Announcing our 30th-anniversary photography competition winners

02/10/2023

For our 30th-anniversary photography competition, we asked to see your best shots from three decades of UKAHT. Let’s take a look at the winners.

First of all, an enormous thank you to everyone who sent in photos for the competition. We received some fantastic images and had so much fun picking out our favourites. It brought back a lot of marvellous memories, particularly for some of our, uhm, more mature staff members. 

Secondly, a huge congratulations to our winning entries. Your images were the cream of an extremely impressive crop. We will be in touch soon about your prizes. 

We asked for your best photographs from three decades of UKAHT. These included shots of our huts and bases, our staff, the landscape around our sites, conservation, wildlife or anything else you could think of.

The top shot from each decade has won a UKAHT goodie bag plus a personalised postcard sent from the Port Lockroy team during the 2023/24 season. The best of the rest – and there were many! –  will be featured on the UKAHT website and across our social channels.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the winning snaps.

1993-2002

Robert Franke

We love this shot because it takes us back to the early days of UKAHT when in 1996, following its designation as Historic Site and Monument no. 61 in 1995, Port Lockroy was restored by the British Antarctic Survey, supported by UKAHT.

Penguins watch Port Lockroy's new visitors in 1996 (Credit: Robert Franke)

2003-2012

Cristina Casplin

Every year, the team pull the historic sledges out from their store and every year, the gentoos congregate around to investigate. This wonderful shot demonstrates the annual event has been going on since at least 2008. Some things never change. 

The gentoos gather around Port Lockroy’s sledge in 2008 (Credit: Cristina Casplin)

2013-present

Beverly Houwing

All too often the penguins steal the show around our sites but there's more to see. Like this sleepy (we think?) leopard seal. What a grin!

Yawning – or growling – leopard seal (Credit: Beverly Houwing)

Best of the rest

It was incredibly difficult to select just one winner from each decade – particularly for the most recent period as we received so many fantastic entries. These are just some of our favourites that narrowly missed out on the top prize.

Flying over Port Lockroy, 1993 (Credit: Nigel Dean)

A gentoo keeps watch, 2000 (Credit: Hazel Dean)

A gentoo crosses an immense ice cliff, 2009 (Credit: Shane Murphy)

A humpback pops up to say hello, 2015 (Credit: Mike Jones)

An innocent-looking leopard seal, 2015 (Credit: Beverly Houwing)

A cheeky wee chick, 2016 (Credit: Frank Kelly)

A soaring albatross, 2018 (Credit: Aviaaja Schlüter)

A close encounter, 2019 (Credit: Edward Cook)