THREE FROGS IN AMPLEXUS: Every March, our garden ponds suddenly come alive with hundreds of frogs that seem to appear overnight from nowhere. I have been photographing them for many years, and I am always fascinated and amused by their antics. Here, there has been a competition to mate with a female. For a lot of the time there is a frenzy of activity, but sometimes they freeze long enough to get a shot. The image is taken with the lens at water level, and the background is a distant larch tree. 
Ian Mason , Perthshire, Scotland 

DANCING IN THE DARK: ‘Dancing in the Dark’ portrays a pair of great crested grebes engaged in their courtship ritual at sunrise. This carefully choreographed dance serves to strengthen their bonds during the mating season. The photo was captured in the early hours on an urban lake in North Tyneside – once a former mining site, now thriving with wildlife, it hosts up to four separate pairs of grebes, competing for territory and displaying their flamboyant courtship style. Spending considerable time with these birds, I’ve learned to anticipate their courtship ‘dances’ and be prepared to capture these beautiful moments.
Matthew Glover, Killingworth, North Tyneside, England

STARLING AT NIGHT: I had been observing the birds in my garden as they fed on sunflower seeds and peanuts from the feeder for some time. I aimed to capture the sense of movement and flight patterns in my images while still preserving the fine details of the birds. To achieve this, I used flash in rear curtain sync mode. Timing was crucial, and I needed to carefully balance the flash with the ambient light to record the starling’s trail at the beginning of the exposure, while a brief burst of flash would freeze the bird in mid-flight.
Mark Williams, Garden, Solihull, West Midlands, England 

SUNRISE HARE: I’m fortunate enough to have access to a private farm and have spent a lot of time with brown hares over the past couple of years. During this time, I’ve invested many hours into developing fieldcraft and gaining a good understanding of their behaviour, allowing me to get close without disturbing the animal – hares are often skittish. For this image, I lay low and silent in a spot of the field they tend to follow from the hedgerow. This hare was very relaxed and allowed me to capture some portraits as the sun was starting to rise over the field.
Spencer Burrows, Nottinghamshire, England

TINY FOREST BALLOONS: The world of slime moulds is fascinating. They’re neither plants nor fungi. I had never noticed them before, but when I set out to find some to photograph, I discovered that, if conditions are right, they’re everywhere! They’re just so small that if you are not looking for them you will simply overlook them. Each head on these fruiting bodies is approximately 1mm wide, and the depth of field when shooting at such high magnification is so shallow that focus stacking is required. This image was made using 160 images, each focused on a different area of the scene, then stacked together to create one highly detailed image.
Jason McCombe, Essex, England

RAINBOW AT DAWN: I’ve had a mild obsession with rainbow wrack seaweed for years, with its spectacular iridescent blue colour. I’d taken many photos of it before, but I had long had in mind a split shot of it in a rock pool at sunrise. It required planning and luck because the seaweed only grows back in spring, being most colourful for a few weeks before the summer sun dulls its colour. I needed a low tide to expose the pools, in sync with sunrise – and a sunny morning! Fortunately, on one day it all came together. Taken with strobes on low power to light the seaweed.
Martin Stevens, Falmouth, Cornwall, England 

RAVEN ABOVE ARRAN: This is a shot from the top of Goatfell on the Isle of Arran, which is the highest mountain on the island. It was a lovely hike to the top on a bright summer afternoon after arriving by ferry a few hours before. When we reached the summit, it was deserted except for two ravens who seemed to dominate the peak. We sat for some time, observing these birds gliding over Arran just as gracefully as any bird of prey. It’s a harsh yet beautiful world they inhabit. This image is in black and white and consists of two shots, focus stacked.
Robin Dodd, Isle of Arran, Scotland 

SQUIRREL SILHOUETTE: Red squirrels are native and cherished in Cumbria, although they face competition and disease from grey squirrels. These charming creatures visit our garden daily for hazelnuts, and I can capture their antics without causing disturbance. During winter, when food is scarce, providing for them feels like helping our native population. This spring, young kits joined the adults for breakfast, and capturing their dynamic movements against the sky was a fascinating challenge.
Rosamund Macfarlane, Cumbria, England

OCEAN DRIFTER: Ocean Drifter is a photo of a football that is covered in goose barnacles below the waterline. Above the water is just a football. But below the waterline is a colony of creatures. The football was washed up in Dorset after making a huge ocean journey across the Atlantic and then returned to the sea for the photo to be taken. Goose barnacles are not native to the UK but can wash up on our shores during powerful Atlantic storms. Although the ball is waste and should not be in the sea, I do wonder about the journey the ball has been on. From initially being lost, then spending time in the tropics where the barnacles are native and perhaps years in the open ocean before arriving in Dorset. However, this waste can also bring creatures that may survive in UK waters and could become invasive species. More human waste in the sea could increase the risk of more creatures making it to our shores.
Ryan Stalker, Portland, Dorset, England

FIRE IN THE NIGHT: Fluorescence photography requires specialist filters: one ‘exciter’ filter on your white-light source to create the blue light and another ‘barrier’ filter in front of your lens to reduce the ambient light reaching your sensor. These dual filters mean that high ISOs and open apertures are very much required in order to capture the excited, or fluoresced, light. The subject requires a careful approach too; these anemones live in very still water and are sensitive to the slightest movement. If disturbed, they will retract in mere seconds.
Dan Bolt, Loch Fyne, Scotland

THE TIGHTROPE WALKER: In this image, you can see a red fox walking along a tree branch at a considerable height from the ground, demonstrating that these animals are true tightrope walkers of nature. The fox is perfectly framed between the branches and its silhouette is subtly highlighted by the sun’s rays falling on it.
Daniel Valverde Fernandez, Nottinghamshire, England

THE CROP THIEF: It was a pleasant spring evening, and I was spending some time on recently obtained farmland permission where I had observed good numbers of brown hares. I stood at the edge of a crop field when I suddenly noticed this small hare leveret down the tramline, chewing on the crops. I approached slowly and quietly, getting close enough to capture the image. I got down low and fired a burst of shots. I particularly like this one because of the facial expression on the hare as it munches on the crop.
Steven Allcock, Nantwich Cheshire, England

THREE'S A CROWD: I think I have a slight addiction to photographing blue butterflies – I just love them! They are such beautiful little insects, and they enhance any wildflower meadow or garden they inhabit. Blues are quite social insects, and they can often be found roosting quite close together – or even on the same grass or flower. I found a dozen or so blues all resting close together one evening last summer. Using a shallow depth of field, I decided to ‘frame’ my subject with two out- of-focus butterflies to help add impact and context to my shot. The warm, evening light produced a vibrant natural background.
Ross Hoddinott, Devon, England

DAISY DANGER: This photo was taken in a patch of land along the A30 in Devon that has been left untouched for a long time, making it a haven for wildflowers and the wildlife that inhabits it. Using the Laowa wide-angle macro lens, I aimed to capture this scene. While walking, I came across a flower crab spider wrestling with a bee on an ox-eye daisy. The light was behind the subject, which backlit the flower nicely. However, the spider itself was quite dark, so I used some flashes and homemade flash diffusers to illuminate it. This allowed me to capture the deadly strength of these ambush predators.
Lucien Harris, Devon, England

DAY WALKER: This vixen had taken up residence in an electricity substation after being pushed out of her parental territory. The fenced-off area provided her with a quiet place to rest away from the busy city. She would often walk along this wall, and I was able to capture this photo through the gaps in the metal fencing, while making the most of some striking lens flare.
Simon Withyman, Bristol, England

WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?: In this photograph, the Arctic walrus who had come ashore to rest on the harbour slipway in Scarborough has lifted its head as a car passed on Foreshore Road. The image is lit by the streetlights to the left and features the town’s fishing boats in the background. Despite being taken handheld at 1/80th of a second at f/1.6, an ISO of 6400 was still needed to properly expose Thor and the slipway at 2:28am.
Will Palmer, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England

BEECH FOR THE SKY: Beech tree grove near Dunbar in East Lothian. When the leaves are almost gone, the branches show their ‘canopy shyness’ – a phenomenon observed in many species of trees in which the crowns of mature trees do not touch each other. In doing so, the trees form a canopy that has channel-like gaps which, when photographed from below, appear to create an intricate network of channels between the respective canopies. Besides the wondrous vision you are afforded, it’s also just a great excuse to lie down in the forest.
Graham Niven, East Lothian, Scotland

INTO THE MIST: On the remains of an Iron Age hill fort on Badbury Hill in Oxfordshire, Badbury Clump is an area of wonderful beech woodland, carpeted in bluebells each spring. Like most photographers during those precious few weeks of spring, it’s a time of anxious weather forecast watching, hoping that atmospheric weather conditions and schedules align. Luckily,
the woodland was shrouded in dense fog on this particular morning, and the vibrant new beech leaves and subtle hues of the bluebells added a contrasting splash of colour to the otherwise monochromatic scene. 
Philip Selby, Badbury Hill, Oxfordshire, England

MOTHER AND FAWN: Walking through the woods, I spotted this roe doe grazing the foliage. Slowly, I crept towards her, careful not to startle her. To my delight, when she turned round, I saw a small fawn staring back at me! Keeping quiet, I raised the camera to take some photos, then swiftly left so I didn’t disturb the young fawn and mother any longer. It was an incredible experience to see a ‘humbug’ patterned fawn before it loses its spots, and it was a magical experience to get so close.
Felix Walker-Nix, Sherfield on Loddon, England

SPRING'S TREASURES: We got up very, very early one cold (-5°C), misty morning in spring in an effort to try to find some boxing hares up on the moorland. On our way there, I spotted this pheasant sitting on a farm gate in the morning sunrise. I made Dad stop the car and reverse slowly, quietly opened my car window and managed to get this photo of him in all his beauty, with the blackthorn blossom behind him and the sun rays lighting up his copper breast feathers. As it happens, we didn’t get to see any hares boxing that morning, but Mr. Pheasant making this appearance really made up for it!
Jamie Smart, Mid Wales