Meet The Winners: 30 Impressive Photos From The Nature Photographer Of The Year 2023 Awards

"I was used to photographing the garden dormice in my hometown near Frankfurt for years and I have spent several evenings and nights outside, just watching these little hyperactive animals climbing down the ladder of my attic when the sun sets down and the city begins to sleep. The science is still not clear, why the Garden dormice population is decreasing so they have become very rare. The animals are used to the lights and they don’t care about it anymore."

"For many years, I have followed the amphibian migration as I did this year. In spring, the amphibians migrate en masse to the water to mate, as was also the case this year. Carefully I started searching among the stems of the growing water lilies and with success. Carefully I approached the salamander and took a whole series of photos. After a while, the salamander had had enough and made its way to the surface. Quickly I took a few more photos of the silhouette of the swimming salamander and on reflection, the photo was ideal for making a double exposure in the camera."

"For almost 10 years I have been visiting Kolmanskoppe in Namibia.
This abandoned Ghost Town that used to be a diamond mine is slowly being reclaimed by the harsh Namib desert. From day one I have always dreamt about a photograph of an elusive and endangered Brown Hyena prowling the abandoned streets at night.

I only once saw a set of Hyena footprints next to the ruins, but I knew the area was known for fairly good Brown Hyena activity.

I spoke to the security guard at the entrance of the Ghost Town about the frequency of sightings within the Ghost Town. He told me that they pass through every 4 to 6 weeks on average so I knew there was always going to be a possibility.

Every single time I visited the Ghost Town I’d set up camera traps in the hope of success. It took me 10 years to finally get this one single image of a Brown Hyena in the most perfect frame imaginable. I was ecstatic when I finally had success."

"This image is a huge crowd of Moon jellyfish. The female jellyfish will change her body color to pink or purple when she is ready for spawning eggs but not so many females there compared to male jellyfish. This moment is exactly when lots of male jellyfish are chasing only one pink bride in the crowd. I took this image from Prince William Sound in Alaska in June 2022. It was terribly heavy raining for a week while I was staying in Alaska and I couldn’t go out to the ocean for 4 days and I stuck in the town for a few days. On my last day, we decided to find the blossom of Moon jellyfish by 2 dives. I know there are some pink or purple female jellyfish there during summer in Alaska and I spent whole diving to find it. The first dive failed to find it and I could find only one pink bride in the crowd below 30 metres from the second dive. It was not easy to spot a pink bride out of a thousand male jellyfish and I was so lucky to find it. There was no sunlight by heavy rain and all jellyfish were trying to move down to deep water and I had only 5 minutes chance to shoot this moment. It was an incredible moment to see this behavior that all male jellyfish are chasing the pink female and surrounding her. I never forget this beautiful moment in my heart."

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night. Blue atmosphere and red moon. Standing up early before sunrise allows you to experience the magical awakening of animals. The blackbird is one of the earliest animals to wake."

"Among the many stunning encounters on my last harping trip in Costa Rica, one of the luckiest was certainly with a black-speckled palm pit viper (Bothriechis nigroviridis). During a walk in the cloud forest of the Cordillera de Talamanca, after hours of maniacal searching, I finally spotted one individual on the ground basking in the sun. It was extremely difficult to spot the camouflaged viper in the colorful and dense pattern of mosses and epiphytes. From a zenithal point of view, I framed the twisted coils of the snake, enhancing the details of each scale and the resulting geometrical motif. The picture was taken in situ, without any manipulation or disturbance for the animal."

"On one of my first wild mushroom foraging outings, in the White Mountains of Arizona, USA, I went with a friend who taught me how to identify two types of edible mushrooms (Boletes and Caesars), I walked by this mushroom who was lying upside down on the ground. The stunningly vibrant colors of the gills caught my attention. I proceeded to set up my tripod, and using my photo backpack as a base, took several photo stacks, using the beautiful natural soft forest light.

Once I got home and processed the photo stacks, I chose this resulting image and proceeded to crop it in a way where it was not immediately obvious what the subject was. As far as I remember, not a single person guessed that this was the image of the underside of a mushroom. It was interesting what people saw in this image: some likened it to waves crashing onto a cliff, others thought of rays radiating off of a distant planet, a desert landscape of furrowed canyons, and my favorite, an underwater scene in the ocean. In the process of identifying the mushroom, I found that the blue/green color might indicate the presence of psilocybin or psilocin, chemical compounds found in psychedelic mushrooms, hence the name; “Fields of Dreams”. In the end, the overwhelming consensus was that this beautiful fungi was part of the Lactarius, or Milk Cap, family.

The big lesson I learned through this image, is to slow down in nature, and not only take in its beautiful grand vistas but look for and appreciate all the small gems hidden within. So much beauty we often simply walk by, without appreciating all the small marvels created by Mother Nature.

This is a photo stack of 19 images, using the back of my photo backpack as a base, and making use of the stunning, soft forest light. (I honestly don’t remember, but I might have used the cellphone flashlight to accentuate the colors ever so slightly)."

"In the spring in May, the water lilies start to grow quite a bit but the stems are not so close together yet. Ideal to look for fish hiding between the stems then. This photo was taken in the freshwater lake De Melle near Turnhout (Antwerp) where there is a large population of water lilies.

After a while, I noticed this large pike among the stems which I approached carefully and thus was able to take a whole series of pictures.
Taking pictures of pike is very easy as they have no natural predators in the lake and stay calm if you approach them carefully which is also the case with this pike."

"I am most fortunate to live adjacent to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (off the coast of California), considered to be the top hot spot for biodiversity in North America. The bay is a prime feeding ground for multiple species of whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea birds, and smaller sea creatures. I am also quite fortunate to have unlimited access to whale watch boats and can go out on the bay whenever I choose. When I do, however, I rarely stand at the bow, a prime location for watching bow-riding dolphins, as I know each trip may be the only chance most passengers will ever get to witness such amazing behavior.

This image was made possible by the extraordinary generosity of a young, female whale watcher. On that beautiful sunny and wind-free morning, I came up to the bow to see a friend who was excitedly leaning over the rail, and I realized the rare, calm sea conditions, combined with these gorgeous dolphins, were ideal for some special images. But the bow was crowded, and there was no room for me. The young woman in question saw my interest and camera and graciously offered me her spot at the rail. I politely declined, but she insisted, so I gratefully accepted. I was stunned by the scene unfolding below me. When we later disembarked, I sought her out and thanked her again, as I realized I had gotten some rather remarkable and unique images. I am forever indebted to this generous, thoughtful stranger.

In this photograph, three northern right whale dolphins (Lissodelphis borealis) were bow-riding the pressure wave of our whale watch vessel. Exceptionally rare, clear, flat seas provided a smooth, colorful palate to showcase these slender, sleek, and streamlined cetaceans. Mostly black, these gregarious dolphins are atypical in appearance with short, pointy beaks, sloping foreheads, and no dorsal fins. They are extremely athletic, often flying high out of the water in graceful leaps. They are lightning quick, and able to swim at an average speed of 16 mph. And best of all (for us!), they love to ride the bows of ships.

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Monterey Bay, California, USA."