Winner of the Scottish Wildlife Portrait Category 2023

I have been mixing landscape photography with wildlife photography for many years, and more recently concentrating on environmental shots of butterflies and playing with bokeh effects. It is the first time I have entered SNPA and the first time I have entered any wildlife photography in a competition, so I was shocked at the great result. I was out one evening near Loch Lomond and had found a new local colony of Common Blues, but also revisiting this colony of Ringlets. One advantage of evening photography being that butterflies start to settle down, particularly animated species like the Ringlet!  One thing you need is a strong back, and a flippy screen, with low level portrait photography!

To see the rest of the winners you can head to their website: https://scottishnaturephotographyawards.com/2023_winners/

I was also grateful to be shortlisted on 5 other submitted images in Sea and Coast, The Land and Wildlife Portrait categories.