Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Winner Nature in Black and White

Peter's day didn't start well.

It was cold. He was sitting in a hide near a waterhole in South Africa's Mapungubwe Game Reserve, Limpopo, and he had forgotten not only his short lens but also his coffee flask. 'To say I was a little irritated would be an understatement,” he says, adding that the irritation was magnified when a huge herd of elephants came within 20 meters (65 feet) of the hide. 'The elephants were playing and bathing, but the only thing I could do was shoot close-ups.' Soon, though, Peter became so engrossed in the detail of texture, tone, and light that nothing else mattered. 'It made me realize that sometimes we can be spoilt by too much choice of equipment, and how creativity can often emerge from constraint.'