Amazing images from the Nature Photographer of the Year Awards

Nature's best

The Nature Photographer of the Year awards never fail to impress, and 2024 was no exception. From playful snow leopards and inquisitive guanacos to stunning landscapes and thought-provoking reflections on climate change, these photos highlight the extraordinary talents of professional and amateur photographers across the globe.

 Read on to see our pick of the winning, runner up and highly commended entries…

Curious Guanaco

Charles Janson was hoping to photograph the famous torres (towers) in the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile when a guanaco appeared over the crest of the hill to intrude on the scene. He waited to see if it would leave but it was soon joined by several more.

Realising he wasn’t going to get his perfect landscape shot, Charles decided to see how the animals might complement his composition. After a while, one particularly inquisitive guanaco gave him the perfect image.

A Graceful Flight

Transformed into an insect Tinkerbell by photographer Litauszki Tibor, an adult antlion flits gracefully through the night. Litauszki captured this beautiful shot in the Hungarian steppe in July, the month when antlions begin their mating flight en masse.

He spent 10 evenings with the antlions, taking over 10,000 pictures, but says only around 10 turned out well. This was one of his favourites.

Gone Fishing

Here we see two worlds converging as a small-spotted genet approaches a pond for some refreshment and glimpses a cluster of small carp swimming below the water’s surface. These elusive animals are highly skilled hunters with an eclectic taste that includes fish, frogs, mammals, birds, eggs, reptiles and amphibians.

The multi-award-winning professional wildlife photographer, Hannes Lochner, dedicated a year to achieving his masterful image, which was obtained with the help of a motion sensor.

Disturbing Shadow

In this striking photograph, the winner of the Other Animals category, an alien creature appears to be emerging from its lair. It is in fact a male empusa pennata, a type of praying mantis, pictured just as it has reached adult form in the month of May.

Photographer Sebastien Blomme captured the image close to his home in Toulouse, France as the sun was rising. The soft morning light emphasises the silhouette of the insect with its distinctive feather-like antennae creating an eerie, yet majestic image.

March of the Mussels

Theo Bosboom’s dramatic shot of a bed of mussels on a stretch of the Praia da Ursa beach on the Atlantic west coast of Portugal gained him Runner Up status in the Other Animals category.

“Although mussels are firmly attached to the rocks and don’t move, they reminded me a bit of a marching army, with their shells resembling the shields of soldiers. With a little imagination, you might see a scene straight out of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones,” he says.

Shrinking World

After heavy rain, Wim Vooijs noticed that small pools had formed in the leaves of water lilies in a pond near his hometown of Ede in the Netherlands. While photographing the leaves, a tiny tadpole briefly swam into one of the pools before swiftly rejoining its many siblings.

Although lovely to look at, Wim says that for him the image symbolises the threat of climate change and the shrinking of natural habitats. “The tadpole in its tiny droplet represents the next generation, which will have to cope with the legacy of our actions,” he says.

Black Lava Beach

The winner in the Landscape category is an intriguingly abstract shot of a black lava beach in Iceland taken using a drone during a snowstorm. Photographer Baard Naess likes to play with contrasts and says he was inspired by the white snow against the black lava.

The judges said they appreciated the way in which the photograph “challenges traditional landscape photography by offering a creative exploration of form, texture and contrast.”

Giant Octopus Dofleini

"The giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) stands out strikingly from other octopus species. It is highly intelligent and almost person-like in its behaviour," says Andrey Shpatak, of the subject of his winning photograph in the Underwater category.

Andrey encountered this particular creature in Rudnaya Bay in the Sea of Japan, although the suspicious cephalopod decided to flee after spotting him. Having stayed put, Andrey managed to capture this image, which the judges commended for the way in which it "masterfully captures the raw energy and fluid grace of an octopus in motion."

Amino Acids Mimicking Nature

Winner of the Nature Art category, photographer Dirk Vermaire’s creative process involved growing crystals using amino acids and then scanning them with his camera under cross polarised light in order to find interesting and appealing compositions.

NPOTY jury member Marco Gaiotti described it as “a unique abstract image, distinguished by its vibrant colours and intriguing shapes.”

My Pet Tiger

Aaron Gekoski’s winning entry in the Humans and Nature category depicts Zorro, a tiger cub who lives with his owner in Karachi. It was taken while investigating the exotic pet trade for a documentary he was working on about mankind’s complex relationship with big cats.

Aaron found Zorro to be a timid creature, but notes that when cubs grow too large to be kept at home they are often moved to other facilities for the safety of their owners. “While keeping a big cat as a pet may look ‘cool’ online, in reality, it poses a danger to both people and animals,” he says.

Besties

This adorable picture of two young fox siblings walking side by side won top honours in the Animal Portraits category. Photographer Marcia Walters described how “as they were walking, the tawny male kit threw his tail over the back of the female silver-phase kit. He then gently pulled her towards him using his tail.”

Although Marcia, who has been photographing red foxes for over 13 years, has on rare occasions seen fox cubs playfully flip a tail over another, this seemed different. “It looked to me like an affectionate hug,” she says.

Brace!

This spellbinding image of a starfish taken at Port Waikato, New Zealand won D’Artagnan Sprengel top honours in the Youth 10-17 Years category. Photographing the starfish had proved challenging as waves kept rolling in and submerging them, so D’Artagnan decided to use a slow shutter speed to blur the waves as they came in.

The result won praise from the judges who commented on the eye-catching nature of the composition and the way in which “the chosen exposure time gives the water a soft, silvery texture, like a veil enveloping the scene.”

Taken by a Ghost

This somewhat self-conscious looking ghost crab was snapped with its prey, an unfortunate turtle hatchling, on a beach on Desroches Island in the Seychelles. Photographer Pandora Maund had been hoping to witness and photograph the turtle hatchlings making their way to the sea as the sun rose.

“The hatchlings instinctively wait until the sand cools, indicating nighttime, when there’s less risk of predation. As the sun rises, they use its light to guide them to the sea,” she says. Only around one in every 1,000 hatchlings survive to adulthood and this image sadly helps explain why.

Colourful Seagull

Mathijs Frenken won the Nature of 'De Lage Landen' (the Low Countries) category for his image of a black headed gull swimming on a riotously coloured stretch of canal in Amsterdam. The kaleidoscopic effect is thanks to a colourful billboard reflected on the water's surface.

“Mathijs showcases that beauty can be found not only in the wild places of our planet but also much closer to home, even in the bustling canals of a big city like Amsterdam,” commented jury member Kevin Morgans.

Ocean Dance

The winning image in the Plants and Fungi category transforms a giant kelp forest off the coast of the Californian Channel Islands into an enchanting underwater world. These forests form vibrant marine habitats and are one of the world’s most productive and dynamic ecosystems, however since 2014, marine heatwaves in the region have caused an unprecedented collapse of the forests.

Photographer Junqi Peng, a keen diver, is always captivated by the beauty of kelp formations and their movement underwater. She aims to illustrate the artistic side of these environments while also advocating for their protection and restoration.

Taking Care of the Male

“White-faced hornbills are known for the strong bond between the male and female, which is reinforced through acts of affection. In this particular image, I chose to highlight the female as she gently preens the delicate feathers behind the male’s eyes; a touching act of care and tenderness that reflects the depth of their connection,” says photographer Antonio Liebana Navarro.

The image was captured at a scientific research station in the heart of the Danum Valley in Borneo.

Milky Way

Ismael Domínguez was experimenting with a long exposure while using a flash when a small bat appeared in the frame. Inspired by the bat’s appearance, he set the flash to strobe mode which allowed him to capture it multiple times in a single image, with the Milky Way providing a stunning background.

His innovation saw him awarded Runner Up in the Youth category.

Stinging Elegance

Franco Banfi spotted this stunning, but also stinging, Portuguese man o’ war in the Caribbean sea. It was surrounded by tiny bluebotttle fish who are partly immune to its venom and thus swim among its tentacles to protect themselves from other predators.

Franco carefully approached the man o’ war from below the surface to avoid the tentacles and managed to perfectly frame its elaborate shape. Its almost transparent gas-filled bladder and “colours, ranging from pink, to purple, to violet in total contrast with the clear blue of the marine water, made for a delicate portrait,” he says.

Aeolus

This bizarre yet beautiful creature is known as a hairy frogfish. Photographer Andrea Michelutti captured the image during a night dive near Puerto Galera on Mindoro Island in the Philippines.

Banded Pincer Weed

Although it looks more like a vividly imagined fantasy forest, what we’re actually seeing in this image is banded pincer weed viewed under UV light to reveal its hidden auto-fluorescing structure. The chlorophyll in the pincer weed fluoresces red while dead and dying cells fluoresce yellow and orange.

Unicellular organisms such as diatoms, other algae and bacteria which live in the transparent slime covering the weed, appear as fluorescing red dots.

Emerald Gem

Louis Guillot secured his dream shot of an emerald tree boa with its tongue extended after a gruelling nine-hour trek outside the Tambopata National Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Unfortunately, in the 40 minutes he spent shooting the serpent, he was engulfed by swarms of mosquitoes and received over 150 bites.

Despite the discomfort, he thinks the mosquitoes add a sense of authenticity to the image. They frame his main subject with two hovering in the foreground and another two in the background.

Fallen Angel

The Runner Up image in the Nature Art category shows the Tintillo River in Spain which runs a remarkable shade of red as it flows through an area unusually rich with sulphide ore deposits. Another unique feature of the river is its terraced riverbed formations, known as stromatolites.

“From an aerial perspective these formations reveal striking beauty,” but often leave viewers wondering what they are seeing, says photographer Manuel Enrique González Carmona. The fallen tree which gives the image its name is a stone pine, a species that has managed to survive for many years alongside the river’s extremely acidic waters.

Deer in Golden Light

This dreamlike image of a fallow deer was taken on a misty morning in The Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, a nature reserve in the Netherlands. Photographer Richard Guijt lives nearby and visits frequently to explore its natural beauty.

Richard believes the serene image “encapsulates the tranquil beauty of this special reserve.”

Ghostly Beauty

A giant willow tree and surrounding vegetation is wrapped in webs of white silk created by willow ermine moth caterpillars in this spooky yet beautiful image. The moths and their caterpillars live together in large numbers and the webs protect them from predators, allowing them to feed undisturbed on the leaves underneath.

“The work of the caterpillars is often compared to that of the well-known artist couple Christo, who wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin, countless other buildings and also trees with silk,” says photographer Theo Bosboom.

Love in the Deep

We all need a little love in our lives including, it seems, the European Catfish seen here. The catfish “seemed to be embracing tenderly, and the pile of logs formed a natural frame, creating an image reminiscent of a pair of newlyweds,” says photographer Luca Luigi Mario Ghezzi.

Although oddly charming to look at here, the catfish are actually an invasive and predatory species. In the Lombard region of Italy, where the image was taken, they are having a significant impact on biodiversity, causing the decline of native species and disrupting the ecosystem.

Fogfall at Belchen

Photographer André Schweizer says the Belchen hills near his home in the Swiss Jura region are an excellent place to photograph the fog waves seen wafting across the treetops in this spectacular image. Autumn and winter are generally the best seasons to obtain such magical photographs.

However, ideal weather conditions must be in place for a fog wave to form. “The upper limit of the fog, the temperature and the wind direction are key points,” says André.

Old and Wice Surrounded by Treefield

The ancient pine tree growing amidst a mature pine forest in the North Karelia region of Finland, tells a disturbing tale about climate change in a country experiencing warming significantly faster than the global average. Melting snow at the base of the trees is an indication of Spring arriving earlier with warmer temperatures causing snow to melt quicker, leading to flooding.

Photographer Jarno Artika, Runner Up in the Plants and Fungi category, has been following the transformation of forests for some time. She notes that finding diverse, multi-aged forests is becoming increasingly difficult, yet logging is planned in the very area she photographed.

In Ambush

An image that may well haunt your nightmares, this is the face of a Mediterranean Monkfish found resting on a rocky wall around 49 feet (15m) beneath the surface of the Adriatic Sea near Rabac in Croatia.

“This fish is an ambush predator, perfectly camouflaged with the environment. It uses a fleshy appendage on the first ray of its dorsal fins, which resembles a small fish, to attract its prey,” says photographer Pietro Formis, who took the photo as part of a series on ambush predators.

Rosey Flamingos

During the rainy season in the Rift Valley, flamingos can be seen soaring through the sky. “Their long legs, graceful necks and striking pink feathers create a vivid contrast against the earth, which takes on a rosy hue from the reflections of the sky and water,” says photographer Thomas Vijayan.

Thomas, a globally renowned wildlife photographer, thinks this image “beautifully encapsulates the fleeting elegance of these incredible birds and the ephemeral beauty of their habitat.”

Games Between Siblings

This incredible image of two snow leopards playing together on snowy slopes in the Spiti Valley region of northern India, is the competition’s overall winner. Capturing these elusive animals on camera is what NPOTY Chairman Tin Man Lee calls “the holy grail of wildlife photography.”

Photographer Paolo Della Rocca had to wait over six hours at the edge of a canyon in the midst of a snowstorm, with temperatures dipping to -25°C (-13°F), in order for the animals to emerge from a cave and allow him to capture the image. “Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine photographing such a moment,” he said.

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