5 beautiful readers’ photos of the great British countryside

We have put together some of the wonderful reader photographs that have featured in our Countryside on Camera series.

Pete Hiscock reckons he’s never seen as many seagulls as he did this year when he was out ploughing near Newbury in Berkshire. “I’ve never known them fly so close, either – they were swooping right past the back window of the tractor,” he says.

Taking a brief break from preparing the ground for Propino spring barley, Pete grabbed his phone, swung open the New Holland T7250 window and took what he modestly calls a “snapshot”. “I only realised when I got home, it had come out quite well,” he says.

Pete says being able to spot so much wildlife is one of the joys of spending so much time outdoors.

“You’ve got to enjoy your own company in this job, too, because sometimes you can be sat in the tractor cab on your own for 10 or 12 hours at a time.”

This picture, called “Cumbrian fell ponies braving the harsh wind”, was taken by Chris Owen.

He captured the image in Mungrisdale, Cumbria, where he was a shepherd about 25 years ago.

“I now have my own business as a consultant to the farming industry,” says Chris. 

“I love the outdoors and Cumbria in particular, and have recently started taking more photographs – I hope to become a professional photographer one day.”

Oliver Mannion enjoys taking wildlife pictures – a passion he traces partly back to childhood holidays spent on his grandmother’s farm in Co Galway.

Lambing season provided the inspiration for this picture taken near Waltham in Canterbury.

His original aim was simply to get three lambs in the shot, but seeing how “exuberant” they were, he waited patiently in a bid to get one mid-air.

“To my amazement, I captured the shot I wanted,” says Oliver, who used a Canon EOS 400D camera and 300mm telephoto lens, allowing him to stay sufficiently far away to not scare the lambs.

“I used a high shutter speed of 1/160 second to freeze the jumping movement,” he adds.

“The farm is situated in an area of heavy clay, meaning the cows have to be kept in during the winter so it is always nice to see them come back out in the spring,” says Rob Wareham, who took this photo of his son Richard in late March.

Richard works part-time on the Kimbers’ farm in Somerset, while trying to establish his own welding fabrication business; Rob works for a silage additive applicator company.

Rob says: “I am a keen photographer, having completed two years of challenging myself to take a photo every day.”

“Just buzzing,” says Martin Smart of his photo of a bee taking off.

Martin is an arable manager for a share farming company in Wiltshire, where he is currently undertaking oilseed rape variety trials.

While he was walking through, taking pictures of the different OSR plots, he saw the bee and attempted to get a shot of it close-up on a flower.

“Well it flew off so I just clicked away and, bingo, that’s what I got,” he said.

“I’m no expert on photography – just right place, right time. It gave me a bit of a buzz.”

Fancy seeing one of your photos in this slot? Countryside on Camera will showcase great reader pictures, so if you’ve got one you’re proud of showing farming in action, rural scenes, wildlife, landscapes or people, email it to fwipictures@rbi.co.uk with a little bit of information.