Mel Tume, Out of the darkness (ANIMAL & NATURE 2026)

Our local Tawny frogmouth family. It is an amazing experience when in contact with them, you sense them as their flight is silent. Often I find them sitting on fence posts, more often than not they seem accepting of me approaching to say hello even without a camera in hand, its like an acknowledgement takes place between us 'oh its you again, hello'. It was a photo of a Tawny that started me down the serious pathway of wanting to become a Wildlife Photographer - it has helped me to recover from a breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 39 and getting outdoors with my lens is how I keep my mental health in check.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.