It's Monday 21st July 2008 and the results are out

Many of you have been waiting very patiently to hear the results of our Emerald Season Photographic Competition ... here they are! We had another lot of tough decisions to make and much discussion was involved in the final results. To see our shortlist please look at our photo gallery. We divided the photos into four categories: animals, birds, landscapes and people & camps.

People and Camps

It is always very difficult to choose the best in this category, as everyone has a different style. We loved the photo of Robin driving the boat on a sunset cruise - capturing part of the essence of an Emerald Season safari. However Linda Whatmore's photo of Mike taking a picture of the snail is just too much fun.

Winner: Snail and Mike - Linda Whatmore; Runner Up: Robin cruising - Edouard Lourette

Landscapes

Yet another difficult category to select the winners from. During this time of year we have longer hours of gentle sunshine which lights up the landscape beautifully. Karen and Chris Selph's panorama of the Luangwa River allows your imagination to see how vast the river can be. Tom Savage took advantage of the early morning rays and some dust to create a magical scene.

Winner: Tom Savage - morning dust

Runner Up: Karen and Chris Selph - Luangwa View

Birds

We are so lucky to have such prolific and stunning birds in the valley. Tom Savage caught a classic moment of a red necked francolin family running along the road. However the time taken by Robin and Mike to obtain the perfect position to catch this stunning shot of heron and moon speaks volumes to us.

Winner: Mike Whatmore - Heron and Moonlight; Runner Up: Tom Savage - family of francolins

Animals

So many subjects, so many choices ... as you can imagine this is our most popular category of photos, and a tough decision to boot. The light and action really illustrates the sense of movement captured in Tom Savage’s hippo fight. The colours in Mike’s butterfly composition really sets off the Emerald Season lushness.

Winner: Fighting Hippos - Tom Savage; Runner Up: Butterfly - Mike Whatmore

Overall Winner

We all fell in love with Mike Whatmore’s heron and moon – the lines of the tree and heron flow into one another and the light is just perfect. So congratulations Mike and Linda – we’ll be in contact about your prize for 5 nights at Pumulani for two.

The Winner

Have a lovely week
Cheers

(Fiona)