In some recent positive news, the winners of the inaugural Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2020 competition were announced today. This international competition saw 7,000 incredible entries from wildlife, landscape, and macro photographers in 117 different countries and we are proud to share the winners with you.
Nature TTL Grand Prize Winner
French photographer Florian Ledoux took the £1000 grand prize with his image Above the Crabeater Seals, taken with a drone flying above the ice floats in Antarctica. He secures the title of Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2020.
Aerial view of crabeater seals resting in a group on the ice after feed-ing at night. The aerial view allow us to better understand how the wildlife use the ice to rest and give birth.
“I am so excited to be chosen as the overall winner, I was never expecting this,” said Ledoux. “For me, it is very important to show the state of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and to have an image from there win this award is important exposure.
“It is important that anyone inspired by this style of drone image understands the importance of wildlife and being ethical in your approach. Ensure that your drone does not spook animals or disturb them, and always conduct yourself within accordance of local regulations.”
Wildlife cameraman, and organiser of the competition, Will Nicholls said, “Florian’s image provides a unique angle that is not often seen in wildlife photography. The judges had a tough choice to make, but the detail and strong composition of the seals surrounded by the broken ice made it stand out from the crowd.”
Nature TTL Landscape Winner
Photographer Marek Biegalski won the Landscape category, also with a shot taken from a drone, showing a flock of sheep sheltering from the heat under a tree.
Aerial image taken in Tuscany in autumn light. Flock of sheep was hiding in the shade from the sun under the shadow of a tree.
Nature TTL Macro Winner
The Macro category was won by Chinese photographer Minghui Yuan with a simplistic, two-tone image of a damselfly resting on some blades of grass.
I was wearing a piece of waterproof overalls in the stream of Dabie Mountain, waiting to observe this Matrona basilaris (damselfly). Matrona basilaris is the king of the stream here. There is a male Matrona basilaris every 3 meters. They were waiting for the female to fly over its territory; the male chased away a male opponent and then stopped at the tip of the grass. Against the background of the sky, I discovered the connection between the lines of the grass and the subject. Nature itself is a simple painting.
Nature TTL Youth Winner
The Youth category was won by 15-year-old Saptarshi Guyen from India with his image “Phoenix”. His image shows a drongo on the hunt for insects fleeing grassland fires set by farmers to clear the land.
For the last 4-5 years I have seen that, at the end of every winter, farmers of this huge grassland generally burn the grass and reeds to clean the land for upcoming crops. When the fire spreads across the land, small insects start coming out. Then the brave Black Drongo starts capitalising on such a moment by eating them and flying above the live fire. The birds usually sit on a branch fearlessly and watch the movements of the insects as the fire spreads into a new area, then it flies close to the fire for the catch. This is a full frame image, and the calmness of the Drongo reminds me of the Roman Emperor Nero.
Thousands of people voted for the winner of the People’s Choice Award, helping Robert Ferguson to securing the £500 prize as the winner of this category. His image of a pelican struggling to swallow a fish shows incredible detail and behaviour.
This is the Great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus), struggling with a non-native fish. These wonderful birds are free to roam, but have established a large colony on one of the artificial islands in the old Jurong park in Singapore. I had set up my camera to take some portraits and watch their behaviour, and noticed one particular bird that had caught one of the big fish from the pond. I watched, intrigued, as the bird swam in circles, dipping his bill, taking water, then raising his beak to attempt to swallow his large prey. But every time the fish extended its sharp spines on its fins – you can see it hooked on the beak here – and lodged itself firmly. This went on for over 20 minutes, with no sign of either party tiring. I was fascinated to see the intricate veins in the birds throat pouch, as the overcast day backlit the thin skin, and I had to move and crouch low to the ground to get the shot.
Nature TTL is the world’s largest online resource for nature photographers, bringing together the best talent in wildlife, macro, and landscape photography.
Please visit the Nature TTL website for more information and be sure to check out the gallery below for more of the winning and runner up images!
In early autumn the valley of the Scheldt is often filled with a thick layer of fog on clear and windless mornings. When the sun starts to rise the fog slowly disappears revealing the landscape underneath. When seen from above this atmosphere is simply magical.
A brown bear growls a warning of his presence to an interloper, his breath vanishing slowly in the windless forest.
An incredible display of man and nature. The exhaust plume of a SpaceX rocket is lit by the low sun at twilight. The plume takes on the shape of a flower with the trail almost looking like a broken stem as it shoots out from behind the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains. I couldn’t have asked for a better scene as it shot up over a brilliant display of colourful fall aspens. One of the most incredible things I’ve been able to witness and capture on a camera.
This shot is comprised of two exposures: one for the sky and one for the foreground without moving the camera.
The Lichen Huntsman (Pandercetes gracilis) is an incredible species of tree- dwelling spider from Australia’s tropical north. Its astounding camouflage enables it to blend perfectly with the tree bark and lichens, and is near im- possible to spot by day.
At night, I went searching for these spiders with a torch, using their reflective eye-shine to discover their hiding places in plain sight.
It was past midnight in the forest of the Peninsular Botanic Garden (Trang, Thailand), but a light still shone in the dark. A large firefly larva (Lamprigera sp.) emitted a constant glow from its light organs.
I wanted to capture the scene in a way that celebrated its bioluminescence, and decided on a long exposure with rear-curtain flash. The shot had to be made in near-total darkness, which meant I had to estimate the position of the firefly larva in the frame.
I had been putting in the hours watching a number of setts in the
area but decided to focus on this particular one due to the abun-
dance of bluebells. I set myself up close to one of the badger
tracks, knowing that I would only have one shot and I would need a
lot of luck. After a good couple of hours, I began to hear movement. The light was fading fast and I knew that I would not have long before it would be too dark for any pictures.
An adult badger came towards me first, sniffing the air as they often do and heading towards me. It drifted out of shot and into the bluebells, but much to my delight behind it was a cub. He seemed comfortable enough so I clicked the shutter and got a couple of shots.
This is a scene very close to one of the popular mountains of Iceland. While flying my drone to the mountain with my drone’s camera pointed downward, I suddenly noticed this beautiful landscape with the blue river perfectly pop- ping against the black sand. The sun peeking through the clouds added more drama to the scene.
A Collared Dove in a garden in mid-Norway takes a break in feeding during a heavy snow fall. A remote street light in the background cre- ates a halo around the bird. As soon as the snow-fall stops it shakes the snow off its shoulders and goes back to the daily routine with col- lecting wheat from the nearby fields. Tried many different shutter- speeds to vary the movement of the snow, this one is at 1/40s.
My grandfather took me on a tour of the quarry to see if there were any animals there. We were lucky, and I was photographing a young fox as she looked out of her hiding place.
The baby little owl made an appearance within the window during a
burst of early morning sun. A couple of jackdaws spooked by his
presence started dive bombing him. After a few passes I noticed the
jackdaw’s reflection in the adjacent windowpane and decided to try
and capture this behaviour. The startled look on the little owl’s face adds a little humour to the im- age.
I have observed and photographed damselflies on the ponds in my local park in London for years. Last summer, during the July heat- wave on an especially hot and muggy but overcast day, I went with the intention of trying to capture some shots using exposure com- pensation as I’d recently begun experimenting more with it.
The damselflies were out in great numbers all over the surface of the
water and due to the lack of direct sunlight I was able to shoot with a bit of positive compensation to leave the water white or near white. It then just became a question of looking for the most pho- togenic pairing and this group stood out due to the symmetry. This breeding behaviour lasted exactly 1 day, as the next day I went back and the activity had already subsided for another year.
I am very attached to this photograph, both because of the technical
difficulty and because it took years to make it. Over the last few
years, I have found myself dozens of times in Iceland, several of which I was lucky enough to wit- ness incredible conditions on the Vestrahorn.
Seeing such a powerful sunrise on the right was already magical, and the very intense rain made things difficult for me but it gave me a great gift: a double rainbow on my left that perfectly com- pensated the strong light on the right. 88 layers in Photoshop to create a panorama; 6 shots bracketed.
Late winter in February, the soda lakes are full of life in Hungary. These lakes are the sanctuary of wide variety water birds.
There is a nice, but unknown, hidden lake between the village of Tömörkény and Pálmonostora which is surrounded and covered with cane and sedge – therefore impossible to observe.
I took this aerial photograph by a remotely controlled drone. I use a special technique to slowly approach the birds from very high altitude, which is a method also used by conservation experts to count the population of the birds.
In the picture the wild ducks roil in the muddy water and leave lines in the yellowish-brownish, sometimes purple, water coloured by organic materials coming from decomposition of cane. The sparkling colour pallet of the image is composed by the blue sky and the white cloud reflection on the water’s surface.
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