Visiting Wildlife Photographer of the Year: what a beginner can take away

The 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition opened at the Natural History Museum in London on 16 October 2026 and runs until 11 July 2027. It shows 100 images from this year's competition, and adult tickets start at £17 for off-peak days. If you are learning photography, it is one of the best afternoons you can spend, not because you will copy the pictures, but because you will see how few of them depend on the gear.

The practical details

According to the Natural History Museum's exhibition page, the show is in the museum's South Kensington building on Cromwell Road. As of November 2026, adult prices are £17 off-peak (Tuesday to Thursday in term time), £19 standard (weekdays in school holidays, or Friday to Monday in term time) and £21 peak (weekends in school holidays). Children aged 4 to 17 pay half the adult price, under-4s go free and museum members get in free. Check the page before you book, as prices and times can change.

A midweek visit in term time is cheaper and quieter, which matters in a gallery where you want to stand in front of a picture for a while.

This year's winners

Discover Wildlife's report on the 2026 winners names Federico Veronesi as the overall winner for The Aftermath, a black-and-white photograph of an elephant carrying her dead calf in Namibia's Huab River Valley. The young overall title went to Oscar Whitfield for Labour of Love, a picture of a dung beetle. The competition drew 65,000 entries from 121 countries and territories, according to the same report.

The pairing is a lesson in itself. One image is a huge, emotional scene; the other is a small insect doing what it does every day. Both won because they made the viewer feel something, not because of the size of the animal.

Five things to look for as you walk round

Where the light comes from

Before you read a caption, ask where the light is coming from and what it is doing. Many of the strongest pictures in any wildlife show are backlit, side lit, or shot in the soft light at either end of the day. Our piece on golden hour light in Britain explains why those times are so forgiving, and you can practise it in a park.

How much is left out

Notice how often the animal is small in the frame, or how much of the picture is plain sky, water or shadow. Space around a subject gives it context and calm. Beginners usually zoom in too far.

Eye level

Count how many pictures are taken from the animal's eye level rather than from a standing human's height. Getting low, even for a pigeon or a duck, changes the relationship between viewer and subject completely.

Where the subject sits

Look at how the photographers place the main subject. Some use the thirds; some put it dead centre with confidence. Our guide to the rule of thirds and when to break it is a good companion for spotting both.

The caption

Read the technical details and the story behind each image. You will see a wide range of cameras and lenses, and often a long account of patience, return visits and local knowledge. That is the real equipment.

Bringing it home to a British winter

Very few of us will photograph elephants this year. But winter in the UK offers its own wildlife opportunities within reach of a bus route. Starling murmurations over reedbeds, waders on an estuary at high tide, deer in a park during a frosty morning, robins in a garden: each can be approached with the same thinking you see in the exhibition. Learn one place well, go back often, and wait for the light.

If you want a project for the next few months, choose a single local subject and photograph it every week until spring. It teaches more than any single trip.

A useful exercise after your visit is to pick three pictures from the exhibition that stayed with you and write a sentence about each: what the light was doing, where the photographer stood, and what was left out. Then go to your local park or reserve and try to make one picture that uses the same idea with a common subject. A grey heron on a canal, a squirrel on a frosted lawn or gulls over a car park can all be photographed with the same thinking as a leopard at dusk. The skill transfers; only the location changes.

Keep the results in a simple folder by month. Looking back at the end of winter, you will see your framing tighten and your patience grow, and that record is more motivating than any new lens.

Ethics that apply at every level

The competition places weight on the welfare of the animals photographed, and the captions often mention distance, care and respect. The same applies to anyone with a phone in a nature reserve. Do not disturb nests or roosts, do not bait wild animals to get closer, and keep to paths. If an animal changes its behaviour because of you, you are too close.

If you cannot get to London

Many of the winning images are published online alongside the results, so you can still study them at home. Look at them on the largest screen you have, and try the same exercise: light, space, angle, placement, story.

And if the trip leaves you tempted to upgrade your camera, read our first mirrorless camera guide before spending money. The pictures that move people most are rarely the ones that needed the most expensive kit.