Every parent knows the value of a visit to South Kensington and the Natural History Museum – what child isn’t excited to see those dinosaur bones and all manner of creatures? But as Christmas time approaches you may want to add some new elements or festive spirit to the occasion.
I popped in recently – with a small person in tow – to check out the Wildlife Photography exhibition. Tickets are £14 for adults, £7 for children and under 4s go free – make sure you book in advance if you plan to visit at the weekend.
It’s the 50th Anniversary of the competition this year and there are some new categories. Of most interest to the small people is the “First Shoot” category for those under 17. This is broken down further into categories for 10 years and under, 11 to 14 years and over 15. Each finalist and winning photograph is beautifully mounted and back lit. The quality of these images – and the wonderful creatures they portray (some cute, some scary) is astonishing.
I was particularly taken with the starry sky, snake and the snowbirds. The winning scorpion shot is bound to delight or horrify as well. The entries are from all over the world and are likely to inspire your young person to want to get into photography and may ignite a new hobby (and maybe Santa might provide a camera to get them started?).
The rest of the exhibition is wonderful – huge images and videos with artistic interpretations, diversity and environmental images. I really like the mouse, moon and mosquito shot and the snuggled up monkeys. The parakeets over a cemetery were also impressive. My small companion was impressed with the lightning and volcano eruption pictures as well as the three month old Fennec Fox. And the hyenas at a rubbish dump prompted conversations about the hyenas in The Lion King. The exhibition runs until April 2015 so plenty of time if you don’t get there before Christmas.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/wpy/?utm_source=wpy-new-site-redirects&utm_medium=wpy-new-site-redirects&utm_campaign=shortcut-wildphoto
Once filled with all the animal, environmental and scientific knowledge from the museum, we went outside to enjoy all really Christmassy lights around the skating rink. The carousel obviously proved to be a magnet to my young companion. The ice skating adventure was pretty much like those I have described in detail before – lots of nervous laughter during the wobbly and falling over stages and a real sense of achievement as they strike out confidently across the ice when they have had a bit of practice. The ice skating is available until 4th January.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/ice-rink/
