If it’s ever occurred to you that nature photography is just taking pictures of animals in their natural habitat, we urge you to think again because these 20 entries for the National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year are no joke.
The four categories in which talented photographers from all over the planet disputed a 10-day trip to the Galápagos and two 15-minute portfolio reviews with National Geographic, are Landscape, Environmental Issues, Action, and Animal Portraits.
You can check the 20 best entries below and be as amazed as we are at how incredible this work is!
More info: National Geographic
1.
Source: Emily Riley
2.
Source: Vladislav Kamenski
3.
Source: Hiroki Inoue
4.
“A colossal Cumulonimbus flashes over the Pacific Ocean as we circle around it at 37000 feet en route to South America”
Source: Santiago Borja
5.
“While enjoying the sights of Chicago’s Garfield Conservatory found this unlikely traveler taking a closer look at this Bromeliad. Sometimes you have to slow down to appreciate the tiny wonders right in front of you!”
Source: Samira Qadir
6.
Source: Kelly King
7.
“This image was taken last summer on Skomer Island, Wales. It is well known for its wildlife, the puffin colony is one of the largest in U.K.The photo shows a detail or study of an Atlantic puffin resting peacefully under the rain. As Skomer is inhabited, puffins do not feel afraid of humans, and so people can be close to puffins and the photographer can think about the right composition and take this kind of intimate portraits. Also that morning the conditions came together: rain and light.”
Source: Mario Suarez Porras
8.
“Waves of fog roll over a neighborhood in Mill Valley, California, as seen from the top of Mount Tamalpais.”
Source: Christopher Markisz
9.
Source: Andrew George
10.
“Every autumn walruses swim to this rookery place in the North of Russia (Chukotka, Vankarem cape). One day, walking along the beach away from the rookery, I came across a lone walrus, who was sleeping on the shore, its tusks sticked in the sand. I carefully crept up to it and photographed it with a wide-angle lens. At some point it woke up and noticed me.”
Source: Mike Korostelev
11.
“A morning stroll into the blissful forest ! Ceaseless drizzles dampening the woods for 12 hours a day; The serene gloom which kept me guessing if it was a night or a day. Heavy fog, chilling breeze and the perennial silence could calm roaring sprits; And there I spotted this 20cm beauty the Green vine snake ! I wondered if i needed more reasons to capture this with the habitat; For I was blessed to see this at the place I was at. I immediately switched from the macro to the wide angle lens.”
Source: varun aditya
12.
“An American Crocodile on the surface in Gardens of the Queen, Cuba.”
Source: Brett Lobwein
13.
Source: Russell Wiltshire
14.
“This Great horned Owl is returning to her nest in an urban area near the busy Citrus county sheriffs office where the county deputies come and go pretty much on a regular basis. As well as it be near the highway leading to the high school campus.”
Source: Robert Strickland
15.
“Kingfisher ( Alcedo athis) male with an engagement present for the female.”
Source: Andrés Miguel Domínguez
16.
“Aerial view of Fall colors, New Hampshire (09/10/2016)”
Source: Manish Mamtani
17.
“Trapper…she is a Great Horned Owl that has recently been fighting cancer of her eye lids (squamous cell carcinoma), but that doesn’t stop her in any way.Trapper gets her name being used as a decoy to attract Swallow Tail Kites, where the research team will catch the kite and fit with telemetry and gain lots of helpful information about kites and their migration. But that’s not her only trait. Trapper also serves as a foster mother for orphaned Great Horned Owlets at Avian Recondition Center.”
Source: Graham McGeorge
18.
“Taking place every year across Galicia, Rapa das Bestas, or “Shearing of the Beasts,” involves cutting the manes of semi-feral horses that live in the mountains. Horses are rounded up into enclosures called curros, foals are branded and the adults groomed before being freed. The best known is the Rapa das Bestas of Sabucedo, which occurs on the first weekend in July.”
Source: Javier Arcenillas
19.
“As I was photographing this young grey seal, we both got caught up in a sandstorm.”
Source: Eugene Kitsios
20.
“Hair lines of zebra”
Source: Yu huiping
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