The winners of the annual NatureTTL photo comp have been unveiled, with a fierce caracal hunting flamingos taking the top prize.
Over 8,000 images were entered into the competition, with nature photographers from all over the world competing to secure the £1,500 cash prize.
Overall winner & Category winner, A Cat and Its Prize, Dennis Stogsdill, United States. We had received word about a serval hunting birds along the shore of Lake Ndutu (lower Serengeti) so we raced over to see. Upon arrival, we quickly realised that it was in fact a caracal and not a serval, and it was hunting flamingos that were feeding in the shallows. Within a minute of arrival, the caracal started stalking and eventually was successful (in dramatic fashion) at hunting one of the beautiful but unlucky birds. In this image you see the caracal walking off with its prize.
Dennis Stogsdill from the USA, took the overall prize with his image A Cat and Its Prize, featuring the striking colours of a flamingo in the jaws of an elusive caracal photographed in Tanzania.
“This is nature at its most raw. The caracal is soaked from chasing the flamingos through the waters, but has come out on top,” says Will Nicholls, Founder of Nature TTL.
“The contrasting colours against the dark surroundings really make this image pop. A wonderful scene to have been able to observe no doubt, let alone capture exquisitely on camera.”
Stogsdill takes the £1,500 grand prize and title of Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2022.
Animal Behaviour category, Runner-up, African Elephant Puffing Dust, Michael Snedic, Australia. After wallowing in the mud, this majestic African Elephant was walking towards our safari vehicle in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, Africa. It sucked up some dust in its trunk and before long, it turned its trunk upwards and released a huge puff of dust. My camera was set to continuous shutter and I was clicking away like crazy - an exhilarating moment!
Two Australian photographers were recognised in the competition - Michael Snedic, runner-up in the Animal Behaviour category, and Talia Greis, runner-up in the Underwater category. Two images by French/Australian photographer Josselin Cornou, both captured in NSW, were also recognised.
Underwater category, Runner-up, Caviar. Talia Greis, Australia. A male Eastern Gobbleguts carrying eggs in its mouth. When the female is ready to make the transfer, the male opens his mouth near her cloaca orifice, as she pushes the eggs out in a cone-like manner. The male uses the tip wedged in his throat to keep them in position, while still allowing himself to feed, and protect the precious eggs. He will continue to hold the eggs for a month before hatching occurs.
In total, photographers competed amongst eight different competition categories celebrating the natural world: Animal Behaviour, Camera Traps, Landscapes, Small World, The Night Sky, Underwater, Urban Wildlife, and Wild Portraits - you can see the winners and runners-up for each category below.
Camera Traps category, Winne, Ice Bear, Geoffrey Reynaud, France. A large grizzly bear passes in front of my camera trap. In the Yukon, Canada, a unique phenomena happens every year. The bears will freeze their fur and stay out until the month of December, despite the temperature reaching as low as -30 degrees Celsius. This picture was taken by a camera trap set up along the river about 2 days before a snow storm. The temperature was starting to drop to -15C, and the bear was only starting to become an "ice bear".Camera Traps category, Runner-up, Top of the World, Sascha Fonseca, Germany. A Snow leopard scans for prey across the jagged peaks of the Ladakh mountain range in India. Thick snow blankets the ground, but the big cat’s dense coat and furry footpads keep it warm. I captured this image during a three year DSLR camera trap project in the Indian Himalayas. Challenges were many: High altitude, low oxygen, luna-esque terrain, finding productive locations, getting the equipment in place, and maintaining it over long periods of time.Landscapes category, Winner. Nature Fights Back, Bertus Hanekom South Africa. A thunderstorm passes over a sunflower which, against the odds, has managed to survive on a rubbish dump in the semi-arid Karoo region of South Africa.Landscapes, Runner-up, The Lava, Marek Biegalski. Poland. Lava poured out of the crater – changing Iceland's map forever. The eruption began on 18 March 2021 in the Geldingadalir valley at the Fagradalsfjall Volcano mountain on the Reykjanes peninsula. I captured this image on the 17th of September, as the eruption and lava flow that day was spectacular.Small World category Winner, The Journey of a Moth, Tibor Litauszki, Hungary. I managed to photograph this moth in summer at dusk. To keep track of the flight, I used an LED headlight, and I lit the moth with a flash. I made the twilight mood with multi-exposure inside the camera.Small World category, Runner-up, Pretty in Pollen, Tim Crabb United Kingdom. A Micro-moth (Micropterix calthella) covered in golden balls of pollen from a creeping buttercup flower found in Mutter's Moor near Sidmouth, Devon, UK. The final image is a compilation of focus-stacked pictures.The Night Sky category, Winner, The Top of Australia, Kosciusko, Australia. Josselin Cornou, France. This photo was taken during a trip to Kosciusko, the highest point in Australia. It is also one of the best places to capture the Milky Way, in part thanks to the dark skies.The Night Sky category, Runner-up. The Astonishing, Godafoss, Iceland. Mauro Tronto, Italy. This shot is a mixture of magical elements: the light of the moon whose incidence at the right angle generated a magnificent rainbow; the beautiful northern lights shot just above the lunar rainbow; finally Godafoss, a spectacular waterfalls in Iceland. All elements are real and occurring at the same time.Underwater category, Winner, Sunset Ray, Andy Schmid, Switzerland. A Pink Whipray splitting a school of Bannerfishes, shot against the setting sun on a late afternoon at the famous dive site "Tuna Factory" that is located close to Malé, the capital of the Maldives. Photographed while SCUBA diving.Urban Wildlife, Winner. City Hare. Jan Piecha, Germany. During the daytime this place on the outskirts is totally crowded by people going about their daily business. But at night, it belongs to the animals that come out to play under the streetlights.Urban Wildlife, Raunner-up, Glow Worm Metropolis, Josselin Cornou, France. A city of glow worms are populating this old train station, providing beautiful lights on rainy days. This place was an old railway, which is now abandoned. The railway was closed at the beginning of the 20th century. Then, nature started to populate this place. In this photo, millions of glowworms can be seen. To make this photo happen, I had to travel to the location during a storm, as an ephemeral waterfall would start to appear. A day after this photo was taken, the tunnel was flooded.Wild Portraits category winner, I See You, Tomasz Szpila, Poland. When a huge lion looks you right in the eyes, you immediately forget that you are sitting safely in the car. Instinctively, you cower and slowly retreat deeper inside the car so as not to provoke a predator. Fortunately, he and his brothers were busy consuming the young buffalo that had been hunted several minutes earlier.Wild Portraits category, Runner-up. A Moment of Wilderness, Matt Engelmann, Switzerland. Since I cautiously observed the dog fox for a month, I noticed that this place was well used as a marking spot. The picture is taken with a wide-angle lens with a remote shutter release, so as not to disturb the fox.Under 16 category, Winner. Vantage Points, Achintya Murthy, India. Malabar Parakeets are wonderful creatures. They are also called blue winged parakeets. They usually flock together and are seen in huge numbers. In the midst of a bunch of activities, it was my privilege to shoot this image from a bird hide. These two are fighting over a stump that had paddy grains as its feed.Under 16 Runner-up, Great Crested Grebe, Maksymilian Paczkowski, Poland. My local pond is great place for grebes. There are at least four breeding species on this pond and they're pretty tame because fishermen are often there. This little great crested grebe was posing for me through all the time that sun was setting.
