CameraTown.com recently had information on the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition for 2007. Mark Carwardine will be judging again and offers some advice for the contestants...

Zoologist Mark Carwardine is an award-winning writer, columnist, widely published photographer, BBC Radio 4 presenter, consultant and lecturer. This year marks his third year as Chairman of the Judging Panel and his main tip for photographers is to focus on originality.

’There are no hard and fast rules to explain why one photograph wins a competition and another doesn’t, but there is one key ingredient - originality. The judges are looking for something that stops them in their tracks.

‘Imagine you are a judge looking at thousands upon thousands of photographs. Many of them are technically flawless - well exposed, perfectly sharp and pleasantly composed – and, after a while, you take these key ingredients for granted. You become desperate for something really creative, fresh and surprising to leap out from the screen. The pictures that do leap out are the ones that win.’

Full story at CameraTown.com, and you can enter the competition through Natural History Museum website at their Competition homepage. The competition runs through till 29 April 2007, so get snapping.

We posted about the 2006 winner back in October of last year.