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Competition Winners
Judges
Exhibit and Press
Beyond the Competition

2021
Winning Image Locations

Where in the world were these photographs taken?

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 1/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍The seasonal fishing village of Klukshu, a site which the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations people have used and shared with grizzlies for hundreds of generations.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 2/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍An ice bear known to the locals as “The Mayor”— because he is the dominant male in the area—uses a fallen tree to cross Klukshu Creek.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 3/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍The bears often hunt at night when the fish can’t see them, but the bears can sniff out the salmon spawning beds.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 4/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
A small grizzly who ventures out in the less ideal daytime (to avoid bigger bears) is rewarded with a freshly caught salmon.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 5/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍“The Mayor”—recognizable by his large size and unique blonde claws—finishes a salmon meal near the photographer’s remote camera.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 6/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍Late December under the Northern lights, after the fish are finished, the bears move to the high mountains to dig their snow dens and begin hibernation.
Yukon Territory, Canada

Terrestrial Wildlife WINNER

‍Michelle Valberg | Gloucester, Canada

Boss

Great Bear Rainforest, Canada
This spirit bear, one of only a few hundred white bears in this subspecies of black bears in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia, is known by the name “Boss.” After lowering his head into the river in search of salmon roe, he pulled his head up and shook, droplets spiraling around his head, looked at the photographer for a split second, and then plunged back into the water for his meal.
Great Bear Rainforest, Canada

winged life WINNER

‍Shane Kalyn | Vancouver, Canada

Beak to Beak

Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Canada
After preening each other's feathers, the ravens took turns inspecting every nook and cranny in each other's beaks—talking to one another throughout the process. In three winters of observing the gift-sharing, grooming, and singing courtship behaviors of ravens on the mountain, the photographer had never witnessed anything like this.
Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Canada
Monterey, United States
Monterey, United States

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Joseph Platko | Marina, United States

Jelly Smack

Monterey, United States
This smack of jellyfish was one of the largest and densest the photographer had ever encountered. To get this photo without disturbing them, the photographer freedove and took advantage of unusually clear waters devoid of summer algal blooms—which typically coincide with the invasion of Monterey Bay by Pacific sea nettles.

Human/Nature Winner

‍Ralph Pace | Pacific Grove, United States

Sign of the Tides

Monterey, United States
In this perfectly composed photograph, a discarded face mask in the shape of a sea turtle attracts a notoriously curious California sea lion. Shot in November 2020, this was the first time the photographer saw a mask underwater, but unfortunately he has seen many since. The effects of the pandemic will likely linger on our oceans for years to come.

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Andrew Whitworth | Puerto Jiménez, Costa Rica

Why Did The Sloth Cross the Road?

Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
Getting to the other side of a vehicular road is a challenge, especially for a slow-moving sloth. Due to speed up is the movement to create arboreal bridges for animal crossings in biodiversity hotspots like Osa. Here, amidst stormy conditions, this beautiful moss-covered, three-toed sloth survived.
Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Petr Bambousek | Pribram, Czech Republic

Running Atta

Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Leafcutter ants (genus Atta) carry leaves and other plant parts to nourish the fungus gardens in their underground nests—which they harvest to feed themselves and their young. The dance-like movement is highlighted by skillful exposure techniques on the ant delivering its unusually colored leaf.
Boca Tapada, Costa Rica

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Patrick Webster | Pacific Grove, United States

Fight of a Light-time in the Kelp Cathedral

Carmel Bay State Marine Conservation Area, United States
The bull kelp streams towards the rays of sun that penetrate the kelp forest in a unique convergence of kelp species in Monterey on a rare sunny day. This thriving scene may also become increasingly rare as the kelp is being decimated by sea urchins whose population is no longer being held in check by their predators—due to sea star wasting syndrome.
Carmel Bay State Marine Conservation Area, United States

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Mac Stone | Greenville, United States

Come High Water

Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, United States
"Come hell or high water" is a common southeastern saying that implies perseverance in the face of difficulties. This mother raccoon appears to be rescuing her baby from a flooded nest after a heavy rain in late October, in one of the handful of remaining old growth swamps in the southeastern United States.
Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, United States

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

‍Nick Kanakis | Dallas, United States

Snared

Brunswick County, United States
In this macro shot, the detailed structure of the Venus flytrap is beautifully apparent, as is its technique—with a captured hoverfly. This plant species is endemic to a small stretch of wet longleaf pine habitat in the sandhills and coastal plains of the Carolinas.
Brunswick County, United States

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

FoxFence

Whitehorse, Canada
A fox kit at its den in downtown Whitehorse, surrounded by other playful fox kits, photographed using a flash and patience. Urban foxes often den in fenced off areas, where they can quickly escape from coyotes and dogs.
Whitehorse, Canada

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Ami Vitale | MIssoula, United States

A Daring Rescue

Ruko Community Conservancy, Kenya
Eight Rothschild giraffes were marooned as rising lake waters in Lake Baringo turned a rocky lava pinnacle into an island. During the ambitious rescue, the giraffes were hooded and transported on a makeshift raft across the lake to Ruko Community Conservancy. Saving the animals on an allegorical ark illustrates the extreme efforts required to keep endangered species alive.
Ruko Community Conservancy, Kenya

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

‍Anette Mossbacher | Bergdietikon, Switzerland

Tree of Life

Ruacana Falls, Namibia
Light from the quickly setting sun highlights this cliff-dwelling baobab tree as shadows move up the valley. The waterfall is a surprising backdrop for this ancient tree, which has adapted to extremely arid conditions.
Ruacana Falls, Namibia

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Keding Zhu | Shanghai, China

Fly Underwater

Port Saint Johns, South Africa
Every August, millions of sardines migrate north along the South African coastline, and are herded by dolphins into bait balls to become mouthfuls of prey. As the fish try to escape to the surface, cape gannets dive bomb into the water to feed—the air released from their feathers creating dense trails of bubbles.
Port Saint Johns, South Africa

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Yang Jiao | London, Canada

Flamingo Flying Over Lake Magadi

Magadi, Kenya
These greater flamingos were photographed from a helicopter over Lake Magadi, a salt lake in the Great Rift Valley of southern Kenya whose mineral deposits reflect light in ever-changing patterns.
Magadi, Kenya

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Jaime Rojo | Seville, Spain

Dolphin’s Hug

Puerto Nariño, Colombia
To document the first-ever tagging event of an Amazon River Dolphin, the photographer joined the scientific team on a weeklong pursuit. After six days in pouring rain, they found one—and en route to the veterinary station for tagging, a concerned team member soothes the dolphin.
Puerto Nariño, Colombia

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Nicolas Reusens | Barcelona, Spain

Ropewalker

Papallacta, Ecuador
After six days of shooting, the photographer caught a speckled hummingbird balancing on the beak of a sword-billed hummingbird—a behavior that he had not previously seen in ten years of observing hummingbirds. This stunning feat was his most extraordinary photographic moment.
Papallacta, Ecuador

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

‍Jo-Anne McArthur | Toronto, Canada

Hope in a Burned Plantation

Mallacoota, Australia
‍Iconic Australia is captured in this particular moment as a resilient kangaroo pauses in a burned eucalyptus plantation. Nearly three billion animals perished or were displaced in the cataclysmic Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020. This eastern grey kangaroo and her joey represent the lucky survivors, escaping from an area that had been transformed by humans for farming and then devastated by fire.
Mallacoota, Australia

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Justin Gilligan | Lord Howe Island, Australia

Ghost Fungi

Lord Howe Island, Australia
Ghost fungi grow in wet forests of endemic kentia palms in the southern mountains on this tiny volcanic island. At night, the luminescence attracts snails and slugs, which might eat the fungus or brush against it and carry the spores elsewhere.
Lord Howe Island,
Australia

Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora WINNER

‍Fran Rubia | Roquetas de Mar, Spain

Another Planet

Fjallabak Nature Reserve, Iceland
What looked to be mountains from the ground turned out to be extinct volcanoes as captured by this drone shot taken on a cloudy day in June, at the time of the midnight sun. The unusual perspective of an inhospitable landscape stained by traces of iron oxide creates an otherworldly atmosphere.
Fjallabak Nature Reserve, Iceland
Doupov Mountains, Czech Republic

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Vladimir Cech Jr. | Horšovský Týn, Czech Republic

Felis Silvestris

Doupov Mountains, Czech Republic
The European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) is rare, elusive, and difficult to photograph. After studying the area for several months, the photographer caught this image with a homemade DSLR camera trap, built in his photo studio in the forest.
Höfn, Iceland

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Manuel Ismael Gómez | Almería, Spain

The Sands of Time

Höfn, Iceland
Near the tongue of a glacier, several days of snow and ice had melted into puddles over very fine sand. The slow drainage of meltwater filtering through different levels of sand created fractal configurations similar to the flow of meltwater creating rivers over mountain terrain. But here it's on a surprisingly small scale: only 2–3 square yards.
Midlands, Ireland

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Jen Guyton | Mainz, Germany

Snipe Hawking

Midlands, Ireland
After the Irish red setter locates a snipe in the bog and points out its position, the unhooded peregrine falcon circles at the ready until the dog flushes the bird out of hiding. This form of falconry is a use of endangered Irish peat bogs that is more sustainable than the destruction wrought by harvesting peat for fuel, though hunting is a complicated approach to conservation.
Mar Menor, Spain

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Angel Fitor | Alicante, Spain

Vortex

Mar Menor, Spain
This unusual perspective of a barrel jellyfish—looking up through the tentacles and into the mouth, may be as close as we get to the fish-eye view as it is about to be eaten.
Ameland, Netherlands

WINGED LIFE Finalist

Anja Brouwer | Ameland, Netherlands

Red Knots, Red Knots and More Red Knots...

Ameland, Netherlands
Thousands of red knots were packed together in a high-tide refuge on the edge of the Wadden Sea, one of the most important stops along their migration route. The photographer captured the moment after a young peregrine falcon came to hunt and the sandpipers took to the air en masse.
Naples, Italy

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Guido Villani | Pozzuoli, Italy

Mon Cheri

Naples, Italy
After a light storm drew a swarm of jellyfish and released a sizable amount of litter into the port of Bacoli, this mauve stinger carried off a discarded plastic chocolate wrapper in its tentacles. These beautiful little jellyfish, which phosphoresce when disturbed, are much feared for their painful stings.
Springe, Germany

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Peter Juzak | Springe, Germany

The Beauty Hidden by Malic Acid

Springe, Germany
This unique moment was captured during the crystallization of malic acid, an organic compound that makes fruit sour. The malic acid, sprinkled on a slide, melted on a hotplate, and then cooled, was photographed under a microscope with polarized light. The fantastic patterns continually change as the crystallization progresses.
Kremyonki, Russia

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Alexey Korolyov | Protvino, Russia

Little Comets

Kremyonki, Russia
Snowflakes become comets flying through the air, and the dark trunks of birch trees sway lightly in the twilight of this painterly image. The enchanting illusion was achieved by combining an on-camera flash, high aperture, and intentional camera movement.
Skjervøy, Norway

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Andy Schmid | Kleindöttingen, Switzerland

Orcas Under the Arctic Sun

Skjervøy, Norway
‍Drawn to the fjord in search of herring that shelter from the open ocean each winter, this curious but protective orca mother allowed the photographer to swim nearby during the single hour that the sun shines through the fjord and into the water in mid-November.
Svalbard, Norway
Svalbard, Norway

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Florian Ledoux | Tromsø, Norway

Melting Ice Cap

Svalbard, Norway
This drone shot reveals the alarming rate at which the Austfonna ice cap is melting due to climate change. A few weeks before this photo was taken in the summer of 2020, the temperature in Svalbard reached almost 70º Fahrenheit—its hottest day on record.

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Marek Jackowski | Poznań, Poland

Treasure on Ice

Svalbard, Norway
‍As the disappearance of sea ice due to climate change becomes more evident, polar bears are rapidly losing their habitat. At dusk, this lucky male settled down on a small iceberg—a refuge for the night.
Cerknica, Slovenia

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

Petra Draškovič Pelc | Kočevska Reka, Slovenia

Frozen

Cerknica, Slovenia
Lake Cerknica, the largest lake in Slovenia when full, disappears entirely during the dry season, which is typical of karst lakes (formed when caves collapse). As the lake begins to melt and ice skating gives way to hay mowing, the macro scale is revealed only by small bubbles in the ice.
Stokksnes Beach, Iceland

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Ivan Pedretti | Cagliari, Italy

Difference

Stokksnes Beach, Iceland
A colorless Iceland sky over the snow-covered Vestrahorn mountain helped create a startling contrast to the black sand and dry yellow grass of Stokksnes Beach.

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Mike Korostelev | Moscow, Russia

Private Moment of Milk Feeding

Indian Ocean
‍A pod of sperm whales tolerated the photographer’s proximity long enough for him to catch one of the mothers nursing her baby, almost at the water’s surface. Not so easy to hold your breath and drink at the same time—for the baby whale, that is.
Indian Ocean

Art of nature winner

‍Sarang Naik | Mumbai, India

The Goblet of Fire

Toplepada, India
This mushroom, illuminated by a simple flashlight, was one of many fungi growing around the photographer’s house in the countryside. During the monsoon season, the mushrooms released thick, yellow-brown spores throughout the day for almost a month—a common but often ignored phenomenon.
Toplepada, India
Judean Foothills, Israel

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Ayala Fishaimer | Gane Tal, Israel

Tough Negotiation

Judean Foothills, Israel
An Arabian red fox cub emerging from its den sniffed a shrew out of the sand and began playing with it. For a brief moment, the hapless shrew appeared to be asking the fox to spare its life.
Corbett National Park, India

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

Jagdeep Rajput | Delhi, India

Jumbo Roadblock

Corbett National Park, India
This herd of Asian elephants had just arrived from an adjoining national park. Demonstrating both their right of way and their social behavior, the elephants marched slowly in formation, creating a protective front row that kept the young ones safe in the middle.

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

The Man of the Jungle 3

Borneo, Indonesia
Thomas Vijayan | Ontario, Canada

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Ashane Marasinghe | Kadawatha, Sri Lanka

Orange Tint

Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan junglefowl, the national bird of Sri Lanka, is a flightless bird with colorful feathers whose ancestor is closely related to domestic chickens. Not to be upstaged, the blood-sucking batfly has evolved to maneuver through such feathers.
Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Lung-Tsai Wang | Taichung City, Taiwan

Microspur1

Unspecified mountains, Taiwan
The birth of dozens of lynx spiders is followed by two days of cannibalism until only one spider remains. This mesmerizing spectacle of the ultimate sibling rivalry can be observed annually in the mountains of Taiwan.
Unspecified mountains, Taiwan
Inawashiro, Japan

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

‍Kazuaki Koseki | Yamagata, Japan

Beautiful Water

Inawashiro, Japan
Ten years ago, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck the Pacific coast and triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The photographer took this photo in Fukushima Prefecture, an inland area now covered with virgin forest.

Aquatic Life WINNER

‍Yung-Sen Wu | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Barracuda

Koror, Palau
‍The photographer swam with this battery of barracuda in the Blue Corner for four days, looking for the perfect angle. At the end of a 50-minute dive on his fifth day, the fish allowed him to swim among them as part of the school and he captured this fisheye view. On the sixth day, he joined the fish without his camera.
Koror, Palau
Nicosia, Cyprus

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Kurt Bertels | Nicosia, Cyprus

Stages of Life

Nicosia, Cyprus
This camera trap image caught three young barn owls as they practiced flying from the top of an ancient well—while their parents were out catching rodents.

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Cristina Mittermeier | Nanoose Bay, Canada

Crabeater Ice Palace

Antarctic Peninsula
‍Crabeater seals lounged on an Antarctic iceberg as the photographer passed by on an inflatable boat. This expedition photograph was created as an argument for the protection of the Antarctic Peninsula—where billions of tons of sea ice have been lost—as the largest sanctuary on Earth.
Antarctic Peninsula

Aquatic Life Finalist

Amos Nachoum | Pacific Grove, United States

Facing Reality

Pleneau Island, Antarctic Peninsula
The young gentoo penguin jumped into the lagoon to play during low tide, and was ambushed by the leopard seal, which had been lying in wait.
Pleneau Island, Antarctic Peninsula

Select a continent

North America

Yukon Territory, Canada

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 1/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍The seasonal fishing village of Klukshu, a site which the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations people have used and shared with grizzlies for hundreds of generations.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 2/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍An ice bear known to the locals as “The Mayor”— because he is the dominant male in the area—uses a fallen tree to cross Klukshu Creek.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 3/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍The bears often hunt at night when the fish can’t see them, but the bears can sniff out the salmon spawning beds.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 4/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
A small grizzly who ventures out in the less ideal daytime (to avoid bigger bears) is rewarded with a freshly caught salmon.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 5/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍“The Mayor”—recognizable by his large size and unique blonde claws—finishes a salmon meal near the photographer’s remote camera.

PHOTO STORY: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

‍Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

Klukshu Ice Bears 6/6

Yukon Territory, Canada
‍Late December under the Northern lights, after the fish are finished, the bears move to the high mountains to dig their snow dens and begin hibernation.
Great Bear Rainforest, Canada

Terrestrial Wildlife WINNER

‍Michelle Valberg | Gloucester, Canada

Boss

Great Bear Rainforest, Canada
This spirit bear, one of only a few hundred white bears in this subspecies of black bears in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia, is known by the name “Boss.” After lowering his head into the river in search of salmon roe, he pulled his head up and shook, droplets spiraling around his head, looked at the photographer for a split second, and then plunged back into the water for his meal.
Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Canada

winged life WINNER

‍Shane Kalyn | Vancouver, Canada

Beak to Beak

Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Canada
After preening each other's feathers, the ravens took turns inspecting every nook and cranny in each other's beaks—talking to one another throughout the process. In three winters of observing the gift-sharing, grooming, and singing courtship behaviors of ravens on the mountain, the photographer had never witnessed anything like this.
Monterey, United States

Human/Nature Winner

‍Ralph Pace | Pacific Grove, United States

Sign of the Tides

Monterey, United States
In this perfectly composed photograph, a discarded face mask in the shape of a sea turtle attracts a notoriously curious California sea lion. Shot in November 2020, this was the first time the photographer saw a mask underwater, but unfortunately he has seen many since. The effects of the pandemic will likely linger on our oceans for years to come.
Monterey, United States

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Joseph Platko | Marina, United States

Jelly Smack

Monterey, United States
This smack of jellyfish was one of the largest and densest the photographer had ever encountered. To get this photo without disturbing them, the photographer freedove and took advantage of unusually clear waters devoid of summer algal blooms—which typically coincide with the invasion of Monterey Bay by Pacific sea nettles.
Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Andrew Whitworth | Puerto Jiménez, Costa Rica

Why Did The Sloth Cross the Road?

Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
Getting to the other side of a vehicular road is a challenge, especially for a slow-moving sloth. Due to speed up is the movement to create arboreal bridges for animal crossings in biodiversity hotspots like Osa. Here, amidst stormy conditions, this beautiful moss-covered, three-toed sloth survived.
Boca Tapada, Costa Rica

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Petr Bambousek | Pribram, Czech Republic

Running Atta

Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Leafcutter ants (genus Atta) carry leaves and other plant parts to nourish the fungus gardens in their underground nests—which they harvest to feed themselves and their young. The dance-like movement is highlighted by skillful exposure techniques on the ant delivering its unusually colored leaf.
Carmel Bay State Marine Conservation Area, United States

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Patrick Webster | Pacific Grove, United States

Fight of a Light-time in the Kelp Cathedral

Carmel Bay State Marine Conservation Area, United States
The bull kelp streams towards the rays of sun that penetrate the kelp forest in a unique convergence of kelp species in Monterey on a rare sunny day. This thriving scene may also become increasingly rare as the kelp is being decimated by sea urchins whose population is no longer being held in check by their predators—due to sea star wasting syndrome.
Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, United States

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Mac Stone | Greenville, United States

Come High Water

Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, United States
"Come hell or high water" is a common southeastern saying that implies perseverance in the face of difficulties. This mother raccoon appears to be rescuing her baby from a flooded nest after a heavy rain in late October, in one of the handful of remaining old growth swamps in the southeastern United States.
Brunswick County, United States

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Lilies in the Sun

Cenote Aktun Ha, Mexico
Henley Spiers | Exeter, England

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

‍Nick Kanakis | Dallas, United States

Snared

Brunswick County, United States
In this macro shot, the detailed structure of the Venus flytrap is beautifully apparent, as is its technique—with a captured hoverfly. This plant species is endemic to a small stretch of wet longleaf pine habitat in the sandhills and coastal plains of the Carolinas.
Whitehorse, Canada

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Lilies in the Sun

Cenote Aktun Ha, Mexico
Henley Spiers | Exeter, England

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Peter Mather | Whitehorse, Canada

FoxFence

Whitehorse, Canada
A fox kit at its den in downtown Whitehorse, surrounded by other playful fox kits, photographed using a flash and patience. Urban foxes often den in fenced off areas, where they can quickly escape from coyotes and dogs.

Africa

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Ami Vitale | MIssoula, United States

A Daring Rescue

Ruko Community Conservancy, Kenya
Eight Rothschild giraffes were marooned as rising lake waters in Lake Baringo turned a rocky lava pinnacle into an island. During the ambitious rescue, the giraffes were hooded and transported on a makeshift raft across the lake to Ruko Community Conservancy. Saving the animals on an allegorical ark illustrates the extreme efforts required to keep endangered species alive.
Ruko Community Conservancy, Kenya

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

‍Anette Mossbacher | Bergdietikon, Switzerland

Tree of Life

Ruacana Falls, Namibia
Light from the quickly setting sun highlights this cliff-dwelling baobab tree as shadows move up the valley. The waterfall is a surprising backdrop for this ancient tree, which has adapted to extremely arid conditions.
Ruacana Falls, Namibia

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Keding Zhu | Shanghai, China

Fly Underwater

Port Saint Johns, South Africa
Every August, millions of sardines migrate north along the South African coastline, and are herded by dolphins into bait balls to become mouthfuls of prey. As the fish try to escape to the surface, cape gannets dive bomb into the water to feed—the air released from their feathers creating dense trails of bubbles.
Port Saint Johns, South Africa

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Yang Jiao | London, Canada

Flamingo Flying Over Lake Magadi

Magadi, Kenya
These greater flamingos were photographed from a helicopter over Lake Magadi, a salt lake in the Great Rift Valley of southern Kenya whose mineral deposits reflect light in ever-changing patterns.
Magadi, Kenya

South America

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Jaime Rojo | Seville, Spain

Dolphin’s Hug

Puerto Nariño, Colombia
To document the first-ever tagging event of an Amazon River Dolphin, the photographer joined the scientific team on a weeklong pursuit. After six days in pouring rain, they found one—and en route to the veterinary station for tagging, a concerned team member soothes the dolphin.
Puerto Nariño, Colombia

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Nicolas Reusens | Barcelona, Spain

Ropewalker

Papallacta, Ecuador
After six days of shooting, the photographer caught a speckled hummingbird balancing on the beak of a sword-billed hummingbird—a behavior that he had not previously seen in ten years of observing hummingbirds. This stunning feat was his most extraordinary photographic moment.
Papallacta, Ecuador

Australia

Aquatic Life Finalist

A Friendly Ride

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia
Paula Vianna | Brasília, Brazil
Mallacoota, Australia

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

‍Jo-Anne McArthur | Toronto, Canada

Hope in a Burned Plantation

Mallacoota, Australia
‍Iconic Australia is captured in this particular moment as a resilient kangaroo pauses in a burned eucalyptus plantation. Nearly three billion animals perished or were displaced in the cataclysmic Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020. This eastern grey kangaroo and her joey represent the lucky survivors, escaping from an area that had been transformed by humans for farming and then devastated by fire.

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

A Koala’s Eye View

Gelantipy, Australia
Doug Gimesy | Brighton, Australia

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Justin Gilligan | Lord Howe Island, Australia

Ghost Fungi

Lord Howe Island, Australia
Ghost fungi grow in wet forests of endemic kentia palms in the southern mountains on this tiny volcanic island. At night, the luminescence attracts snails and slugs, which might eat the fungus or brush against it and carry the spores elsewhere.
Lord Howe Island,
Australia

Asia

Art of nature winner

‍Sarang Naik | Mumbai, India

The Goblet of Fire

Toplepada, India
This mushroom, illuminated by a simple flashlight, was one of many fungi growing around the photographer’s house in the countryside. During the monsoon season, the mushrooms released thick, yellow-brown spores throughout the day for almost a month—a common but often ignored phenomenon.
Toplepada, India

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Kurt Bertels | Nicosia, Cyprus

Stages of Life

Nicosia, Cyprus
This camera trap image caught three young barn owls as they practiced flying from the top of an ancient well—while their parents were out catching rodents.
Koror, Palau

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Ayala Fishaimer | Gane Tal, Israel

Tough Negotiation

Judean Foothills, Israel
An Arabian red fox cub emerging from its den sniffed a shrew out of the sand and began playing with it. For a brief moment, the hapless shrew appeared to be asking the fox to spare its life.
Judean Foothills, Israel

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

Jagdeep Rajput | Delhi, India

Jumbo Roadblock

Corbett National Park, India
This herd of Asian elephants had just arrived from an adjoining national park. Demonstrating both their right of way and their social behavior, the elephants marched slowly in formation, creating a protective front row that kept the young ones safe in the middle.
Corbett National Park, India

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

The Man of the Jungle 3

Borneo, Indonesia
Thomas Vijayan | Ontario, Canada

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Ashane Marasinghe | Kadawatha, Sri Lanka

Orange Tint

Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan junglefowl, the national bird of Sri Lanka, is a flightless bird with colorful feathers whose ancestor is closely related to domestic chickens. Not to be upstaged, the blood-sucking batfly has evolved to maneuver through such feathers.
Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

‍Kazuaki Koseki | Yamagata, Japan

Beautiful Water

Inawashiro, Japan
Ten years ago, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck the Pacific coast and triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The photographer took this photo in Fukushima Prefecture, an inland area now covered with virgin forest.
Inawashiro, Japan

WINGED LIFE Finalist

‍Kurt Bertels | Nicosia, Cyprus

Stages of Life

Nicosia, Cyprus
This camera trap image caught three young barn owls as they practiced flying from the top of an ancient well—while their parents were out catching rodents.
Nicosia, Cyprus

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Lung-Tsai Wang | Taichung City, Taiwan

Microspur1

Unspecified mountains, Taiwan
The birth of dozens of lynx spiders is followed by two days of cannibalism until only one spider remains. This mesmerizing spectacle of the ultimate sibling rivalry can be observed annually in the mountains of Taiwan.
Unspecified mountains, Taiwan

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Mike Korostelev | Moscow, Russia

Private Moment of Milk Feeding

Indian Ocean
‍A pod of sperm whales tolerated the photographer’s proximity long enough for him to catch one of the mothers nursing her baby, almost at the water’s surface. Not so easy to hold your breath and drink at the same time—for the baby whale, that is.
Indian Ocean

Europe

Fjallabak Nature Reserve, Iceland

Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora WINNER

‍Fran Rubia | Roquetas de Mar, Spain

Another Planet

Fjallabak Nature Reserve, Iceland
What looked to be mountains from the ground turned out to be extinct volcanoes as captured by this drone shot taken on a cloudy day in June, at the time of the midnight sun. The unusual perspective of an inhospitable landscape stained by traces of iron oxide creates an otherworldly atmosphere.

Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora WINNER

‍Fran Rubia | Roquetas de Mar, Spain

Another Planet

Fjallabak Nature Reserve, Iceland
What looked to be mountains from the ground turned out to be extinct volcanoes as captured by this drone shot taken on a cloudy day in June, at the time of the midnight sun. The unusual perspective of an inhospitable landscape stained by traces of iron oxide creates an otherworldly atmosphere.
Doupov Mountains, Czech Republic

TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE Finalist

‍Vladimir Cech Jr. | Horšovský Týn, Czech Republic

Felis Silvestris

Doupov Mountains, Czech Republic
The European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) is rare, elusive, and difficult to photograph. After studying the area for several months, the photographer caught this image with a homemade DSLR camera trap, built in his photo studio in the forest.
Höfn, Iceland

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Manuel Ismael Gómez | Almería, Spain

The Sands of Time

Höfn, Iceland
Near the tongue of a glacier, several days of snow and ice had melted into puddles over very fine sand. The slow drainage of meltwater filtering through different levels of sand created fractal configurations similar to the flow of meltwater creating rivers over mountain terrain. But here it's on a surprisingly small scale: only 2–3 square yards.
Midlands, Ireland

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Jen Guyton | Mainz, Germany

Snipe Hawking

Midlands, Ireland
After the Irish red setter locates a snipe in the bog and points out its position, the unhooded peregrine falcon circles at the ready until the dog flushes the bird out of hiding. This form of falconry is a use of endangered Irish peat bogs that is more sustainable than the destruction wrought by harvesting peat for fuel, though hunting is a complicated approach to conservation.
Mar Menor, Spain

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Angel Fitor | Alicante, Spain

Vortex

Mar Menor, Spain
This unusual perspective of a barrel jellyfish—looking up through the tentacles and into the mouth, may be as close as we get to the fish-eye view as it is about to be eaten.

WINGED LIFE Finalist

Anja Brouwer | Ameland, Netherlands

Red Knots, Red Knots and More Red Knots...

Ameland, Netherlands
Thousands of red knots were packed together in a high-tide refuge on the edge of the Wadden Sea, one of the most important stops along their migration route. The photographer captured the moment after a young peregrine falcon came to hunt and the sandpipers took to the air en masse.
Ameland, Netherlands

HUMAN/NATURE FINALIST

Guido Villani | Pozzuoli, Italy

Mon Cheri

Naples, Italy
After a light storm drew a swarm of jellyfish and released a sizable amount of litter into the port of Bacoli, this mauve stinger carried off a discarded plastic chocolate wrapper in its tentacles. These beautiful little jellyfish, which phosphoresce when disturbed, are much feared for their painful stings.
Naples, Italy

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Peter Juzak | Springe, Germany

The Beauty Hidden by Malic Acid

Springe, Germany
This unique moment was captured during the crystallization of malic acid, an organic compound that makes fruit sour. The malic acid, sprinkled on a slide, melted on a hotplate, and then cooled, was photographed under a microscope with polarized light. The fantastic patterns continually change as the crystallization progresses.
Springe, Germany

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Alexey Korolyov | Protvino, Russia

Little Comets

Kremyonki, Russia
Snowflakes become comets flying through the air, and the dark trunks of birch trees sway lightly in the twilight of this painterly image. The enchanting illusion was achieved by combining an on-camera flash, high aperture, and intentional camera movement.
Kremyonki, Russia

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Andy Schmid | Kleindöttingen, Switzerland

Orcas Under the Arctic Sun

Skjervøy, Norway
‍Drawn to the fjord in search of herring that shelter from the open ocean each winter, this curious but protective orca mother allowed the photographer to swim nearby during the single hour that the sun shines through the fjord and into the water in mid-November.
Skjervøy, Norway

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

‍Florian Ledoux | Tromsø, Norway

Melting Ice Cap

Svalbard, Norway
This drone shot reveals the alarming rate at which the Austfonna ice cap is melting due to climate change. A few weeks before this photo was taken in the summer of 2020, the temperature in Svalbard reached almost 70º Fahrenheit—its hottest day on record.
Svalbard, Norway

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Marek Jackowski | Poznań, Poland

Treasure on Ice

Svalbard, Norway
‍As the disappearance of sea ice due to climate change becomes more evident, polar bears are rapidly losing their habitat. At dusk, this lucky male settled down on a small iceberg—a refuge for the night.
Svalbard, Norway

ART OF NATURE FINALIST

Petra Draškovič Pelc | Kočevska Reka, Slovenia

Frozen

Cerknica, Slovenia
Lake Cerknica, the largest lake in Slovenia when full, disappears entirely during the dry season, which is typical of karst lakes (formed when caves collapse). As the lake begins to melt and ice skating gives way to hay mowing, the macro scale is revealed only by small bubbles in the ice.
Cerknica, Slovenia

LANDSCAPES, WATERSCAPES, AND FLORA FINALIST

Ivan Pedretti | Cagliari, Italy

Difference

Stokksnes Beach, Iceland
A colorless Iceland sky over the snow-covered Vestrahorn mountain helped create a startling contrast to the black sand and dry yellow grass of Stokksnes Beach.
Stokksnes Beach, Iceland

Antarctica

Aquatic Life Finalist

‍Cristina Mittermeier | Nanoose Bay, Canada

Crabeater Ice Palace

Antarctic Peninsula
‍Crabeater seals lounged on an Antarctic iceberg as the photographer passed by on an inflatable boat. This expedition photograph was created as an argument for the protection of the Antarctic Peninsula—where billions of tons of sea ice have been lost—as the largest sanctuary on Earth.
Antarctic Peninsula

Aquatic Life Finalist

Amos Nachoum | Pacific Grove, United States

Facing Reality

Pleneau Island, Antarctic Peninsula
The young gentoo penguin jumped into the lagoon to play during low tide, and was ambushed by the leopard seal, which had been lying in wait.
Pleneau Island, Antarctic Peninsula