This year's Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition has opened for entries.

The competition, which is open to both amateur and professional photographers from all over the globe, is hunting for the 'most inspirational and provocative nature photography'.

This year's event is the 47th time the competition has been held, making it one of the longest running and most respected photography contests in the world.

More than 31,000 entries were sent in to last year's competition, and the overall winner was named as Hungarian Bence Máté, who had taken a stunning close-up shot of ants in a Costa Rican rainforest.

This year's winner will take home a top prize of £10,000, as well as a huge boost to their credibility in terms of their art - winners often go on to make their name in the photography industry as a result.

The judging panel for the contest, which is run by the Natural History Museum in conjunction with BBC Wildlife Magazine, will be chaired by Mark Carwardine.

He said, "A beautiful and technically strong image is not enough. The key to winning and standing out from the crowd is originality and creativity…

"The judges will be looking for something they haven't seen before ­ a fresh and exciting way of portraying life on Earth," he added.

Entries can be sent in online to www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto before 18 March 2011.

Competitions are exciting things to enter - and the winners galleries are well worth visiting to gain inspiration, ideas and to simply enjoy. If you'd like to enter more competitions but lack knowledge or confidence we can help you with our Photography Video Training, Downloadable Photography Courses and our ever popular One to One Photography Course.

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