A CARLISLE photographer has won a national award, placing high in a list of over 13,000 entries.
Matt Turner is a winner of the black and white category of the British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA), with his gripping shot of the Lake District woods.
The image, which captures tree branches and limbs, both dead and alive, depict eerie silhouettes in an otherworldly setting.
The image is published in the BWPA Collection 11 book, which contained 250 out of 13,000 entries published in the final print, putting all those included in the top two per cent of submissions.
It will also be included in the touring exhibition.
Matt has a good track record in winning photography awards, such as the Honourable Mention award in 2022 for the Monochrome wards with his photograph of Abbey Street and Dean Tait’s Lane in Carlisle, and the Professional Street category the year before with another image of Carlisle.
He got to a runner-up position in the Lines in the Landscape category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards in 2018 with an image of Dent Head Viaduct, which has been exhibited in London Bridge station.
He also placed second in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition that same year with a photo of the aurora at Castlerigg Stone Circle, after being inspired by a trip to Iceland.
On this latest image, Matt said: "I spent a good few hours on this foggy morning exploring the wooded eastern contours of Great Mell Fell in the Lake District.
“This is a strange and otherworldly place, with gnarled bark, distorted branches and dank moss everywhere.
“I clambered through the jumble of fallen trees and eventually stumbled upon this decaying specimen, which to me looked like a claw reaching out from the decomposing pile of tree carcasses beneath.
“I used my tripod to avoid any camera shake due to the dark and dingy conditions which suited the scene perfectly."
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