A 16-YEAR-OLD has landed a prestigious award after getting up close and personal with a tomato wasp – and taking a picture of her encounter.

Daisy Pipe, from Wareham, won the 16-18 mobile category of the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2024 with her image.

The awards invite young people aged 18 and under to capture the animal kingdom on camera or mobile device, while supporting the charity’s mission to ‘inspire everyone to create a better world for every animal’.

Winners were announced at a glittering ceremony held at the Tower of London today (December 19).

After her win, Daisy said: “I feel extremely surprised but also grateful. I had to persevere with the competition as I just didn’t know whether my photos were good enough and whether I should bother sending in the same ones again, so I feel very lucky to have had one of my photos chosen.

“I first became interested in photography during lockdown as I began to spend more afternoons in the garden. I began recording what different birds I saw and familiarising myself with the different bird calls, and this developed into me taking photos of these birds, as well as the bees, grasshoppers and other insects that came to visit.”

She said her favourite subject to photograph is insects, especially bees but she also enjoys taking pictures of her two pet rabbits, Bella and Barnaby.

“They are so charismatic and affectionate and I love to be able to capture their cute and funny nature,” she said.

“I love sharing these photos with people as rabbits are such underrated pets so I love seeing people’s reactions when they see my pictures of their cute faces.

“Similarly, with wasps, many people think wasps are quite aggressive, but this just shows that they’re not as the wasp was so placid, happily sitting there while I took the photo.

“I hope it highlights to people how pretty they actually are and allows them to appreciate their importance in pollination.

“I’ve always found nature and animals extremely important. Even when I was little, I remember being fascinated by snails and woodlice in the garden.

“Nature provides such a lovely calming space and I find that especially important with the occasional stresses of school work.

“This competition really helps to highlight the point of wildlife photography, as well as showing how beautiful nature is, helping more people to understand it and protect it.”

Daisy Pipe, from Wareham, won the 16-18 mobile category of the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2024 with this image

The awards were judged by a panel of photography experts, including wildlife photographer Rachel Bigsby; former competition winner-turned-professional photographer Catriona Parfitt; professional wildlife photographer and photographic guide Ellie Rothnie; and RSPCA photographers Andrew Forsyth and Emma Jacobs and for the first time this year, Fabian Rivers, also known as Dready Vet, an exotic animal and wildlife vet and RSPCA ambassador who appears on CBBC’s The Pets Factor.

The competition is sponsored by Natures Images (wildlife photography holidays) and Camtraptions (camera traps for wildlife photography).

Elsewhere, Anwen Whitehead, 15, from Mid Wales, was crowned overall winner with her image of a Puffin entitled ‘Daydreaming in the chamomiles’.

Winners in each category were awarded trophies and a selection of prizes.

For aspiring snappers, the 2025 RSPCA Young Photographer Awards open for entries on May 6. For more information, visit rspca.org.uk/ypa.