Natural History Museum

I go to quite a few photographic exhibitions each year, but the one that I love most and gives me the most pleasure is the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at London's Natural History Museum.

Today we visited the 53rd annual exhibition (at last - it has been on since October and we were in danger of not getting there before it closes in July). As always it was hugely enjoyable on so many  levels.  It is a wonderful record of the fabulous wildlife on this planet - its variety, its behaviours, its beauty. It is also a reminder of the fragility of the planet, and the impact that human activities have on the wildlife - either directly by hunting/farming/breeding etc, or indirectly by the changes that we are causing to the climate or environment (deforestation/quarrying etc etc). It enables us to travel, with images from all round the globe, by photographers from all over the world. Finally, it is a display of exceptional photographic skills, with technically superb and compositionally beautiful images.  Although changing the content of the photographs is not permitted, I am glad that they allow the photographers to use their technical skills to achieve the most dramatic and exciting images - whether that is artificial lighting (flash being pretty well essential for underwater photography), focus stacking, combining images in camera to reveal detail, remote triggering, etc.

100 fantastic images, superbly displayed in large, backlit prints.

My blip was taken outside the building, which itself is a wonderful structure.

Photographic footnote:  I have had my compact camera for well over six years, but I think this is the first time I have used the built in neutral density (ND) filter in anger.  It was the only way, in the bright conditions, to get a shutter speed slow enough to blur the passing pedestrians.