The 2023 Nature TTL Photographer of the Year awards have been announced, showcasing the stunning beauty of our world. This year's competition saw an impressive 8,000 entries, with Thomas Vijayan winning the grand prize for his poignant panoramic photograph capturing the Austofonna Ice Cap fracturing and releasing majestic waterfalls into the ocean. Vijayan's stunning panorama composition, made up of 36 stitched pictures, leaves little doubt about the truth of climate change and its influence on increasing sea levels.
The awards also recognized a stunning picture of the Northern Lights streaming through an Icelandic cave, a jaguar stalking through a cinder block wall, and a ball of honeybees seeking a new home.
Related: This is Nature at Her Very Best – 20 Mesmerizing Photos
In addition to the overall winner and Young Nature TTL Photographer of the Year, winners were selected in the following eight categories: Animal Behavior, Camera Traps, Landscapes, Small World, The Night Sky, Underwater, Urban Wildlife, and Wild Portraits.
Take a look at some of our favorite winning photographs below, and explore the full gallery on Nature TTL's website.
1. “Austfonna Ice Cap” by Thomas Vijayan (Canada). Overall winner and Landscapes, Winner. Location: Svalbard, Norway
The world's third-largest ice cap, Austfonna, is located on Nordaustlandet Island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago and encompasses around 8,000 square kilometers. It is melting at alarming rates due to global warming, leading to increasing sea levels, which is a major concern. The photographer visited Austfonna Ice Cap and captured a beautiful waterfall caused by melting ice. Even though he had been here before, seeing that the sea ice had thawed in June was upsetting.
2. “Crossing Barriers” by Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar (Mexico). Camera Traps, Winner. Location: Solidaridad, Quintana Roo, Mexico
There had been previous sightings of this jaguar, so the photographer decided to set up a camera trap in a broken wall that led into the jungle. He skillfully arranged one of the flashes to reflect the jaguar's shadow on the wall behind him. Poaching, deforestation, and habitat fragmentation have increased human-cat interactions, and most of the time, it doesn't end well.
3. “House Hunting” by Lucy Monckton (United Kingdom). Overall Youth Winner and Winner, Under 17. Location: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
A swarm of bees crawling over a branch in Staffordshire, UK.
4. “Caring Parent” by Igor Mikula (Slovakia). Camera Traps, Runner-up. Location: Czech Republic
A common blackbird has made its nest in the bathroom window of a cottage.
5. “Depth Perception” by Rowan Dear (Wales). Underwater, Winner. Location: Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia
A large gathering of Jelly Blubber, one of the most commonly encountered jellyfish along the east coast of Australia, spotted in Sydney.
6. “Seal Hunting” by Florian Ledoux (France). Animal Behavior, Winner. Location: Svalbard, Norway
This male polar bear stalked seals at their breathing holes in the ice in Svalbard's frozen expanse. He chose to rest, attentive, and patient after they eluded him.
7. “Strong Solar Storm Through an Icelandic Cave” by Josselin Cornou (France). The Night Sky, Runner-up. Location: Iceland
This photo captures auroras in an Icelandic waterfall cave.
8. “Crowd Control” by Andy Schmid (Switzerland). Underwater, Runner-up. Location: Skjervøy, Norway
A massive orca feeds on an enormous school of herring while they migrate from the open ocean into the fjords of Northern Norway.
9. “My Kingdom” by Simon Biddie (United Kingdom). Wild Portrait, Winner. Location: Los Islotes, La Paz, Mexico
A male sea lion with its harem.
10. “When We’re Gone” by Florian Smit (Germany). Urban Wildlife, Winner. Location: Lower Saxony, Germany
A brown rat in an abandoned house.
11. “Point, Line and Plane” by Yicai Chang (Australia). Small World, Runner-up. Location: Canberra, Australia
A carpenter ant shuttles among the leaves of a grass tree in the Black Mountain Nature Reserve in Canberra.
12. “Walk on the Hill” by Ákos Őrsi (Hungary). Under 17, Runner-up. Location: Tápióság, Hungary
Deer on top of a small hill.
13. “Fighting Robins” by Jane Hope (United Kingdom). Animal Behavior, Runner-up. Location: Scotland, United Kingdom
Two robins battle it out for territory.
14. “Painting” by Florian Smit (Germany). Small World, Winner. Location: Rondane National Park, Norway
This photograph was taken at Norway's Rondane National Park. It depicts a dead moth laying on top of a bacterial coating.
15. “Traffic Intersection” by Simone Baumeister (Germany). Urban wildlife, Runner-up. Location: Ibbenüren, Germany
A spider in front of the city's colorful lights at a busy crossing.
16. “Milky Way” by Bence Mate (Hungary). The Night Sky, Winner. Location: Gyulaj, Hungary
This image was captured with a remote-controlled camera placed inside a fish tank. It was fortunate that the wild boar remained motionless for the duration of the photograph. The Milky Way is rarely low enough in the sky to meet the horizon in Hungary, where this composition was photographed, and this phenomenon occurs only for a few days in August.
