Friends! It’s competition season again! And the organizers of the prestigious Nature TTL Photographer of the Year competition have announced the winners of this year’s contest. The first prize went to Canadian Thomas Vijayan for his sobering shot of the Austfonna Ice Cap on Nordaustlandet Island in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago—the world’s third largest—which is melting at an alarming rate due to global warming. Beating more than 8,000 entries from around the world, the image earned the photographer a £1,250 (~$1,500) cash prize.
This year, there were a number of excellent underwater images among the winners and runners-up in the various categories—many of them by DPGers. In the Wild Portraits category, recent Photographer of the Week Simon Biddie scored a well-deserved win for his stunning shot of sea lions bursting through a baitball that was the hero image of that feature. In the Underwater category itself, Rowan Dear was the category winner for a beautiful image of a gathering of jellyfish in Sydney, while Andy Schmid was the runner-up for his mind-blowing capture of a female orca splitting a baitball which was the Underwater Seascapes winner in this year’s DPG-hosted United Nations World Oceans Day Photo Competition. Another DPG Photographer of the Week, Talia Greis, was “highly commended” for her splendid leafy seadragon—a fantastic photo of a true Aussie icon!
See the complete winners gallery on the Nature TTL website.
Wild Portraits Category Winner by Simon Biddie
Wild Portraits Category Runner-up by Robert Gloeckner
Underwater Category Winner by Rowan Dear
Underwater Category Runner-up Andy Schmid
Underwater Category Highly Commended by Mike Korostelev
Underwater Category Highly Commended by Talia Greis
