At just ten years old, Jamie Smart is already producing award-winning wildlife photographs beyond her years…
What’s your favourite dinosaur? isn’t a question I usually choose to open an interview. Photographers, as a rule, are more accustomed to being probed about the best cameras, post-processing and what shoes they wear. But Jamie Smart is ten years old and ten-year-olds deserve at least one dinosaur question. I deserve to ask at least one dinosaur question.
Blinking into view on our Zoom call, Jamie’s shoulders just about rise above the bottom of the frame. She’s wearing a bright yellow zip-up top and sat on a sofa next to dad James. Her mum is off screen and occasionally chimes in with a clarifying detail or gentle correction. Soft animal toys are scattered around. It’s relaxed, familial and lightly chaotic.
Dinosaur default
Jamie doesn’t bat the dinosaur question away or default to an answer of T‑Rex for speed or Diplodocus for scale. She considers it properly and answers with intent. Triceratops, she explains, because of a character she once voiced and because she likes the balance of strength and calm. It’s thoughtful, serious and sets the tone for our talk.
Eagle Eyed Girl
Also known as Eagle Eyed Girl, Jamie lives in mid Wales or ‘the sticks’ as she puts it and has been photographing wildlife since she was six and a half after her dad handed her a camera during a nature walk. She took to it immediately. ‘I just really liked looking properly,’ she says. The obsession developed rapidly, first birds, then insects, then whatever else revealed itself if she stayed still long enough. That idea of waiting and paying attention threads through our conversation.
Nature takes priority. Photography arrived later as a way of seeing more clearly, allowing Jamie to study behaviour and show people things they might otherwise miss. Her photographs are partly evidence. She loves macro photography in particular and how it opens up a hidden world. ‘You can see things you didn’t even know were there,’ she says, describing the hairs on a spider’s leg or the texture of an insect’s eye.
Respecting the animals
That approach goes some way to explaining the maturity of her photography. Jamie moves easily between disciplines, macro one moment, long-lens bird photography the next; and talks fluently about shutter speed, sync speeds, lighting and subject behaviour. She mentions learning a great deal from watching other photographers, mentioning Karl Taylor and Danny Green, whom she has worked alongside, and studying how professionals behave in the field. ‘It’s not just about the picture. It’s how you are around the animals.’
There’s inevitably some camera chat. She currently shoots on a professional Nikon mirrorless setup, paired with a long telephoto for birds and a macro lens she clearly adores. She doesn’t confess to any brand evangelism or gear lust. Perhaps surprisingly, after her extraordinary year, she didn’t get a camera for Christmas. She got a bike. ‘Which I really wanted,’ she adds, glancing at mum and dad, just in case they were unsure.
You can’t hurry bugs
Patience didn’t come naturally at first. Jamie learned that wildlife and bugs don’t respond well to hurry. You have to become, as she quaintly puts it, ‘like a bush,’ still, quiet, non‑threatening. Eventually, animals stop noticing you and their behaviour resumes. That’s when the real photographs happen. Her very real photograph of a red deer stag as it gives a mighty bellow during the autumn rut in Bradgate Park, UK featured on the cover of AP’s 4 November 2025 issue.
The results speak for themselves. Jamie’s images have already been recognised at the top level. She has won or been shortlisted in numerous photography competitions including Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Bird Photographer of the Year, Australian Geographic Photographer of the Year, Close‑Up Photographer of the Year, Travel Photographer of the Year and Crikey! Photography Competition, often competing against older photographers.
I mention seeing her pop-up on a festive episode of TV’s Good Morning Britain. I nearly spat out my bucks fizz. Jamie beams. Her dad nods. Media appearances are now just another thing that happens along with museum ceremonies, international awards and sharing the Green Room with singer Chesney Hawkes or being referred to as the next Sir David Attenborough.
Prestigious
They’ve all neatly slotted themselves into family life alongside her home-schooling. Jamie won the 10 Years and Under category of the prestigious 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition for her photograph of a spider titled ‘The Weaver’s Lair’ (and two other images highly commended).
Inside the Natural History Museum at the awards ceremony, Hintze Hall was already buzzing. What happened next took everyone by surprise. Rather than offer hurried thank-yous, Jamie stepped forward, took a breath and began to read a poem she had written. ‘This competition win means so much to me,’ she began, explaining that Wildlife Photographer of the Year had been a dream since she was very young, well, younger. She spoke about a misty morning, a spider covered in dew, about suddenly realising she was standing beneath the whale in the museum and feeling as if she were part of a fairy tale. There was humour too, praising the organisers for not hosting the ceremony ‘in a tent.’
She thanked the judges, organisers and finally, her parents. ‘Our time spent in nature brings smiles to our souls,’ she said, drawing a line between photography, connection and care. Her message was well judged and generous: show beauty, unite, don’t give up.
Disarmed
When she finished, the hall jumped to a standing ovation, probably the first in the competition’s history. Even seasoned photographers looked momentarily disarmed.
Scrolling through Jamie’s already impressive archive, one image in particular reverberates: ‘Death in Paradise’, a photograph of a dead shark washed up on a beach. It is a difficult picture and avoids being sensational. Jamie talks about it not in terms of drama but responsibility, sparking conversations and inspiring change. ‘People think wildlife photography is always pretty. But sometimes you have to show the hard things too,’ she says.
Responsibility
That sense of responsibility extends beyond the frame. Recently, Jamie became the youngest‑ever Patron of Cuan Wildlife Rescue, joining a roster that includes actor Joanna Lumley. The role isn’t symbolic. She uses her platform to raise awareness, educate and to encourage care over consumption. Awards are the cherry on top, valuable in allowing the message to travel further.
Pressure has no place
Despite the limelight, she remains pragmatic. Miss the shot, and you miss the shot. There will be another animal, another moment, another chance. Pressure, she believes, has no place in photography. ‘If you stop enjoying it, what’s the point?’
It’s tempting to frame Jamie as a prodigy, an oddity or an exception. She counters that by talking about the physical advantages of being a ten-year-old; fitting into hides, being able to kneel longer, seeing from a different height. She talks about play, about roleplay and her VoiceOver work. She has fan mail and a Patreon membership platform. Wildlife fills her bedroom. She hates dolls. Normal, she suggests, is a flexible concept. Perhaps the simplest way to understand Jamie Smart is that she looks carefully, thinks deeply and speaks honestly. The camera is just one of the tools she uses.
As the Zoom call ticks down, I circle back to where we began. ‘My favourite dinosaur is Brontosaurus. I like the long neck,’ I say. Jamie is nonplussed. Preferences change, she says. New information comes along. You adjust your thinking. Photography, wildlife, even Triceratops, it’s all part of the same process. Stay curious, look properly and if you’re lucky, you might get to stand under a whale, feel like you’re in a fairy tale and still make it home in time for a bike ride.
Further reading:
- See the fantastic winners from this prestigious bird photography competition
- See these outstanding images by the world’s most talented young photographers
- Incredible winning photographs revealed by Sony World Photography Awards
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