Enter The 2025 Young Wild Photographer Competition Today

Are you aged between 5 and 16 with a camera or a smartphone? Do you love getting out into nature and watching wildlife? Why not enter our Young Wild Photographer competition? There are some great prizes on offer, and you’ll get the chance to have your pictures shown on our website and our social media channels.

Sponsored by leading UK optical equipment supplier Opticron, the competition is open to children and young people from 5-16 years, and prizes will be awarded in each of 3 categories – Young (5-8), Junior (9-12) and Senior (13-16).

What’s more, you don’t have to have expensive camera kit to stand a chance of winning. We will be more interested in the subject and composition, and welcome entries of all kinds from cameras and smartphones, and the equipment used will be taken into account in the judging. Take a look at last year’s winning entries here.

Once again, we are thrilled to have the award-winning wildlife photographer Richard Birchett doing the judging. You can read more about Richard, and get some top wildlife photography tips, in our interview here.

The Theme: Capture the Moment

Nature photography is a wonderful way to ‘capture the moments that matter’ in the life of our plants, birds, and animals. We are looking for images from young photographers that capture a single moment in nature. From the first drops of rain on a leaf to the emergence of busy bees and butterflies, or a dew-laden spiderweb caught in early sunlight, we’d love to see your shots of these welcome moments in nature.

Entering the Young Wild Photographer Competition

Any young person between the ages of 5 and 16 on 1 May 2025 and resident in the UK can enter the competition. By entering the competition, you agree that Hen Harrier Action can publish your image on the website, in newsletters and on social media. We will always give you proper credits and you will otherwise retain ownership and copyright.

You can only enter a single image, and initially this should be no more than 800 pixels wide, and saved as a JPEG of no more than 5MB. Full size images will be requested from the short-listed entrants. Your shots must have been taken this year (2025). Images from previous years will not be accepted.

Images can be submitted from cameras or smartphones, and the technology used and the age of the entrant will be taken into consideration in the judging. The judge this year will be award-winning wildlife photographer Richard Birchett.

The competition is open for entries from Saturday 10th May 2025 and the final date for submissions is midnight on Sunday 6th July 2025. Judging will take place over 4 weeks and the winners will be announced on Saturday 9th August.

Age Categories

New for this year, the competition will be open to children and young people from 5-16 years, and prizes will be awarded in each of 3 categories – Young (5-8), Junior (9-12) and Senior (13-16).

Entries from schools and classes will be welcome, and teachers can download a poster for the competition below.

About your judge: Award-winning wildlife photographer Richard Birchett

Richard Birchett is a published and award-winning wildlife photographer from Cornwall, currently based in Canada. He has worked with BBC Wildlife Magazine, Springwatch, Countryfile and The Wildlife Trusts, and is the UK and Canada Ambassador for Nature First, an alliance promoting ethical wildlife photography.

A finalist in many prominent photography competitions, including the British Photography Awards (BPA), British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) and Bird Photographer of the Year (BPOTY), among others.

The Prizes to be Won

Each category winner will receive a £100 voucher to spend at Opticron, a leading supplier of binoculars, field scopes and accessories, and have their winning images published on our website and social media channels.

Opticron is a leading UK supplier of high quality binoculars, field scopes, digiscoping equipment and accessories, providing wildlife watchers with the best mix of quality, choice, value and customer service. Offering a huge range of compact, lightweight and affordable equipment, with an innovative approach and a drive to deliver ‘smaller, lighter, brighter, sharper’ across every product in their range.

Founded in the UK in 1970, Opticron is a family-owned business with fifty years’ experience in consumer optics. They offer the widest range of quality full-size field monoculars of any company in the business. The innovative and popular Traveller BGA binoculars are the lightest of their type ever and are among Opticron’s best-selling models. And the new Discovery WD 8×42 and 10×42 models are already wowing reviewers and customers too!

Opticron is delighted to be sponsoring the Young Wild Photographer competition again this year, and wishes the best of luck to all the entrants.

And if you enjoy creative writing more than photography, why not enter our Young Wild Writers Competition instead? Or you could enter both!

This year’s Young Wild Writers contest shares the same age categories as Young Wild Photographer, and there are prizes on offer in each of the three categories – Young, Junior and Senior.

The theme for the competition, also announced on Skydancer Day,is the same – Capture the Moment – but for creative writing, up to 500 words.

Full Rules of Entry

Age: you must be between 5 and 16 years of age on 1^st May 2025 to qualify for entry.
Entrants can interpret the theme of Capture the Moment in a broad sense but you should concentrate on habitats, wildlife, plant and insect life in the UK.
All images should be substantially the work of the entrant.
Initial submissions should be no larger than 800 pixels wide and no more than 5Mb, in JPEG format. Full size images will be requested when a short list has been created.
Entries can be submitted from cameras and smartphones, and account will be taken of the level of equipment used when judging.
All winning and commended entrants will be given publicity and a national platform on our website, newsletters and social media channels. The winner in each category will be awarded a prize of £100 in the form of a voucher from Opticron, a leading supplier of photographic equipment.

All entries must:

- Not be offensive, though it can be as hard-hitting as you wish it to be.
- Be consistent with our values.

By entering, you agree to be interviewed about your work if asked.
By submitting your entry, you grant permission for Hen Harrier Action to use it, including on our website, YouTube channel and other social media. We will always give proper credits and you will otherwise retain ownership and copyright.
Trustees and immediate family of Hen Harrier Action are ineligible.
Entries which in the opinion of the judges promote misinformation will be disqualified.
In preparing your entry, you must not:

- break the law regarding disturbance of nesting birds.
- put rare birds at risk because of your actions or movements.
- make unsolicited approaches to leading figures.

The opinion of the judges will be final. Unfortunately, we cannot undertake to give feedback.
By submitting your entry, it is understood that you have read and agreed to the rules of the competition.