Wildlife photographer of the year, possible fraud.

Forbiddenbiker said:
Both of those previous winners clearly supersede this shot. ...This shot is not wildlife and those two are ...simples.

Thankfully the competition isn't judged by average viewers, but by people who can appreciate the talents of wildlife photographers.... the winner award has no merit without these judges after all. I think over all this decision will strengthen the completions merit.
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I think you're right. A difficult decision has been taken, but if anything else, this case has promoted the competition and the other photos/photographers.
 
You so right I think. I'll bet the guys who shot the leopard is still recovering with his hangover from all the celebrations. lol
A year plus for a shot, that’s proper wildlife photography hey.

Phew for sense I say.:clap:

Is there no chance they will, even unofficially, choose another winner ...does anyone think?
 
I don't think they will. They would have done it by now. Bearing in mind, they've already printed the books, its a bit of tricky situation for them. I'm sure they can't afford a reprint so the winner would miss out on so much now anyway.
 
minky_monkey said:
I wonder how they`re going to work around it at the WPOTY exhibition at the Natural History Museum at the end of January?
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I was down there late yesterday afternoon (hadn't heard the decision before I went).
There's a white space where the category winning photo should be. The description is still there, but they'll obviously be removing it.
In the display for the overall winner there's another white space with a notice saying that the photo has been removed due to a breach of the rules referring to a use of a model (tame) animal.

ETA - It's a real shame for the other photographers - there are some really good shots. I also particularly liked some in the junior entries too.
 
what a shame...he got something but someone got nothing
lassie go home
 
Ambermile said:
... once in Canada and maybe 10 or 15 times in Russia so far this century wolves have been declared responsible for human deaths.
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You can hear them howling in their packs. Its quite a bone chilling sound. Mostly up north of course but there was a lone wolf close by just before Christmas. Huge beast apparently, never seen him although I did find his tracks at the expense of a slightly loosened sphincter.

I spent a few days tracking him until the cold got the better of me. It dipped below -40c at night and hovered at -30's in the day.
 
specialman said:
Still a great image nonetheless. Compared to the elephant crashing in the mud that won it in 2007 (far too abstract for my liking) or the snow leopard that won it in 2008 (a 'so what' shot), photographically was it any better or worse?
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Maybe I sound harsh, but after looking at those 'winning entries', this competition lost my respect.

Byker28i said:
I remember those shots, didn't think much of the elephant shot and thought the snow leopard was possibly judged on rarity and effort taken. Let's face it, 13 months, 14 remote setup cameras in 45 locations is a pretty big effort. Personally for that amount of effort I preferred the shots the guy was getting of Bats over his pond:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...sty-bats-swooping-lick-water-garden-pond.html
.
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True. The bat shot is awesome. If people want to start taking into account rarity, technical effort, etc into shots, then a different competition should be set up. The most "technically difficult photograph."

But Hubble would sweep that clean :D
 
Hi,

I can't even believe they didn't suspect it was fake right from the start, to me it was obvious and had the alarm bells ringing as soon as I saw it on this thread.

The committee or whoever chose it should hang THEIR heads in shame too. In fact looking back at the shot now it even looks like a composite of at least 2 images.

Mike.
 
jackbauer said:
when i first saw this pict, i instantly thought it was photoshopped to hell
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mikeyb said:
Hi,

I can't even believe they didn't suspect it was fake right from the start, to me it was obvious and had the alarm bells ringing as soon as I saw it on this thread.

The committee or whoever chose it should hang THEIR heads in shame too. In fact looking back at the shot now it even looks like a composite of at least 2 images.

Mike.
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I don't think there is any problem with the image being ligitimate from a photographic point of view. Just that it's supposed to be a wildlife competition and although the author claimed that the wolf was wild, he lied and it is in fact a semi-tame zoo animal performing tricks for the camera.

If there is any significant Photoshopping, it is to remove the large sausage dangling camera right.
 
HoppyUK said:
I don't think there is any problem with the image being ligitimate from a photographic point of view. Just that it's supposed to be a wildlife competition and although the author claimed that the wolf was wild, he lied and it is in fact a semi-tame zoo animal performing tricks for the camera.

If there is any significant Photoshopping, it is to remove the large sausage dangling camera right.
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Hi,

true, however the wolf image had to have been composited over the image of the gate as there is no way it would leap and its rear right leg would be on the right hand side of the gate post?

To get into that position it would have had to jump up and then straight right as it got over the gate, no way :cuckoo:

Oh and I couldn't see the sausage you were on about, so it must have been 'shopped' right enough:D

In fact looking back at the image again, it is clear that the wolf was photoshopped in and the gate was placed there, now that in itself in my books is cheating, surely a 'wildlife' image should be a single image taken in the wild of a wild creature, not some digitally enhanced image.

Mike.
 
mikeyb said:
Hi,

I can't even believe they didn't suspect it was fake right from the start, to me it was obvious and had the alarm bells ringing as soon as I saw it on this thread.

The committee or whoever chose it should hang THEIR heads in shame too. In fact looking back at the shot now it even looks like a composite of at least 2 images.

Mike.
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The shot was taken on film though wasn't it and submitted as a print.
 
:suspect: Looking at the previous Snow Leopard winner ... it looks like stuffed animal to me!
 
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