See Some of the Year's Best Nature Photos
The world is filled with breathtaking natural landscapes and displays of life in movement. And the recently announced winners of the Nature Conservancy’s annual Photo Contest provide many dazzling examples of both.
This year’s contest was reportedly the largest yet, with the organization saying it received more than 100,000 entries from 196 countries and territories. 2022 also saw the introduction of a climate category, with images meant to illustrate the many ways that climate change is affecting the environment, as well as the ways people are trying to remedy these impacts.
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“The diversity of images from around the world gave a glimpse into our fragile planet and all the life that inhabits it,” said judge Ami Vitale in a statement released by the Nature Conservancy. “The contest itself was a mesmerizing odyssey and we are left with a profound message of how interconnected all of us are and what it means to our own survival to intermingle with wildness.”
Here are the top winners of the contest across six categories, along with some notable and honorable mentions.
The Branching Gullies
This year’s Grand Prize winner went to photographer Li Ping of China. Taken with the help with a drone, it’s an overhead shot of gullies formed by rainwater erosion along a highway in Tibet that somehow ended up resembling the branches of a tree. To accomplish the early morning shot, Ping had to sleep overnight in a roadside parking lot.
The Recovering Grouper
This is one of the honorable mentions of the Water category, taken by Tom Shlesinger. It features an Atlantic goliath grouper surrounded by other fish. These gloriously large animals were once on the brink of extinction, but actions taken to ban their fishing in the Southeastern U.S. in the early 1990s have slowly increased their populations. There remains much debate over a pending decision meant to open up limited fishing of these groupers in the area, however.
A Dusted Mountain
The top winner of the Landscape category went to Francisco Javier Munuera González, who captured this shot along the slope of Mount Adi in Navarra, Spain.
A Fierce Defense
Taken by Fabio Saltarelli, this is one of the honorable mentions of the Wildlife category. It shows an elephant seal defending her calf from a striated caracara looking for its next meal in the Falkland Islands.
An Intruded Beach
This was the top winner of the People and Nature category and features a beach in Greece. According to photographer Janusz Jurek, the factory in the background “broke into the sea, taking the beach away from restful people.”
Lonely Plants
One of the honorable mentions of the Plants and Fungi category, this was taken by Tibor Litauszki. It shows a pair of Crocus flowers at twilight. Though these plants may look isolated, the Crocus genus is found throughout the world, with about 100 known species.
A Lizard Stands Watch
The top winner of the Climate category, taken by Sandesh Kadur in the Chalkewadi plateau of Satara, India. While the fan-throated lizard may take up your initial attention, the background features one of the largest wind farms in the area. The scaling-up of wind energy is one of the many urgent actions needed to stave off the worst effects of a warming Earth.
A Chilly Sediment
The top winter of the Water category, this was taken by Kristin Wright. The almost unworldly aerial image shows off the brightly colored sediment along the glacial river Þjórsá, the largest in Iceland.
The Burned Out Forest
One of the honorable mentions of the Climate category, taken by Jassen Todorov. It shows out the remains of a California forest following the Dixie fire in 2021, the single largest wildfire in recorded history. Though wildfires are a natural occurrence and can even have positive impacts on the environment at times, climate change has and is expected to make wildfires more frequent and intense in the years to come.
Ghostly Fungi
The winner of the Plants and Fungi category, taken by Callie Chee. It shows a collection of ghost mushrooms (Omphalotus Nidiformis) in Australia. These fungi are known for their bioluminescent green glow in the dark.
A Flash In the Distance
The 2nd place winner of the Landscape category, taken by Hendy Wicakson. The well-timed shot shows lightning streaking along a volcano in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in Indonesia.
A Close Pair
The top winner of the Wildlife category, taken by Anup Shah. It shows a close-walking pair of lions in Maasai Mara, Kenya. The much older lion on the right is known to have once belonged to a group of male lions dubbed the Four Musketeers, who ruled over most of the area in their younger days.
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