The Big Picture 2022 Photography Awards: 30 Winning Images And Finalists Capturing The Rich Diversity Of Life On Earth

These images originally appeared in bioGraphic, an independent magazine about nature and conservation powered by the California Academy of Sciences, and media partner of the BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition. 

Check out previous articles on Bored Panda showcasing the winners and finalists from years 2021 and 2020. 

The BigPicture Photography Competition 2022 has announced 49 winning images and finalists in the categories "Aquatic Life", "Terrestrial Wildlife", "Winged Life", "Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora", "Art of Nature", "Human and Nature" and the final one - "Photo Story: Taking Action", which focuses on images - or the stories behind them - that show the power of participation on behalf of communities as we adapt and strive towards a healthier planet. As described by the bioGraphic "each photo, in its own way, inspires viewers to protect and conserve the remarkable diversity of life on Earth."

The competition received 7001 images. Grand Prize is $5000 and each of the First Place winners in the seven categories receives $1000.

The winner of the Grand Prize is Karine Aigner with her photograph "Bee Balling". She is an award-winning photojournalist from Washington, the United States raised in Saudi Arabia. As mentioned on the BigPicture website, "Karine has traveled extensively to places like Taiwan, Africa, and the Galapagos in the pursuit of photography. Amidst her travels, she served as the Senior Picture Editor for National Geographic for nine years. Now, Karine’s an associate fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers and a member of Girls Who Click."

The Winner in the category "Aquatic Life" is David Slater with his photograph "Sea Lion Fall". Bence Mate's "Spider Web" received 1st place in the category "Terrestrial Wildlife". Winners of the categories "Winged Life", "Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora", "Art of Nature", "Human and Nature" and "Photo Story: Taking Action" go as follows: Sitaram Raul, Tom St. George, Pål Hermansen, Bence Mate and Nayan Khanolkar.

Bored Panda got in touch with Rhonda Rubinstein, the creative director and a co-founder of BigPicture to get to know more about the competition. According to her, this year's submissions seemed to reflect the darkness of our times. "Great photos often depict the natural cycles of life or the dramatic capture of prey—which was formerly another living animal, but this year felt different. Just beneath the beautiful surface of these photos, we could plainly see the biodiversity crisis and the human toll on the rest of the natural world. But just to keep it interesting, amidst all this death, the Grand Prize winner went in the opposite direction, with a rarely seen, phenomenal display of sex!"

Rhonda shared that each photograph is judged on originality (unique perspectives, rarely captured moments), overall impact (evokes the diversity of life, inspires conservation, tells a cohesive story), aesthetic merit (composition, lighting, framing, perspective, use of color, etc) and technical excellence (sharp, exposure, depth of field, tonal range).

The six judges vote on every individual image and the highest scoring image in each category becomes the winner of that category. The Grand Prize image is awarded to the image that has the highest score overall, regardless of the category into which it was entered.