A talented young photographer found herself in the frame after focusing in on the wonderful wildlife in and around Bolton.
Her 'wonderful photo' entitled Ewe Looking at Me caught the eye of judges of a national competition and animal lovers.
Ellie-Grace Braidwood from Kearsley won the RSPCA’s ‘People’s Choice’ award for her picture having attracted the most online votes for her striking image of a sheep peering through a fence.
Ellie-Grace, 11, had been walking on a local farm with her parents when she spotted the sheep.
She said: “I was feeding the fish and the ducks whilst out for a walk and this sheep kept on coming up to the fence and I thought he was really cute.
“I feel a mixture of shock, pride and excitement at winning. I still can’t believe people voted me to be the winner!
“I am thinking I might start saving up for a camera of my own and continue taking photos. I never thought I would win, but if you don’t have confidence and go for it and enter, you never will.”
The picture was among 14 pictures of animals snapped by young people which were shortlisted for the charity’s People’s Choice award.
The RSPCA People’s Choice award features photographs from the Mobile Phone and Devices, Pet Personalities and Pet Portraits categories of the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards for entrants aged 18 years old or younger.
Over a week, 4,565 votes were cast online for the shortlisted photographs.
The winning photo was taken on a Samsung Galaxy S10.
Ellie-Grace will receive £100 worth of vouchers from Amazon.co.uk, an RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2022 trophy and a certificate. The competition is supported by Nature's Images, Camtraptions and Wildlifephoto.com.
RSPCA photographer and awards judge, Andrew Forsyth, said: “The best thing about the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards is that we're always seeing something new, and the People’s Choice award category is a great way of making the competition virtually accessible to everyone.
“Our young photographers are always bringing fresh ideas and trying different things; the creativity and talent is outstanding - and it's a real joy to look through the entries every year.
“Ellie-Grace’s image showed bags of character, originality, and really captured the personality of the sheep. It’s a wonderful photo and we hope to see more from this budding photographer in the future.
“We hope Ellie-Grace’s success will encourage lots more young people to enter this year’s RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2023, which launches in May.”
If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at zach.harrison@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @zachhjourno.
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