Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2021 Winners

Ice and Fire © Darren Cole

The title of 'Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2021' goes to landscape photographer Darren Cole, whose winning image portrays a dramatic scene of a muirburn fire below snow-covered peaks near his home on the Isle of Harris. 'Ice and Fire' also won the Environmental category before being chosen as the overall winner against stiff competition from a range of abstract, botanical, wildlife and landscape categories.

Darren, who has his own gallery, Hebscape, on the Isle of Harris said: “It was a real thrill to learn that I had won this year's competition and I'm so grateful to the judges for choosing my image Ice and Fire, especially as it is the first time an image from the Environmental category has been chosen."

The winner of the Junior Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2021 (under-18s) with Peregrine Playtime, is Kaitlyn Clark (11) from Inverness. Kaitlyn previously won the title when she was just 8 years of age.

Peregrine Playtime © Kaitlyn Clark

Kaitlyn said: "This was taken near Inverness on a day out with my dad. We were super lucky to have a family of peregrines feeling comfortable enough near us that they started playing and practising for life - this picture I believe to be two youngsters playing with each other. It took me a bajillion attempts to catch anything like this, never mind keeping it in frame with such a big lens."

Student Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2021 is Murronrose Dunn, a final year HND Photography student at New College Lanarkshire. Her portfolio of three images on the theme of motion, Passing Time, focuses on freezing the motion of water in three landscape locations, across a noon-to-dusk timeframe.

Murronrose said: "The three images were shot during the restrictions last year, where the furthest I could travel was Glencoe. Landscapes were initially required for my course, however, I enjoyed taking each image. They were also a moment to just connect with nature and step back from the world. Each image focuses heavily on water and freezing the motion to create a smoothed out milky effect.

Passing Time © Murronrose Dunn

Winner of the Scottish Nature Video Award 2021 for short nature films is Springtime in the Pond: The Toads, a short film recording the annual return of the toads to a local pond to breed, made on the Black Isle by Pat Douglass. Pat, who has been a photographer since she was 17, says that it is only in the last few years that she has started taking video and exploring the opportunities to tell a visual story through photography. Her winning film was a lockdown project.

Winning images and videos will form an exhibition later in the year and will be published along with the shortlisted entries in a Portfolio Yearbook in the summer. For more information, visit the competition website.

To see last year's winners, take a look at our news section of the site.