Photography & Digital ArtSEP 25, 2023

Prepare To Be Amazed By This Year’s Nature Photography Competition Winning Photos (18 Photos)

In an ever-changing world, photography allows us to capture a moment of fleeting beauty, reminding us of vulnerability hiding in the incredible beauty of our planet. The Nature TTL Photographer of the Year competition underscores this sentiment, showcasing over 8,000 awe-striking submissions. Prepare your eyes for a visual feast as we have selected a variety of incredible photos that will make you question whether they were taken on planet Earth.

More info: Nature TTL

#1 “Strong Solar Storm Through An Icelandic Cave”, Josselin Cornou

The aurora illuminates the sky behind an Icelandic waterfall, streaming over the face of a cave. The image took the runner-up place in The Night Sky category.

Josselin Cornou

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72points

#2 “Caring Parent”, Igor Mikula

The runner-up in the Camera Traps category is this intimate shot of a Eurasian blackbird and its chicks, in a nest in the bathroom window of the photographer’s friend.

Igor Mikula

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53points

All living organisms have cycles of life and death. What seems like the end to one is a new beginning to other creatures. A dead moth became food to bacteria; a beautiful yet macabre picture illustrating the circle of life. This beauty can be found in most unexpected places if you know where to look for it. The winner of the Small World category certainly inspired us to do that.

#3 “Depth Perception”, Rowan Dear

The winner of the Underwater category is this image of jelly blubber, a species of jellyfish, congregatating in the waters off Manly Beach, Australia. The image alters the viewers’ perspective; we don’t know which way is up and which is down, we just know there’s a ton of jellyfish.

Rowan Dear

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44points

#4 “Walk On The Hill”, Ákos Őrsi

The runner-up in the Under 17 category of the competition was this shot of deer on a hill. Silhouetted on the hill, the deer makes a rather typical shot quite scenic.

Ákos Őrsi

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40points

#5 “Traffic Intersection”, Simone Baumeister

This mind-blowing shot appears otherworldly, but it actually depicts a spider in a very familiar environment: a pedestrian bridge in Ibbenüren, Germany. The trippy lights around the spider are the lights of (as the title indicates) the traffic intersection beyond the spider, but makes the arthropod appear to float in a turquoise sphere of light.

Simone Baumeister

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37points

#6 “Milky Way”, Bence Mate

You’d be excused if the first thing you saw in this photo wasn’t the gorgeous Milky Way galaxy in the night sky. Indeed, there’s a wild boar in the foreground, captured in this winning shot in The Night Sky category.

Bence Mate

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37points

Thomas Vijayan’s panoramic shot of the Austfonna Ice Cap stood out and snagged the top prize. The breathtaking entry made us tremble in awe and fear of the beauty of our planet but also reminded us of the tragic reality of climate change. The stunning ice cap is seen cracking and disgorging, gushing powerful waterfalls into the sea. Austfonna covers an expansive 8,000 square kilometers – an icy vastness that is hard to comprehend.

#7 “Crossing Barriers”, Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar

A jaguar in Mexico was caught climbing through a broken wall that separates the jungle from a town in Quintana Roo. As animals’ habitats are fragmented, wildlife increasingly comes into contact with humankind. This image won the “Camera Traps” category.

Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar

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35points

#8 Winner: “Austfonna Ice Cap”, Thomas Vijayan

The winner in the Landscapes category is this shot of the Austfonna ice cap, the world’s third-largest, which is quickly melting in part due to human-caused climate change.

Thomas Vijayan

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32points

#9 “Seal Hunting”, Florian Ledoux

The winning image in the Animal Behavior category is this shot of a polar bear patiently waiting for a seal to pop its head out of a breathing hole in Svalbard, Norway.

Florian Ledoux

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31points

Yet, this creation of nature is rapidly succumbing to global warming caused by humans. It makes us wander how long until it turns into a distant memory captured in a picture. Hopefully, it will make people stop and think and, perhaps, make greener choices to preserve nature’s miracles.

#10 “Paintbox”, Florian Smit

This perspective-warping shot of the Rio Tinto river in Spain, taken by a drone high above the ground, makes the natural colors of the environment pop. It was the runner-up in the competition’s Landscapes category.

Florian Smit

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28points

#11 “Crowd Control”, Andy Schmid

An orca is surrounded by a herring bait ball in this shot from Skjervøy, Norway, the runner-up in the Underwater category.

Andy Schmid

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28points

The Nature TTL Photographer of the Year competition is a unique competition that not only celebrates the skill and artistry of talented photographers but also serves as a call for action. It urges people to stop for a moment and acknowledge the dire consequences of climate change and the urgent need for collective efforts.

#12 “My Kingdom”, Simon Biddie

This portrait of a sea lion (Zalophus californianus) is framed by fish on three sides, with six other sea lions in the background. The image won the Wild Portraits category of the competition.

Simon Biddie

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27points

#13 “Fighting Robins”, Jane Hope

Two robins tussle in this springtime shot out of Scotland. The image was the runner-up in the Animal Behavior category.

Jane Hope

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24points

#14 “Fading Away”, Robert Gloeckner

The runner-up in the Wild Portraits category is this shot of a great blue heron’s silhouette in water reflecting a traffic light in Dunedin, Florida.

Robert Gloeckner

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23points

#15 “Painting”, Florian Smit

The winner of the Small World category shows a dead moth in Rondane National Park, Norway. The moth lies on a bacterial film in the park, and the image’s composition makes the rather macabre scene appear dreamlike.

Florian Smit

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21points

#16 “Point, Line And Plane”, Yicai Chang

A lone carpentar ant walks along a leaf in a tree in Australia. This image was the runner-up in the Small World category—indeed, even without a frame of reference, the ant appears determined, though small.

Yicai Chang

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19points

We might not understand how these pictures were taken or what settings they used, but they certainly make us feel things – empathy, awe, and fear. Art can move us in a way we never expected. Hopefully, in 50 years, when we’re old and grey, we will be watching new entries of thriving nature with captions like “Because we all came together and made the necessary changes, we can enjoy the beauty of our Earth”.

#17 “House Hunting”, Lucy Monckton

A swarm of bees look like one massive black-and-yellow-striped mass in the winning image in the Under 17 category. The bees were relocating—the entire swarming buzzing around to find a new home.

Lucy Monckton

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18points

#18 "When We’re Gone", Florian Smit

The winner of the Urban Wildlife category is this shot of a brown rat sniffing around an abandoned house. A motion sensor triggered the camera to snap the photo.

Florian Smit

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16points