Over Ice by Thilo Bubek. You could hear mutterings of ‘wow’ and ‘amazing’ as the viewers stared at the image. For me the photo combined an almost spiritual and magical quality of the beauty of this world. The different elements were represented in all their majestic beauty; the magnificent glowing luminescent curve of the aurora light against the intense blue night sky with bright stars, the white ice mountains of earth and the frozen water of the lake. How many of us in our lifetimes will even be able to behold such a view, only a few, and it is our privilege to be able to see such a sighting lit up in such beautiful colours.

Aurora Over Ice by Thilo Bubek/ Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

 What with the IUCN's red list confirming, that nearly a quarter of the world’s mammals are at risk of extinction, the photography exhibition is also a  way to celebrate the world’s biodiversity as well as show it’s delicate fragility and how precious our natural world is. The Nature in Black and White category captured this fragility in many of its photos. One picture showed a roe deer in Estonia as it walked across the sunned streamed landscape, its delicate silhouette so recognisable yet alone. Another called Lookout for Lions, by Charlie Hamilton James, captured the perfect symmetrical pose of two leopards as they sat on a hill looking out across the Serengeti National Park for lions.

Winter Counterpoint by Remo Savisaar/ Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

There were also some incredibly powerful and shocking photographs from The World In Our Hands, a category that looked at how humans are having an impact on the world in both a constructive and destructive way. A particular photo called Trophy Room, by David Chancellor, immediately stood out. It showed an old man from Texas sitting with a cigar in his hand surrounded by a room full of 230 stuffed animals, and animal skins. All these creatures he had shot. Again, The End of Sharks image was even more shocking, it was accompanied by a note stating 73 million sharks are killed each year for fin soup and often once their fins are removed, the sharks are thrown back to sea still alive.

The End of Sharks by Paul Hilton/ Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

 Lastly, what I loved about the event was the pure aesthetic joy of the photography. Each image was inspirational for its artistic and technical merit. It was a visual feast with photos that played with colour, light, shade, tone, textures, shapes and lines. Perfect detail was enhanced to reveal the water droplets and very human expression of a bathing Japanese Macaques face, or the sunlight glowing through a Scots Pines forest.

Relaxation by Jasper Doest/ Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

 A perfect example was Ice Birds by Jeanine Lovett, perhaps my favourite photo of the exhibition; it was simply breath-taking for its colour, movement, power and scale of the ice combined with the beauty and freedom of the soaring birds.

Ice Birds by Jeanine Lovett/ Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

The exhibition was nature and art in all its grandeur. Look for yourself and be inspired.

Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year is owned by the National History Museum and BBC Worldwide.

The exhibition is showing from 19th October 2012 - 3 March 2013