Nearly 1,000 entries were submitted to Essex Wildlife Trust’s Photography Competition 2024, which celebrates the wild places and wildlife that can be found throughout the county of Essex.
In December, six category winners were chosen by a panel of judges, including Dr Julie Hutson ARPS (Associate of the Royal Photographic Society) and committee member of the East Anglia Federation of Photographic Clubs. The public were then asked to crown the overall winner of the competition through an online voting system.
The overall winner was chosen as Leah Bloom’s ‘Peekaboo’, from the category ‘Young Blood’. The photo captures the fairytale magic of two fallow deer peeking through the woodland at Copped Hall, in Epping Forest. The category Young Blood celebrates photographers under the age of 16 and this is the first time this category has won the public vote since the competition was launched in 2017.
The six category winners were as follows:
- A Wildlife Motion Picture: Peter Jackson with ‘Oystercatcher acrobatics’ – taken in Maldon
- A Wilder Essex: Vai Meng Chan with ‘Rabbit love’ – taken in Eastbrookend Country Park, Dagenham
- Coastal Captures: Andrew Jacobs with ‘Playing the clarinet’ – taken in Walton-on-the-Naze
- Captivating Colours: Darren Taczynski with ‘Wrinkled peach mushroom’ – taken in Langdon Nature Discovery Park, Basildon
- Gardener’s World: Viki Paterson with ‘Common blue damselfly’ – taken in a garden in Terling
- Young Blood (under 16s): Leah Bloom with ‘Peekaboo!’ – taken at Copped Hall, Epping
The Trust’s Photography Competition runs annually from September to the end of November, with entries needing to be taken in Essex within the last year.
