The Wildlife Photographers Of The Year 2014 Are Absolutely Amazing! Check Out The Top 5 Photos Here!
1. The Last Great Picture
Winner ‘Black and White’ and overall ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’
Picture: Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols
The winners in the 50th Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition have been announced, with this photograph of lazing lions beating more than 42,000 entries from 96 countries to the top award.
American photographer Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols was named Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014 by a panel of international judges for his serene black-and-white image of lions resting with their cubs in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
Nichols followed the pride for nearly six months and they became used to his presence. This shot was taken in infra-red, which he explains, ‘transforms the light and turns the moment into something primal, biblical almost’.
2. Sunbathing At Dusk
Winner ’10 Years and Under’ and overall ‘Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year’
Picture: Carlos Perez Naval
Eight-year-old Carlos Perez Naval was awarded Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014 for his image of a scorpion soaking up the Sun near his hometown in Spain.
The late afternoon light was casting such a lovely glow over the scene that Carlos decided to experiment with his first ever double exposure to include the sun.
3. The Long Embrace
Winner ’15 to 17 Years’
Picture: Anton Lilja
Hearing that masses of common frogs were gathering in a flooded gravel pit near his home in Västerbotten, Sweden, Anton Lilja set out to photograph the mating spectacle. Lying down on the bank at eye level with the water, he became fascinated by the light bouncing off the spawn and the water, which by now was vibrating with the activity of the frogs.
Experimenting with his flash, he achieved the effect he wanted just as a pair of frogs in amplexus popped up right in front of the camera, the male revealing his throat to be flushed with blue. They stayed posed amid the glossy wobbliness, allowing Anton time to compose his shot.
4. Apocalypse
Winner ‘Earth’s Environments’
Picture: Francisco Negroni
Straight after the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex began erupting, Francisco Negroni travelled to Puyehue National Park in southern Chile, anticipating a spectacular light show.
But what he witnessed was more like an apocalypse. From his viewpoint, he watched, awestruck, as flashes of lightning lacerated the sky and the glow from the molten lava lit up the smoke billowing upwards and illuminated the landscape.
Volcanic lightning (also known as a ‘dirty thunderstorm’) is a rare, short‑lived phenomenon probably caused by the static electrical charges resulting from the crashing together of fragments of red‑hot rock, ash and vapour high in the volcanic plume.
5. Touché
Finalist ‘Birds’
Picture: Jan van der Greef
A focus of Jan van der Greef’s trip to Ecuador was the astonishing sword-billed hummingbird – the only bird with a bill longer than its body (excluding its tail). Its 11cm bill is designed to reach nectar at the base of equally long tube-shaped flowers, but Jan discovered that it can have another use.
One particular bird had a regular circuit through the forest, mapped out by its favourite red angel trumpet flowers and bird-feeders near Jan’s lodge. To get to the bird-feeders, it had to cross the territory of a fiercely territorial collared inca. Rather than being scared off, once or twice a day ‘it used its bill to make a statement’. To capture one of these stand-offs, Jan set up multiple flashes to freeze the hummingbirds’ wing-beats – more than 60 a second – and finally captured the precise colourful moment.
Source: The Telegraph UK
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