Mairi, 15, wins trophy for beetle picture
A teenager has won top prize in a photography competition after capturing a tiny beetle crawling across a leaf in her garden.
Mairi Eyres, 15, of Llangedwyn, snapped the delicate image of a beetle and entered it in the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust's third annual Julian Gardner Award photography competition.
Mairi, who attends Llanfyllin High School, was the winner in the under-16 category after judges close her image as a stunning example of the "real countryside".
She said: "I have been interested in the natural world for as long as I can remember and first started trying to photograph wildlife when I was about five or six. I really enjoy trying to capture things in a new and exciting way."
As well as winning the Julian Gardner competition, Mairi's pictures have been recognised in the British Wildlife Photography Awards and International Garden Photographer of the Year.
She said: "This is the first time I have actually won a national competition and I am really thrilled and excited."
The competition was launched in memory of Julian Gardner, a farmer and lifelong supporter of the GWCT, who was killed while defending his property in East Sussex in 2010.
A donation from his family and friends enabled the charity to buy two trophies, which are presented to the winners to display for a year.
The winners also receive prints of their award-winning photographs.
Shaun Barrow, of Barnstaple in Devon, won the adult category for his dramatic picture of a cuckoo.
