Nature is beautiful, and hardly anyone can argue against that. However, the instances of beauty can vary: some are common, and some are very rare to find. The pictures we show to you here today are very rare and hard to come across, which is why the work of professional wildlife and nature photographers is so valuable to everyone.
Nature TTL have announced their photographers of the year 2021, and the photos that were awarded are simply breathtaking. Over 8000 photos competed in animal behavior, wildlife portraits, camera traps, underwater, landscape, night sky and other categories. They have also awarded the junior photographers, whose work is as good as professional ones'. This year's Photographer of the Year title was awarded to Canadian Thomas Vijayan for his photo of an orangutan going up a tree, which looks like an optical illusion, but we can assure you that it's as real as it gets.
#21 "Sleeping Dragon" By Amos Ravid
Runner-up in the Night Sky category.
"Night photography at minus 25 degrees Celsius can be a bit challenging. And yet, it is most enjoyable and satisfying. This photo is from Ogoy Island in Lale Baikal, Russia. It is also known as the Dragon Island, hence I call it The Sleeping Dragon."
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23points
#22 "Tree Of Life" By Jay Roode
Winner in the Landscape category.
"Suspended in time; a sense of waiting pervades this valley where nothing seems to have happened for a thousand years. The shadow of an ancient Camel Thorn tree reaches out, like a blackened hand to the delicate tracings of the Tsauchab River; yearning for the life that once was."
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22points
#23 "The Door" By Jose Luis Ruiz Jimenez
Highly Commended in the Urban Wildlife category.
"A barn owl peeks out the door of an old abandoned house."
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22points
#24 "Standing Out" By Gergő Kártyás
Highly Commended in the Under 16 category.
"This photo was taken during the last light of the day, in a big meadow in Hungary. The golden light beautifully lit the butterfly and the background."
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20points
#25 "Silhouetted Wood Mouse" By John Formstone
Winner in the Camera Trap category.
"Captured on my DSLR camera trap in a patch of small woodland to the rear of my house. One off-camera flash was positioned to the rear of the subject in an effort to create this silhouette."
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19points
#26 "The Way To Rùm" By Luigi Ruoppolo
Highly Commended in the Landscape category.
"On the island of Eigg at sunset, with beautiful colors and stunning clouds moving over the mountains of Rùm island, Scotland. I was quite far from the shoreline, following the patterns left in the sand by the tide and shooting at 90 seconds exposure to get as many reflections as possible."
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19points
#27 "Fish Caught By Surprise" By Johan Wandrag
Runner-up in the Animal Behavior category.
"Taken in South Africa, a fish is caught in the moment it is snapped up by a crocodile. The look of a surprise really made this shot stand out to me."
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18points
#28 "Dance Of The Termites" By James Gifford
Winner in the Small World category.
"Every year after the first rains, the future kings and queens of fungus-growing termite colonies leave their nest on a nuptial flight. They lose their wings minutes later and most will fail in their quest to start a new colony. The flight only happens for a day or two per year and its timing is dictated completely by local rainfall.
The termites from this colony were attracted to light, but after taking several shots, I realized that I could only capture the effect of the swarm by using a slow shutter speed and gradually panning with the flight of the insects.
As they were all moving in different directions, I had to take hundreds of shots to capture what I wanted. It was tricky focusing on composition, having to pre-focus and wait for a termite to fly into my focal plane. Meanwhile, I had many termites crawling all over me, but it was worth it in the end."
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18points
#29 "Nature’s Pitfall" By Samantha Stephens
Runner-up in the Small World category.
"Researchers at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station recently discovered that juvenile Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) are being trapped by Northern Pitcher Plants, as they make their fall migration from aquatic hatching grounds across a bog mat to find over-wintering sites beneath the forest floor. This is the first discovery of salamanders being regularly caught by Northern Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia purpurea)—and more than 20% of the plants in this Algonquin Park population are capturing salamander prey!
This phenomenon has not been recorded for any other population of Northern Pitcher Plants. What researchers haven’t figured out yet is how the salamanders are becoming trapped. Although many pitchers lie flush with the surface of the bog mat, ready to catch those that take an unlucky step during their journey, some pitchers stand erect, almost 15 centimeters above the moss. Spotted Salamanders have long been recognized as important nutrient cyclers, and this discovery expands our understanding of that role.
On the day I made this image, I was following researchers on their daily surveys of the plants. Typically, pitchers contain just one salamander prey at a time, although occasionally they catch multiple salamanders simultaneously. When I saw a pitcher that had two salamanders, both at the same stage of decay floating at the surface of the pitcher’s fluid, I knew it was a special—and fleeting—moment. The next day, both salamanders had sunk to the bottom of the pitcher."
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18points
#30 "A Predator’s Playground" By Charl Stols
Highly Commended in the Wild Portraits category.
"As bizarre as it might seem to us, jumping up and down on a giraffe carcass and playing with the tail of a dead animal is as normal as it can be for a curious lion cub."
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18points
#31 "Into The Spotlight" By Dani Clarke
Highly Commended in the Camera Trap category.
"A young badger from the sett in my garden captured on my patio eating peanuts. I used a snoot on the flash to concentrate the light onto the point of focus."
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17points
#32 "Fight In The Mountains" By Raphael Schenker
Runner-up in the Under 16 category.
"I took this picture whilst on a long hike in Switzerland. I saw how the father of these two mountain goats was teaching them how to fight."
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17points
#33 "Under Aurora Bridge" By Yevhen Samuchenko
Highly Commended in the Night Sky category.
"Aurora borealis with an unusual arc shape above Kirkjufell mountain in Iceland."
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17points
#34 "European Whale Sharks" By Nuno Vasco Rodrigues
Highly Commended in the Underwater category.
"A whale shark ascends from the ocean depths in Santa Maria Island, Azores. In 2020 and for the second year straight, whale sharks showed up in great numbers on this island, attracting tourists from all over Europe."
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17points
#35 "Spoilt For Choice" By Thomas Easterbrook
Young Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2021; Winner in the Under 16 category.
"I took this photo while we were watching a starling murmuration. This peregrine came out of nowhere to attack the murmuration, and I was pleased to capture it at work!"
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16points
#36 "The Eye" By Ivan Pedretti
Winner in the Night Sky category.
"On Uttakleiv beach, in Norway, these particular rocks looked like an eye. The shot is set against the beautiful colors of the Northern Lights above."
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16points
#37 "Pine Marten In An Abandoned Cottage" By James Roddie
Runner-up in the Camera Trap category.
"A pine marten inside an abandoned cottage in the Scottish Highlands. I ran a camera-trap in the abandoned house for several months after seeing pine marten scat (droppings) outside the entrance."
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15points
#38 "Bouquet Of Flowers" By Fanny Reed
Runner-up in the Landscape category.
"Patterns formed by mineral deposits trapped in lagoons."
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15points
#39 "Round" By Zhi’yue Shi
Runner-up in the Underwater category.
"I searched aimlessly for my target underwater, and then I found it. Under the irradiation of light, it presents such a natural circle. Taken in the Philippines."
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15points
#40 "Dolphin Silhouettes" By Richard Condlyffe
Highly Commended in the Underwater category.
"Taken while snorkeling, this image shows the silhouettes of two Spotted Dolphins against sandy ripples. What I particularly enjoy about this image is the clarity of each silhouette, with no overlap of the two creatures. Additionally, the two dolphins look like they’re talking to each other and looking towards something out of frame."
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15points
