Dragon’s din: the common monitor lizard in Bangkok, Seth Forestson’s award-winning Urban Jungle photograaph
Another prize for a former BRIT School pupil – though this accolade was won in a photography competition by someone who does not own a camera
Seth Forestson, who called himself “some random guy from Croydon”, has been named the winner of the Urban Wildlife category in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards for his image of a giant lizard, a common water monitor, carrying its fish prey in a Bangkok park.
And Forestson says he doesn’t even own a camera.
Forestson was announced as the category winner of the prestigious annual competition at the awards event at the National History Museum last night.
He won the global award using nothing but his smartphone – making him the first category winner in the competition’s history to achieve the accolade without using a top-end photography equipment.
Delighted: Seth Forestson, another BRIT and BBC wildlife award-winner
Forestson is the latest in the very long-line of former BRIT School pupils who have gone and won awards. The Cambridge graduate (in natural sciences) is now training to be an actor while working as a wildlife filmmaker at the BBC. One of his recent assignments was to film Scottish wildcats in the wild for Springwatch.
“This week something incredible happened,” Forestson said.
“I was fortunate enough to win an award at the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards in the Urban category. But even crazier – I became the first person to ever win using a picture taken on a smartphone.
“I have never owned a professional camera. I had never entered a wildlife photography competition before this. And I never, in a million years, thought I could actually end up winning.
“Being able to call myself a wildlife photographer is something I had only ever dreamed of.
“For anyone out there who has a similar dream, but thinks it could never be them, I want you to know it can be. Get out there, take photos with whatever you have, and if you believe in yourself, you may achieve the unimaginable.”
Forestson says that he entered his image “on a whim”.
“I thought it would be crazy to entertain the idea that I could ever be a part of this. You don’t need the kit. What you need is a passion, a dream, and maybe like me, just enough delusion to think something like this could happen.”
In the Thai capital, water monitors have the word “common” in their name for a reason. They are an everyday sight, a bit like pigeons in London. Only more scaley.
For an Urban Wildlife category, Forestson’s smartphone image was as perfect as he could make it, taken from a low, lizard-eye height angle, he managed to frame his subject against the Bangkok skyline.
Common water monitors have successfully adapted to living within cities across south and south-east Asia. They will take whatever food source is available, such as the plentiful supplies of catfish and koi in the lakes of Bangkok’s Lumphini Park.
And for those who like to know about these things, Forestson used Google Pixel 7 Pro smartphone.
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