Thanks to the judges for picking my shot as the winner
A great set of images in all categories, as has been the case all year with the monthly competitions. It's great to see how everyone has improved over the years as everyone pushes each other forwards in these competitions.
Thanks to Pete, Gary and co for running both the monthly and annual competitions each year
Some of the highlights were IanLeach's Heath Fritillaries and HertsRangers Duke of Burgandy in the UK section. Also the two Purple Emperor shots from Neil and Millard - still to really have a decent go at these yet. My first summer in Hampshire didn't prove to be a great one for these
The overseas category seems to be the toughest fought with with loads of stunning shots. I knew Nigel's Spanish Festoon was going to be hard to beat as soon as I saw it appear in the gallery and sure enough it came out on top. Bill S's clouded yellow was also a stunner. Super sharp detail throughout. Rogerdodge's Southern White Admiral also stood out. I've been to Provence a few times and tried in vain many times for an underside shot of one of these. A real cracker I am very envious of!
I'm blown away by all of the immature stages shots as I can rarely even find these let alone photograph them! Paul Brock's Pine Hawkmoth Caterpillar is truly stunning as is Antonym's quite unique and extremely successful angle (on a poplar/eyed hawkmoth caterpillar?). Riverdine's pupating (Fritillary?) caterpillar is also amazingly detailed and a great find. How Neil could find that Adonis Larvae and capture it in such stunning detail is beyond me, and I wonder how many hours of searching it took for walpolec to find that White Letter Hairstreak pupae?!
In the behaviour category I thought Bill S was on to a winner with his stunning in-flight Brimstones capture but it proved not to be the case. Neil's Grizzled Skippers was an excellent capture. A lovely clean composition and one of the cleaner shots in this category
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Rogerdodge has the most artistic of the inevitable 'sex' shots in this category, with Vince's super Silver Studded Blues and BenKitely's Common Blues pushing him hard all the way.
BenKitely is clearly one to watch in the future as he's mixing it with the best in the adult categories as well as the junior category. Pipped by James Colvin's superb mating Wood Whites. Elliotls97's Single Wood White is also one to be proud of and would have ranked highly in the adults category too i'm sure!