Name: Ian Wood
Picture title: Three’s a Crowd
Category: People’s Choice
Nationality: England
Occupation: I’ve been a full-time photographer and writer for 22 years, specialising in nature and conservation.
Technical information
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: Nikon 12-24mm f4
EXIF: 1/200th sec; f13; ISO 320
Nikon Speedlight SB 28 flash and home made movement sensor to trigger camera and flash. The flash was set to a very low setting to give some extra light on the subject without disturbing it in any way.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Ian Wood | Three’s a Crowd
Name: Ian Wood
Picture title: Three’s a Crowd
Category: People’s Choice
Nationality: England
Occupation: I’ve been a full-time photographer and writer for 22 years, specialising in nature and conservation.
Technical information
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: Nikon 12-24mm f4
EXIF: 1/200th sec; f13; ISO 320
Nikon Speedlight SB 28 flash and home made movement sensor to trigger camera and flash. The flash was set to a very low setting to give some extra light on the subject without disturbing it in any way.
Ian Wood says:
I have a badger sett quite close to my house in St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, England, and I regularly see them foraging outside at night. During a hot summer, I started leaving my front door open to let some air into the house, and I was amazed to see a badger come into my porch for a sniff around while I was cooking one evening. Badgers have poor eyesight but an incredible sense of smell, so I presume it was the scent of my food that made it so curious.
I love badgers, and my partner gave me these slippers as a Christmas gift, which I had used to help keep the door open. I set up my camera with a wide-angle lens, a homemade motion sensor, and an extremely low-powered flash in case any badgers ever returned. I also left the light in my porch on and kept my front door open every night. For the next three weeks, I checked the camera every morning with no results until one day I woke up to find several images of this badger having a sniff around. I liked this image the most, as it looks like the badger is pausing with one paw raised near my slippers.
Ian Wood
England
I started out as a journalist over 20 years ago, working in both photography and writing for newspapers and magazines. My main area of specialty has always been nature and conservation. About 15 years ago, I began working with the Orangutan Foundation UK, where we came up with the idea to take small groups of people to Borneo to witness both the wildlife and the foundation’s successful conservation projects. The funds raised from these trips have helped support conservation efforts there. Since then, I’ve raised tens of thousands of pounds for them and other NGOs around the world through my photography and small group trips.
These days, I spend much more time focusing on British wildlife and am currently rewilding a beautiful piece of land in Dorset, England.