Natural Environment Blog

You have one week to enter the Nature Conservancy’s 5th Annual Digital Photo Competition.

Entries for the competition close on October 4.

The Nature Conservancy are looking for “beautiful nature photography representing the diversity of life on Earth”.

Photos can include original digital images of lands, waters, plants, animals and people in nature.

The winning photo will be printed in the 2012 Nature Conservancy calendar - reaching nearly 2 million households worldwide, and will be featured on The Nature Conservancy’s website, nature.org, which is visited by more than 3 million people annually.

If you’d like to submit a photo, you can learn more about the competition at the Nature Conservancy’s photography page.

Sample e-card with flowers and a caterpillar. Photo: Flickr User: foramjava (in orbit)

If you’re looking for greener ways to celebrate the holiday season, here’s one. 

The Nature Conservancy is inviting us to check out its recently  updated collection of free nature e-cards. 

Each e-card features a photo that was submitted by members to the Conservancy’s annual photo competition that I mentioned last month.

There are cards for all sorts of occassions too. Here are the categories:

Holiday E-cards

• Valentine’s E-cards
• Earth Day E-cards
• Mother’s Day E-cards
• Father’s Day E-cards
• Halloween E-cards
• Any Occasion

Best of Nature E-cards

• Bird E-cards
• Butterfly E-cards
• Explore E-cards
• Plants and Flowers E-cards
• Wild Animals E-cards

Special Occasion E-cards

• Best Wishes E-cards
• Birthday E-cards
• Friendship E-cards
• Get Well E-cards
• Inspirational E-cards
• Sympathy E-cards
• Wedding E-cards

Seasonal E-cards

• Spring E-cards
• Summer E-cards
• Autumn E-cards
• Winter E-cards

Oh… and did I mention that all e-cards are free?

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation organization that addresses threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, fresh water, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems.

By sending an e-card from The Nature Conservancy, not only will you be cutting down on paper, you’ll also be spreading the word about an important conservation organization dedicated to protecting ecologically important lands and waters.

If you’d like to support The Nature Conservancy and help nature, send a free e-card now!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that a shortlist had been chosen for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 hosted by the Natural History Museum in London and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

The winners have now been announced for this year’s competition.

The photos came under the following categories:

Overall winners

• Wildlife Photographer of the Year
• Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Special awards

• Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife
• One Earth Award

Adult awards 

• Animal Behaviour: Birds
• Animal Behaviour: Mammals
• Animal Behaviour: All Other Animals
• The Underwater World
• Animal Portraits
• In Praise of Plants
• Urban and Garden Wildlife
• Wild Places
• Animals in their Environment
• Nature in Black and White
• Creative Visions of Nature

Junior awards

• Ten years and under
• 11-14 years old
• 15-17 years old

You can click on the links above to go directly to the relevant photos.

Alternatively, you can view the winning photos on the Natural History Museum website or the New Scientist website.

The shorlist has been announced for the 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year. 

Shortlisted photographs (as displayed on the New Scientist website) include:

• Bat house, by Christian Ziegle - a photo of a bat in mid flight
• Starling genie, by Baris Koca - an unusual shot of a flock of starlings in mid flight
• Colourful business, by Noam Kortler - a photo of a small cleaner fish picking the parasites off a colorful reef fish
• Sandpiper congregation, by Arthur Morris - a close up of a flock of sandpipers snuggled together sleeping
• Bottle in the wind, by Koos van der Lende - an interesting shot of a lone bottle tree on a vast plain 

The competition is owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in October.