Photo Competition 2023: Your best shots of the year

Picturesque landscapes, perfect portraits, and everything in between. This year’s Farmers Weekly Photography Competition has seen hoards of inspiring snaps captured by members of the farming and rural communities.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to submit their photos – we have loved looking through them and seeing a snapshot of rural life through your lens.

See also: Photographer captures the essence of Cumbrian farming

Here are the 2023 Photography Competition winners, along with two highly commended entries in each of the eight categories.

The overall winner and two runners-up, who will share the £500 prize money, will be announced in the 5 January 2024 issue of Farmers Weekly.

People

Winner

Based in north Cornwall, Maria Warne is known for making TikToks on her family’s mixed farm, but it is her photography that wowed the judges.

She captured this picture of a friend’s son, future farmer Archie, when she had given birth to her own son just four weeks earlier. 

A keen photographer, she admits that her son has become her muse: “I’ve got so many pictures of my little one, I’m always taking photos. He now smiles on command!” she says.

Runners-up

Kirrie Jenkins captured her 91-year-old father, Henry, in the stables as an ode to his equine roots.

“Those huge farmer hands have seen so much over their life,” she says. The Jenkins run a mixed farm on the Isle of Man.

This picture shows keen young farmer Hugh, who helps Claire Iveson with her North Yorkshire flock.

Claire says: “He noticed a slightly weaker lamb which needed a lift, and much to my delight he carried it the old-fashioned shepherding way. It makes a great photo that captures his dedication.”

Pets

Winner

Lindsay Benson took this fun shot of furry friend Loki, at Foxhall Farm, Shropshire.

As a wheat tramline enthusiast, she is “not that helpful, but you can tell she really tries!”, according to Lindsay.

Runners-up

Treasure is part of a puppy pack that is walked each year in the Lauderdale Hunt, Berwickshire.

This sweet shot illustrates Treasure’s excitement of recognising the person behind the camera, Heather Runciman.  

Andrew the farm cat loves to follow Emily Shorthouse as she works at Ravenscroft Hall Farm, Cheshire.

His hobbies include playing with calves, jumping in wheelbarrows of straw, and “bringing a smile to my face”, says Emily.

Young Photographer

Winner

15-year-old Charlie Cannon, from Royston, Hertfordshire, captured this winning snap of a perfectly arranged bundle of piglets hiding under the straw.

Photography began as a hobby when he first started using a drone, but since then he has kept an eye out for opportunities to capture unique moments on his family’s arable farm.

“I got into photography a few years ago when I got a drone,” he explains. “I’ve taken loads of photos with the drone, but when I saw the pigs arranged like that I just knew that it had to be worth a photo!”

Runners-up

This comical shot of pony Flo was taken by Olivia Stoner, 15, an aspiring vet.

Olivia, who lives with autism, says photography allows her to pour her focus into the beautiful wildlife of their rural setting and creatively express herself.

Only child William Pearson, eight, has a special bond with Rosie the Labrador, caught here on camera taking one of her regular “spa days” – which basically involves jumping to and from every water trough in sight on the family beef farm in Oakenshaw, near Bradford.

Wildlife

Winner

This majestic flock of seagulls was caught by mixed farmer Helen Burton with her iPhone on the family farm in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

“It was a very windy day, and they were coming right at me,” she says. 

Runners-up

Fourth-generation arable farmer Neil Saunders encapsulated the atmosphere while grain carting as deer munched spring barley in the shadow of a dusty combine.

During lockdown Kerry Adams took regular walks in her village of Wiseton, Nottinghamshire, and met this little red robin. “We bonded during really difficult times,” she says.

Landscapes

Winner

Documenting Pen-y-clawdd beef and sheep farm in Llangunlo is something of a pastime for Anna Morgan.

Here she has snapped two generations side-by-side – her dad with the baler working alongside her brother George – while sitting on the quad.

Runners-up

Like most sheep, the ewes at Bwllfa Farm, Aberdare, South Wales, usually take any path but the correct one, says Chloe Hyde-Smith, who took this shot.

“I love how it also captures a lot of Welsh history and culture – the sheep, the valleys and mining history all in one photo.”

A phenomenal view from Edgerston Home Farm, Jedburgh, in the Scottish Borders was Fiona Ralston’s backdrop for this striking image of Salers.

The view is one of her favourites, and the cattle seem to be admiring it, too.

Livestock

Winner

“These are my favourite sheep,” says Katarina Peters of her Dorset ewes. “They’ve just got so much character in their faces.”

Council farm tenant Katarina, who farms with her partner at Brynhyfryd Farm, Powys, captured the shot when checking on the flock after the first snowfall of the year.

Runners-up

A lucky moment saw Anne Armitstead capture her granddaughter’s hens, lined up on the fence at the family’s beef and sheep farm in Cumbria.

“They all just happened to be stood there together,” she says, so she grabbed the opportunity to photograph them.

Sarah Heath’s lambs at Old Field Farm, Garway Hill, Herefordshire, started on kale and went on to turnips.

Inspiration struck when she saw them in the kale. “Sometimes I don’t get it quite right – it’s a bit hit and miss – but if I like it, I take a picture,” she says.

Black and white

Winner

Photography has become a full-blown hobby for 71-year-old Raymond Watson, from Ayrshire.

Now retired, he spends his time travelling to as many farms and agricultural shows as possible to capture rural scenery through his lens.

“I really enjoy doing it – I try to get out as much as possible,” Mr Watson explains.

“My wife and I are both very keen photographers – it’s a wee bit of competition between us!”

Asked who is the better photographer, Mr Watson jests that he had better say it is his wife. 

Runners-up

North Yorks farmer Hannah Taylor captured this fantastic shot, taken on rented land at Wenningside Farm, Keasden, while sorting out Swale ewes.

“They all just looked at me from the gateyard, and I thought it would make a nice picture,” she says.

Ruth McCracken took this magnificent shot of Susan, one of her four dogs, at Greenhill Farm, County Down.

A heavy mist came down over the fields she works with her dad in Castlewellan, and Susan decided to take to higher ground to observe the other three playing about on the ground.

Machinery

Winner

On a working weekend with the National Vintage Tractor and Engine Club of East Anglia, Judith Webb got this perfectly framed shot.

She waited for the right moment as the three Caterpillars came over the hill at Hall Farm, Fincham.

Runners-up

“A picture of farming separated from the modern world” is how John Handy describes this shot, taken at Down Court Farm, Doddington, Lincs.

“There was a beautiful golden light one afternoon and I drove up [to the farm] straight away. A great opportunity to catch a period tractor with a period plough in the fields I grew up on as a kid,” he says.

The atmospheric Criffel Hill near Kirkton, Dumfries, was the backdrop for this shot by Dan Bark, who works on dairy and arable holding Kerricks Farm.

“It was all just there, coming up to the evening – a nice sky and the hills in the background,” says Dan of the scene.