Stunning Mayo images in Ireland’s first Wiki Loves Earth top 10
TWO stunning Mayo images feature in the top 10 in this year’s Irish round of the world’s biggest photography competition dedicated to natural heritage, Wiki Loves Earth.
A photo of Lough Tay in Co. Wicklow has overall winner, with a photograph of Old Head Wood Nature Reserve in Louisburgh, by Michael Reynolds, taking the runner-up spot.
An image of Cross Lough in Killadoon by Karie Kuiper filled 10th spot.
Another stunning image in the nearby Connemara National Park, entitled Kylemore Abbey Reflections, by Diego Lopez, also featured in the top 10.
2020 is the first year that Ireland has taken part in Wiki Loves Earth, with the photography competition taking place during July.
Initiated by Wikimedia, the movement behind free encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and run 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 quality photos that will be free to use for education.
Amateur and professional photographers were invited to photograph national parks, nature reserves, and Special Areas of Conservation in their locality and upload their photos to Wikimedia Commons. Entries were judged by science communicator Dr. Niamh Shaw, academic at NUIG Dr. Caitriona Carlin, and Axel Pettersson of Wikimedia Sverige.
The top 10 Irish images have been entered into the international competition.
Wiki Loves Earth started in Ukraine in 2013 which resulted in 9,695 images uploaded. Since then it has grown significantly with over 600,000 images uploaded by over 57,000 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.
Dr. Shaw commented: “It was initially overwhelming to select the top 10 images. There were so many great images captured of Ireland.
“It's been so long since I've been in the real outdoors because of the lockdown, and reviewing all these stunning images, I had forgotten how beautiful our country is, even if the weather is a bit rubbish. So that was nice. Terrific standard of entries this year and congratulations to all involved.”