This year I had nine images make it into the semi finals, a good result, but but not quite close enough, unfortunately. One of these entries was of a Nile crocodile chasing down a wildebeest which was entered into the Animal Behaviour category.

This was my third year entering this competition, probably the most prestigious of it’s kind worldwide. I’ve just heard back from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition organisers to discover all of my entries made it past the first round, and nine made it through to the semi final round. That’s a good result, but it still feels so close to miss out on a final for at least one of these images. It’s still encouraging though, and I have my fingers crossed for 2011!

Caption: A wildebeest stranded mid-river during a crossing over the Mara River in Kenya last August battled for almost two hours against a dozen crocodiles. At one point he almost escaped, only to be dragged back. It was quite an emotional scene for us to witness. Sadly for the wildebeest (and us), the crocodiles won in the end.

Taken using a Nikon D300 with a 200-400mm f/4.0 lens at 400mm, f/6.7, 1/350 and ISO 200.