British Wildlife Photography Awards Crown Toad Image and 10-Year-Old Bee Photographer

Paul Hobson built a glass box, sank it into a Sheffield pond, and waited. Most toads swam below the glass and rested on it. Eventually, one crossed the surface, and Hobson triggered his Canon EOS 5D Mark III with a long cable release. The resulting image, "A Toad Swims Across Its Woodland Pond," has been crowned both Overall Winner and Black & White category winner at the 2026 British Wildlife Photography Awards.

The shot is technically striking: Hobson paired his 22.3MP full-frame body with a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM lens, exposing at 1/1000 sec, f/16, ISO 1600. The camera itself is 14 years old. By submerging the custom glass housing to pond depth and shooting from a floor-up perspective, Hobson produced a cinematic monochrome frame of a common toad (Bufo bufo) silhouetted against the water's surface. "I built a glass box to house the camera and keep it dry," Hobson explained. "I had to wait quite a long time until a toad swam across the surface — most of them would usually swim below it and rest on the glass."

The youth categories produced their own standout story. Ten-year-old Jamie Smart won the Under-11 award with a detailed macro photograph of a leaf-cutter bee peeping out from its nest. Sources indicate it is her fifth major award, a remarkable tally for a photographer still in primary school.

Other category winners rounded out a strong field. Barry Webb took honors for his slime mold images. Alastair Marsh contributed a bold portrait of a pine marten amid heather in Arnamurchan, Scotland. Sarah Darnell earned runner-up in the Animal Behavior category with "The Fur Flew," capturing two brown hares mid-tussle near Bintree, Norfolk, England, the species documented as Lepus europaeus.

The British Wildlife Photography Awards is one of the UK's most respected nature photography competitions, drawing entrants across adult and youth categories from around Great Britain and its islands. Winning images are collected and published annually in a hardback volume by Graffeg. Full results and the complete gallery of winners are available on the BWPA website.