Wild Animals In Beautiful Photos: 25 Winners Of Nature Photography Of The Year Contest

16.11.2023 - 18:45 / forbes.com

The beautiful winning images of the 2023 international Nature Photographer of the Year contest celebrating the beauty of nature photography were unveiled at an awards ceremony that took place at the annual Nature Talks Photo Festival in the Netherlands.

The NPOTY prizes include €3,000 for the winner and €500 cash prizes and photo equipment for the category winners. The organization supports various nature conservations projects such as Photographer Against Wildlife Crime.

The winning images are displayed at a photo exhibition devoted to the festival and will travel afterwards through the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

The next contest will start on December 20, 2023.

The 2023 title of Nature Photographer of the Year was awarded to Jacquie Matechuk, a nature photographer from Canada, for her Spectacled Bear image (below): “The Spanish moss hanging from this centuries-old fig tree gives an incredible sense of three-dimensionality, while the soft light filtering through the colors highlights the profound connection between species and habitat,” the jury said about the image.

“Spanning more than 8,000 kilometers, the Andean Mountain range occupies more than a quarter of the land surface in Ecuador,” Matechuk said. “Rich in biodiversity, it’s also home to a unique species called the Spectacled Bear.”

In this image, Tony—a large male and frequent traveler through these parts—had climbed into a century-old fig tree seeking refuge from the midday sun. It was draped in Spanish moss, gently swaying with each breath inhaled and exhaled by the canyon walls.

This image of a pink flamingo was taken in the French Camargue last winter. At certain times of the year and in certain places, the water level drops and the substrate becomes denser. Despite this, Greater Flamingos like to come and look for food in the muddy water.

A thin film of black mud clings to their plumage for a few seconds.

“At the beginning of 2022, we were surprised by news in the local press that the Al-Jarim area, located north of the Kingdom of Bahrain, would be transformed into industrial areas and tourist resorts,” Omran explains.

With this image of the Socotra cormorants that breed in the islands, with their necks elongated by slow shutter while moving the camera up, the photographer wants to send a message: The birds are monitoring the place, on the lookout for any intruder that wants to seize their space.

This picture of Hoopoe was taken in Dubai at the Al Qudra Lakes. This Hoopoe bird was on its daily routine of catching prey.

“I observed that each time it caught a prey, it flew in the same direction to a nearby tree which gave me the idea to photograph the bird against a background with light and dark sides to represent the dark and