Winners of Ireland’s Wiki Loves Earth photography competition announced
A photo of the Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare has won this year’s Irish round of the world’s biggest photography competition dedicated to natural heritage, Wiki Loves Earth.
This is the second year that Ireland has taken part in Wiki Loves Earth and the first year the whole island of Ireland was included in the competition, which took place in June 2021.
Initiated by Wikimedia, the movement behind free encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and run in Ireland by the Wikimedia Community Ireland, the competition aims to raise awareness of Ireland’s protected sites and habitats and create a crowd-sourced bank of diverse and high-quality photos that will be free to use for education, tourism, and awareness.
The following were the winners of the Wiki Loves Earth competition:
- Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare by Diego Lopez
- Gap of Dunloe, Co. Kerry by Diego Lopez
- Mirror Wall Cliff at Alladie, Co. Clare by Síoda Photography
- Mourne Mountains, Co. Down by Diego Lopez
- Baldoyle Bay Estuary, Co. Dublin by Jonathan Baker
- Sally Gap Wicklow Mountains National Park by Jonathan Baker
- Roo Tree, a lonely tree sprouting out of the Burren limestone by Síoda Photography
- Gleninchaquin Park, Co. Kerry by Diego Lopez
- Clew Bay, Co. Mayo by Diego Lopez
- Inishmore Island, Co. Galway by Diego Lopez
Photographers of all skill levels were invited to photograph protected sites including national parks, nature reserves, Special Areas of Conservation, Area of Outstanding Beauty, Ramsar sites, and Geoparks across Ireland and Northern Ireland and upload their photos toWikimedia Commons. Entries were judged by zoologist Dr Ruth Carden, research fellow Dr Rena Maguire, and wikipedian Ivo Kruusamägi from Estonia.
Wiki Loves Earth was first held in Ukraine in 2013 with 9,695 images uploaded that year. Since then it has grown significantly with over 700,000 images uploaded by over 58,000 participants internationally. All images are uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia’s online repository that makes public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) available to everyone.
Rebecca O’Neill of Wikimedia Community Ireland commented: “It is a real joy to share such amazing photographs of Ireland’s diverse and ecologically important landscapes with the whole world. The high standard this year really challenged our judges, and we are delighted to send these images off to the international round.”
Last week, it was announced that Wiki Loves Monuments was returning to Ireland for its eighth year. The competition celebrates local and international built heritage by bringing together photographers from all around the world to upload their images for use on Wikipedia.
The competition is open for submissions from 1-30 September. To take part, upload your images of Ireland’s protected structures through the interactive map to be in with a chance of winning prizes. The top prize is an Amazon voucher worth €250, with additional prizes awarded for sites with no previous images uploaded and for obscure, remote, or challenging to photograph sites.
The competition was established by the Wikimedia community, the movement behind Wikipedia, and is organised locally by Wikimedia Community Ireland. Entries will be judged by a panel from Ireland and the wider Wikimedia movement, with the winners being announced in November 2021. These top 10 pictures will then be entered into the international competition.
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