8-year-old nominated for Wildlife Photographer of the Year award

An eight-year-old photographer has been nominated for an important award by the Natural History Museum!

Joshua Cox's snap of a deer in snow has been selected for the museum's prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Incredibly, Joshua first snapped the deer when he was just six years old.

He submitted it to the competition and it has since been nominated as a highly commended picture in the 10 years and under category.

Joshua told Newsround; "When I first took [the picture] I thought it was just a normal picture."

But he said he was "excited" when he realised it had been nominated for a prize.

Joshua has been taking pictures since he was three years old

Describing the moment he spotted the deer, Joshua said: "It was very cold and there was a horrible blizzard in the air..."

"I was getting wet gloves!"

But Joshua's patience was rewarded when he spotted a group of deer in London's Richmond Park looking for cover from the storm.

"I needed to focus [the camera] and get it straight so it's not all wobbly," he said.

And thanks to his keen eye, he was able to grab a still of a stag in the snow.

Joshua loves learning about the UK's wildlife

Joshua's dad, Jules, is a keen wildlife photographer.

Jules has been taking Joshua out on lots of photography trips from the moment he received his very first toy camera at just three years old.

Their first project together was photographing fox cubs.

The father-son duo have visited all four corners of the UK to document Britain's wildlife.

Most recently Joshua has been to the Skomer Islands in Wales to photograph puffins, and went camping in Norfolk to observe knot waders.

He loves photographing birds and watching the shapes they make in the sky

Joshua says that knot waders are some of his favourite animals to photograph, because they make "amazing shapes".

Jules has also encouraged Joshua to learn more about and take photographs of some of the UK's endangered wildlife species, including stag beetles.

In the future Joshua says he may like to work with nature - but for now he's enjoying learning how to take pictures alongside his dad.

You can check out some of the other nominated pictures for this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year here.

He's managed to take pictures of some of the UK's most rare and endangered species, including this snap of two stag beetles