Here Is The Most Awaited Nature Photographer Of The Year Award Winners in 2022. (Best Pics).

"In September ’21 we went on a long-awaited trip to Chukotka and Wrangel Island. We sailed along the coast and covered more than 1200 miles of untouched landscapes, villages lost in time, spots with various fauna, and seas full of life. One day, bad weather was expected, so our captain approached a small island, Kolyuchin, to take shelter from the storm. Kolyuchin is known for the polar weather station that operated on it in Soviet times. Though the station was closed in 1992, the abandoned village still stands on the island. The stormy wind, rain, and neglected buildings on the rocky shores all made everything appear super surreal. Suddenly, we noticed movement in the windows of the houses. Someone took out some binoculars and we saw the heads of polar bears!" - Says Dmitry Kokh

"A strikingly beautiful Snow leopard roams across the jagged peaks of the Ladakh mountain range in India. Thick snow blankets the ground, but the big cat’s dense coat and furry footpads keep it warm. I captured this spectacular image during a three-year DSLR camera trap project in the high-altitude region of Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas bordering Pakistan and China. Challenges were many: The steep, rugged terrain with low oxygen levels, finding locations, getting the equipment up, and maintaining it over long periods of time. The mystery surrounding the Snow leopard always fascinated me. These rarely-sighted, wise-looking cats are since centuries the stuff of legends and fairytales. Their incredible stealth and camouflage and the remote environment they live in, probably make the ‘ghost of the mountains’ the most challenging big cat to photograph in the wild. Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN-World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species researchers estimate that there are between 400 to 700 snow leopards in India today. Habitat loss, poaching, and retaliatory killings as a result of human-wildlife conflict are the biggest threats that these magnificent cats face. Snow leopard habitat range continues to decline from human settlement and increased use of grazing space.

My imagery is to make people connect to wildlife and appreciate the often unseen natural world. I believe that greater understanding leads to deeper caring which hopefully results in active support and as a multiplier for conservation efforts." - Says Sascha Fonseca

"I found this white rhino mother and calf resting in the heat of the day and returned to a nearby waterhole just before sunset hoping they might visit to drink. I realized there was the potential to create a dramatic image by shooting into the sun and underexposing to capture the backlit dust that would be kicked up as the rhinos walked past. So, having snatched a couple of shots of them drinking, I repositioned to get a view of the route I expected them to take when they left. With lots of trees in the area, the rhinos would only be in the open for a few seconds and if they left in a different direction, I wouldn’t get a single shot but fortunately, the gamble paid off. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of rhino poaching, I wanted to create an image that conveyed a sense of hope – a new beginning almost – as if these were the first rhinos being forged in a fire of creation. The effect of the backlit dust, which created a blurred shadow image, added to the ethereal effect. Botswana only started reintroducing rhinos to the wild in earnest in the early 2000s but despite initial success, poaching rates have soared in recent years. The situation was further exacerbated when Covid effectively closed the tourism industry for two years, leaving wildlife areas devoid of the network of watchful safari vehicles which acted as a deterrent to poachers in the past. As a result, Botswana’s rhino numbers have been decimated. Ultimately the only definitive way to stop rhino poaching is to somehow stop the demand for rhino horn. If by portraying the beauty of this unique species, this image stops just one person from buying rhino horn products, then that would be a small start." - Says James Gifford.

"All kinds of benthic invertebrates are crowded together in the last remaining milky puddle of a soda lake at Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park in Eastern Austria. One of those tiny creatures sticks out as it is larger and has a distinct shiny blue egg sack. Branchipus Schaefferi is the species name and it belongs to a group known as fairy shrimps. They depend on periodically drying water bodies. When those dry up, most of the small crustaceans have already dispatched their eggs and they die. Their eggs can survive for centuries in the dry ground until they get flooded again and hatch. In spring, the soda lakes are typically filled with water, containing masses of fairy shrimps which are an important food source for migrating and breeding waterbirds. However, those soda lakes are at high risk to get lost due to rising spring temperatures which lead to faster evaporation and continuously dropping ground-water levels, probably caused by the extensive watering of the surrounding agricultural area. With time, this enables nitrifying plants and shrubs to grow in this ecologically valuable area. Their roots penetrate the sealing layer of the soda lakes which leads to an even faster loss of water and will finally lead to a shrub encroachment of the former soda lake. A friend of mine is working on a book about Branchiopods in Central Europe and I offered to support him with my photography, so I came across this scene while specifically looking for those tiny creatures." - Says Bernhard Schubert.

"In the first days of May, I always return to a small canal near Izsák (Hungary), where the Hottonia palustris blooms in huge numbers. Unfortunately, flowering was delayed this year, only its leaves were still underwater. I was about to go home when I saw a tree fallen over the canal, and under his reflection, the plants are clearly visible, because here he covered the reflection of the sky. I found it a very exciting subject and played with it for a while." - Says Csaba Daróczi.

"When I fly a drone, I try to get not only beautiful landscapes but also interesting shapes, and textures. From the top perspective, we can get a lot of exciting photos. By the middle of winter, the temperature in Hungary will drop so much that the lakes will freeze. We can see very interesting formations if we look at them from above. Around the place where I live there are a lot of ‘mine lakes’. This means that after mining activity the abandoned pits filled with water forming lakes. These are small and very deep. I checked almost all of them looking for interesting textures and I saw many miracles. One of them is the lake of Sajószöged, flying over it I saw these exciting shapes." - Says Helga Urbán. 

"These coves are a geomorphological phenomenon of soil erosion that is produced by the effect of rainwater on degraded clay rocks, with poor plant cover and therefore poorly protected from ruscellaning: producing deep furrows in the ground along the side of a mountain or a hill. That location is near the Canossa Castle. It is famous precisely for the castle where the humiliation inflicted by the Pope and Matilda of Canossa to the emperor Henry IV took place, in 1077bc… In that area, the mists are particularly interesting and I have tried for 6/7 years for the optimal condition to take this image that I had in mind. I went back 30/40 times over the year and I finally found the perfect conditions. This tree rises precisely on a thin blade of unstable rock, in precarious balance, like the Nature of our planet…" - Says Gianluca Gianferrari. 

"Once a year, in early spring, for just one week, a rare endemic frog comes down from the mountains to mate and lay its eggs. This year, I was prepared. It was a rainy day, and many frogs came down from the mountains to the river. The number of frogs coming down from the mountain varies, ranging from dozens to hundreds, but today they came in their hundreds. The frogs gathered in their favorite mating areas and the beauty of nature took place. After mating and laying their eggs, the frogs in turn returned to the mountains. I took this picture in the rain and fog in a place where the frogs gathered. The frogs slowly laid their eggs in front of me. I believe I was able to capture the raw atmosphere of this beautiful ecological behavior in the mountains of Mie, Japan."- Says Kazushige Horiguchi. 

"In the last couple of years, I have been fortunate to photograph over 200 different cenotes of the Riviera Maya in Mexico, capturing their surreal environments and the unexpected diversity of its caves. Looking for unique photographic opportunities of light and textures in the transition area between cave and cenote or light and darkness. During a traverse cave dive connecting seven different cenotes, we passed by this strange figure of a blue cave crab standing on a rock while fishing in the cave current, perfectly define against the background. This menacing silhouette looked like a Samurai with shiny blue armor, perfectly centered by the natural vignetting offered by the light fall-off of the cave, standing against the mangrove texture and green light of the sun passing through the tannic acid present on the surface. I got as close as possible to the subject to make him the hero of the scene and balance the elements of a perfect representation of the mangrove ecosystem." - Says Martin Broen.

"If there’s one animal that strongly depends on clear water with a lot of fish, it’s the otter. After the water quality in the Netherlands improved drastically, people started a program to reintroduce the otter in 2002. The otter in this picture is one of the animals that were part of this successful project. The end result of the program is a healthy population of otters in the Netherlands. In winter, when the water is covered with ice, it pays off to keep an eye on the holes in the ice. The otter uses these holes to access the water and hunt for fish. By making swimming motions, the otter makes sure the ice hole does not freeze. In a wildlife park nearby Lelystad, I got permission from the forester to observe such an ice hole and take pictures there. After many hours of observation, I knew how the animal behaves and came up with a plan. I placed my camera right above the ice hole and used a 12-24 mm zoom lens. I camouflaged the setup with a camouflage net. At a safe distance from the ice hole, I keep an eye on the hole and operate my camera remotely. After waiting for many hours, the otter finally appears and looks at my camera setup in surprise. Mission accomplished!" - Says Ernst Dirksen.

"I returned to Namibia in May of this year for the first time since 1998 after twice having the trip canceled due to COVID. Needless to say, I was beyond excited to finally return to this magical land, this time armed with much better camera gear and the knowledge of how to use it! One of the images I wanted most from the trip was a small frame aerial shot of gemsbok in the vast dunes of Sossusvlei and/or the Skeleton Coast. I love small in the frame wildlife shots, and I thought the juxtaposition of the gemsbok and the massive dunes would show environmental context and a sense of place. I was lucky enough to have taken two extended helicopter flights over both areas and was able to capture several good shots of the gemsbok in the dunes, but something told me to go up one last time on our final day. We were returning from Sandwich Harbor when we found several oryx cresting the highest dune in the area, just inland from the Skeleton Coast and south of Walvis Bay. I knew immediately they would continue their journey inland as evening approached, descending hundreds of feet in the process. The dunes were pristine which made the tracks the gemsbok were making that much more distinct, something I knew would be a visual element to my image. Our pilot made a few passes, circling at a distance where we were sure not to disturb the gemsbok and I waited for them to make their way into the area still lit by the sun, in between the diagonal bands of shadows. I knew the scene set up perfectly for a B&W photo with the gemsbok silhouetted – it was just a matter of getting the composition “right.” I had to wait for them to make their way far enough into the light, pause, look up at me with head angles where you could distinguish all their horns, and while they had a good separation from one another and their shadows. Nature – the light, lines, and texture – took care of everything else. I knew I had something special the moment I pressed the shutter and I am very happy the judges here at NPOTY agree!" - Says Craig Elson.

"The fog, a place long deserted by people, and polar bears was the perfect setting. Bears are very curious by nature so they walked around houses, and checked every door, window, nook, and cranny. There were about 20 animals inside at the same time, mostly males. The females kept to the side with their cubs, closer to the shores of the island. The bears may look calm and sweet in these photos, but one must not forget that they are smart and incredibly powerful animals! As they probably thought the drone was some sort of bird, they did not let it out of their sight. Never one to miss a meal, they were probably ready to strike at any moment, even when seemingly chilling out on the grass!" - Says Dmitry Kokh. 

"I took this photo of the Adelie penguin portrait in the Antarctica Peninsula in January 2020. It was summertime in Antarctica and all the penguin adults are busy eating krill in the sea and returning back to feed their chicks on land. This Adelie penguin was resting on one big blue iceberg while we were approaching it on a zodiac. The penguin was hiding behind and looked very curious about us tourists on a zodiac, but it did not escape. I had two lenses at that time, 500mm and 100-400mm, and I chose a 100-400mm lens to include more iceberg background and took this photo at 241mm. The blue iceberg looked like a huge fortress for the penguin and this “Host” looked at us through a big hole as a “window”." - Says Zhengze Xu. 

"In January 2022 I visited the beach of IJmuiden and stumbled upon thousands of stranded starfish. I had never seen anything like it before, it must have had something to do with the stormy weather combined with the spring tide the day before. Seeing all these dead animals, made me a little bit sad. When I took a closer look at them I noticed they were all different in size and color, most of them still unaffected by the many feasting birds. Such beautiful creatures, I decided to try and capture them as well as I could. I selected a few dozen and arranged them on a flat part of the dark rocks at the bottom of the pier, making the colorful starfish really stand out." - Says Franka Slothouber. 

"In the Bernese part of the Jura mountain range in Switzerland, there are forests of large beech trees. This is an ideal habitat for the Boreal owl (Aegolius funereus). I had the chance to observe young individuals thanks to an ornithologist friend of mine who took me one day to see a brood whose location he knew as part of a census. I was able to observe this young owl around its nest’s tree for a few minutes.

It was probably experiencing its first flight in spring and must still have had some difficulty flying correctly as I found it on the ground when I arrived in the area. I first kept some distance and then approached gently and laid down on the ground near it. I took this opportunity to use the wide-angle lens to photograph it in its environment and with the sunset in the background. I didn’t stay long at all and then moved away from it to avoid disturbance. The little owl seemed surprised and disoriented to be on the ground. The number of Boreal owls is decreasing in Switzerland. That is why the census and the implementation of measures such as the installation of nest boxes are very important to protect this species. I took this picture in a valley near the city of Biel, in the canton of Bern." - Says Clémence Till.

"Thanks to a friend, I was able to observe pygmy owls for the first time in my life. We spent about 14 hours a day in the area of a small tree hollow in a large forest in Germany, where a pair of pygmy owls were raising their young. I was so fascinated by the behavioral pattern of the little owls and just watching them really thrilled me. One evening we got lucky. After the female pygmy owl had received a blue tit from the male, it sat down for a moment on a branch far below. The slight backlighting created amazing structures and shapes at the right angle thanks to the leaves and branches, which I wanted to give plenty of space to. When she looked right into my lens for a brief moment, I pressed the shutter release. Shortly afterward, it flew back to its young in the hollow with the blue tit in its claws." - Says Luca Lorenz.

"The Kittiwakes breed on a window till on an abandoned fish reception facility in Varanger, northern Norway. The shattered glass was replaced with a translucent glass fiber plate years ago; in daylight, you can only see a vague outline of the birds from inside the building. The midnight sun, though, will cast shadows on the plate, rendering two more or less overlapping contours of the birds, depending on where you put your camera. The Kittiwakes may rest for very long times at night, so nothing much will usually happen during the one or two hours with good light. And when the birds are active, there will more often than not be a cluttered mess of intersecting silhouettes with no visual impact. I have been back several times during the last few years, trying to get some shots that tell a story, while retaining some of the mystery of the scene. This is a straightforward shot with no flash or double exposure or anything, and with very little in the way of post-processing: No cropping, no local adjustments, no adjustments of color or contrast (save the standard profile in LR), a minimum of sharpening and a slight increase in texture (+10). The backstory of the picture is sort of sad, though. Quite a few Kittiwakes have been breeding on buildings in coastal communities for years, but the urban colonies have skyrocketed recently – as more and more Kittiwakes leave their natural habitat in the bird cliffs. This goes together with an increase in the population of white-tailed eagles. The eagles will to some extent prey upon the seabirds (not only Kittiwakes but also guillemots). Still, their main impact is by scaring the birds away, so that the eggs are vulnerable to predation from ravens and large gulls. This is a kind of predation pressure that the seabirds basically would have evolved to endure. Shortage of food, forcing them to take longer forage trips and leave the nest site with less protection, is believed to be part of the equation." - says Knut-Sverre Horn

"Countless times I was already lucky enough to witness super exciting montane conditions of a thrilling interaction of the sun and some fast moving clouds, but this one was probably among my favorites so far, because, besides the lovely colors, the mountain ridge created a spectacular shadow into the sky. Needless to say, I was happy, that this kind wheatear posed for a second in front of the spectacle. The photo was taken during one of my alpine ibex trips to the High Tauern National Park in Austria." - Says Rupert Kogler

"I found this yellow sac spider (Cheiracanthium punctorium) in one of my favorite places for macro. It is found in the Southernmost Piedmont region, in the Ligurian Apennines, where my passion for nature started when I was only a child. I found many times this venomous species in the grass, but always in intricated nests, and I was never satisfied by the results trying to photograph them through their sacs. This time, during a morning survey in the summer I found a specimen that built this spectacular web in the grass, under a single leaf, with two thin layers of silk, probably to pass the night. The light was filtering through the treetops, hitting the web from the rear. I had little time to photograph against the light and captured the breakdown of color on the web, so I immediately lay down and shot hand-held underexposed. After a few tries, I was satisfied with this special encounter with a fascines spider." - Says Marco Maggesi.

"The picture was taken in a small and lost-in-time village called Dumesti, Alba County. The landscape of this village is characterized by hilly formations dotted with clumps of birch trees. The white trunks of the birch trees make them an interesting subject to photograph. Particularly in spring and autumn, this landscape becomes incredibly attractive for a photographer on sunny morning days when, due to the cold nights and with the appearance of the first rays of the sun, the fog rises and a mystical atmosphere is created in front of your eyes. You cannot help but want to go back to this place after being there once, and therefore I always find myself revisiting Dumesti almost every year, in both spring and autumn. The photo presented in the contest was taken in the spring of this year. I decided to immerse myself and explore the landscape more carefully, and it was not a bad idea, as I discovered a unique viewpoint for taking photographs. Once the warm sunlight made its appearance the show of the rising mist began. Of all the photographs taken that day, I consider the one presented in the competition the most beautiful one, due to the contrast between foreground and background, the atmosphere created by the fog, and the white silhouettes of the birch trees in the second plane." - Says Soare Laurentiu.

"In 2018, these beautiful ice forms finally formed on the Soltvadkert lake this winter. This sight always enchants me, and whenever I had time I went to photograph them. Unfortunately, they didn’t last long and the ice armor melted quickly. For this image, I was lucky to find a spot where the coastal trees were reflected in the meltwater. I already felt at the moment of exposure that this would be a really exciting picture if rotated 180 degrees." - Says Csaba Daróczi. 

"A 100 km river called Rio Tinto, in Huelva, southern Spain. The color of the river is like wine, hence its name, and this color is derived from minerals such as pyrite or iron + copper sulfide. The bacteria cause oxidation of the minerals and the acidity of the river is caused by sulfuric acid. Photographically it is a paradise for lovers of abstractions and creative photography. Sometimes it looks like an alien world. For four days I went to 40º and they seemed few to me." - Says Juan Garcia Lucas. 

"The area around the salt mines of Swakopmund in Namibia is a nature reserve and bird sanctuary and has become a popular habitat for thousands of flamingos, cormorants, seagulls, Damara terns, and pelicans. Flamingos stay in salt mines because they find food like crayfish, mollusks, and insects or seaweed. As we were flying high over this area, I hoped to photograph the beautifully saturated colors of the salt mines and some flamingos from above. And I was not disappointed, the colors were so intense, that I screamed three times “wow” during the flight. When a small group of flamingos was just below us, the magic was absolutely perfect. I pressed the trigger of the camera several times, hoping that the pictures would be sharp. And luckily, they were and that very special moment with the start of the flamingos in a fascinating environment was caught in this photograph." - Says Tamani Cédric.

"I captured this photo in November 2021 at the end of a photo session in the Amsterdamse Bos (the forest of Amsterdam) that was all about autumn trees. When I was satisfied with the results of that session I started to walk back to my car. But before I reached the parking lot I crossed a small bridge overlooking a pond covered with beautifully colored beech leaves that had fallen off the trees. A coot was swimming towards me, hoping for me to throw some bread in the water. I didn’t have any bread with me, but I noticed the coot left a nice ‘smokey’ swimming trail behind. By turning my circular polarizing filter the water almost turned black, creating a beautiful contrast and making the colors of the beech leaves stand out." - Says Franka Slothouber.