Some photography competitions celebrate composition, timing, and technical control. The Chromatic Awards, however, place one especially powerful element at the center of it all: color. Dedicated entirely to color photography, the international contest invites both professional and amateur photographers from around the world to submit work across 20 categories, giving established artists and emerging talents a chance to share their vision with a wider audience.
For this post, we are focusing on the winners and honorable mentions from the Nature category of the 2025 Chromatic Awards. The selection brings together an impressive range of images, from delicate close-ups of insects and flowers to dramatic landscapes, powerful wildlife portraits, glowing skies, icy scenes, and even views that stretch far beyond our planet. The category also includes the 2025 Grand Prize winner, Liam Man’s striking photo “Ring of Fire and Ice,” making it clear just how strong the competition was this year.
What makes these images especially captivating is the way each photographer uses color not just as decoration, but as part of the story. Soft greens and blues create a quiet sense of wonder, fiery reds and oranges add drama, and surreal natural palettes turn familiar landscapes into something almost otherworldly. Whether captured by professionals or amateurs, these photos show how color can completely transform our experience of nature.
Scroll down to see the winning and honorable mention images that show the immense beauty of our planet’s natural phenomena, and don’t forget to vote for the ones that impressed you the most.
#1 “Sea Monster” By Lyubomir Momchilov
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Ahtopol, Bulgaria
Description: “Five-meter-high waves crash against the lighthouse of Ahtopol. At the moment of impact, the water formed a shape resembling a sea monster — a fleeting scene captured with a fast shutter speed.”
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16points
#2 “Ring Of Fire And Ice” By Liam Man
Chromatic Awards 2025 Grand Prize Winner
1st Place in the Professional Division, Nature Category
1st Place in the Professional Division, Nature Category
Location: Glacier Leones, Patagonia, Chile
Description: “A “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse reaches annularity as two ice climbers summit the Glacier Leones in Patagonia. A drone illuminates the ice’s textures and colours, battling fierce winds that whip up plumes of snow that burn in the sun’s rays.
In the foreground, the ice is strewn with rocky debris, remnants of a landslide triggered upstream. As the glacier receded, its retreat destabilised the valley walls, making them prone to collapse. This initiated a self-perpetuating cycle with the debris darkening the ice, increasing infrared absorption and further accelerating the glacier’s melt.
Recent years has seen this glacier retreat at an alarming rate, in places loosing ten meters of thickness every year. A trend that is consistent across the globe. Amplified by greenhouse gasses, it signals the demise of our frozen landscapes. By the time an eclipse passes this location, forecasts predict that there will no longer be a glacier for anyone to stand upon.”
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13points
#3 “Spirits In The Sky” By Enrico Curti
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Description: “The lights of the North, they illuminate the sky during the long winter of the Polar region: like ethereal wraiths they suddenly appear and dance around, painting the sky all night long and enchanting us with their show.”
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12points
#4 “Moonrise Sprites Over Storr” By Liam Man
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Location: Old Man of Storr, Scotland
Description: “As a moonrise burns across the horizon, lights cut through the darkness, illuminating the Old Man of Storr, in Scotland.
Gale force winds howled through the night, and blizzards reduced visibility to nothing. Suddenly the storm passed, replaced by a soft silence, ice crystals remained suspended in the atmosphere through which the moonlight refracted into a fiery orange.”
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12points
#5 “Überlebenskünstler” By Matthias Menge
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Description: “Here you can see a tiny tree in a big way. This tree is only 10-15 cm tall. So I lay down to take the photo to make the little tree appear larger. I also wanted to incorporate the sun and create a sunburst effect within the tree. It's truly fascinating how this little tree survives in the rock crevice and defies all kinds of weather.”
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11points
#6 “When Mount Bromo Met The Sea Of Clouds I” By Ka Hei So
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia
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10points
#7 “Dune” By Piotr Brzozowski
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Namib Naukluft National Park
Description: “Unusual red dunes.”
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10points
#8 “The Land Of Thorns” By Donald Bolak
1st Place Winner in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Description: “Macro photography has the ability to transport us to sights unseen and places never visited. This surreal landscape of thorns looks like an other worldly mountain peak and foot hills.”
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10points
#9 “Crooked Tree” By Michaela Vinterová
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Bouřňák Mountain, Czech Republic
Description: “Peak beech forest on Bouřňák Mountain in the Ore Mountains, October 2024, Czech Republic.”
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9points
#10 “Burning Gaze” By Alfonso Rotunno
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Description: “Burning gaze is a picture of a tree trunk that resembles a face. While walking in the forest, I came face to face with this old trunk and felt myself being observed. The hole in the trunk reminded me of an intense, burning gaze, so I decided to make this burning gaze more real. Through an image of flames and the white balance of the camera, I brought this image to life.”
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9points
#11 “The Memory Of The Sun” By Maya Hug
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Switzerland
Description: “High above the fading light, noctilucent clouds drift like a memory of the sun. Their fragile ice crystals mirror the last glow from beyond the horizon.”
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8points
#12 “Owl With A Bowtie” By Rodrigo Izquierdo
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Description: “When you volunteer at a raptor rehabilitation center, sometimes you get the opportunity to release beautiful birds, like this gorgeous great horned owl that seems to have known he was going to be photographed and prepared by wearing what it looks like a bowtie. When birds take off, they usually go against the wind, which allowed me to place myself on higher ground with the sunset falling behind the path I expected the owl to take while taking off. This image was the result of a long time in rehabilitation, and years of photography practice.”
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8points
#13 “Blooming Rafflesia” By Philipp Weigt
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Sumatra
Description: “This photo was taken during my trip to Sumatra. The Rafflesia flower in the picture was only 3 days old. It was the only one in the area, which made the moment even more special. I felt very lucky to see such a rare and beautiful flower in person.”
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7points
#14 “Fountain Paint Pot Trail” By Daniel Reiter
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Location: Yellowstone National Park, USA
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7points
#15 “Elements” By Thomas Maher
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Location: Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA
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7points
#16 “Whispers Of Light” By Ronja Linssen
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Bonn, Germany
Description: “In the heart of a dense forest, nature stages a quiet spectacle as fireflies weave glowing trails through the twilight. This photograph captures the fleeting dance of these bioluminescent creatures, illuminating the undergrowth like scattered stars. A wooden hunting stand stands silently among tall trees and wildflowers - a witness to the enchanting choreography unfolding in the fading light.”
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6points
#17 “Trees Die Standing Up” By Piotr Brzozowski
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Sossusvlei Valley, Namib
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6points
#18 “Antylope Canyon 3” By Ryszard Zembrzuski
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Location: Antylope Canyon, Arizona, USA
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6points
#19 “Simeis 147” By Peter Hergesheimer
3rd Place Winner in the Nature Category, Amateur Division
Description: “Known as the Spaghetti Nebula, this supernova remnant (SNR) straddles the border of the constellations Auriga and Taurus. At approximately 3000 light years from earth, it has an apparent diameter of 3 degrees which is about 6 full moons across but was not discovered until 1952 due to its low brightness. This image captures the lighted emitted by expanding ionized hydrogen and oxygen gases from the stellar explosion that took place some 40,000 years ago.
Total exposure time is 35.5 hours.”
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6points
#20 “A Place Called Home” By Fenqiang Liu
3rd Place Winner in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Location: Louisiana, USA
Description: “On an early November morning, I was canoeing through a quiet Louisiana swamp just after sunrise. Soft morning light filtered through the trees, creating a peaceful yet otherworldly atmosphere. A Great Egret glided gracefully across the water, catching my attention and drawing my lens to the richness of the swamp—a warm, thriving place that many creatures call home.”
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6points