Wildlife Photographer of the Year | Petr Bambousek

When I was submitting my 20 photographs into the world’s most prestigious photography contest earlier this year, my hopes weren’t too high. In previous two years, I had only received a thank you email for my participation and that was that.

I hadn’t even entered last year as I realised that I must evolve photographically first. This year was a bit different. When I was leaving my house on the 30th March I managed to quickly glance at my emails and there it was – an email from the committee. Here we go again, I thought. However, instead of a polite ‘thank you’ I was being asked to submit one or several original photographs as they advanced into the Finals.

MY 12 PICTURES IN FINAL ROUND OF WPY 2014

I immediately logged into my WPY account and tried to find the one photograph they were asking me to upload. Searching high and low I couldn’t see anything but 12 of my 20 photographs that I originally submitted. I couldn’t believe my eyes and kept counting again and again. Then it dawned on me that 12 of my photographs really were selected to advance into the Finals of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 competition. I was psyched. And then, in the midst of April 2015 I received that amazing email saying that my shot titled a ‘Crested Macaque’ has become the Finalist of this year’s WPY in the Mammals category. In other words, my photograph together with the other Finalists will be seen by the whole world.

OFFICIAL WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR WEBSITE >>

But when I received another email in July, my astonishment just got even bigger. The WPY informed me that one of my photographs is to become a central promotional piece of a WPY 2015 exhibition in London. That includes a whole set of promotional activities advertising the WPY exhibition and it will even undergo an animation to facilitate electronic sharing. What more could I have wished for?