The Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Awards

Not even a month ago, we had the delightful privilege of looking at the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of The Year. Those nineteen pictures, selected among almost fifty thousand entries, are an absolute joy to look at on the screen — I can’t even imagine how much of a pleasure it would be to look at them in print! Luckily, the joy is far from over, and there are further pictures to look at and to vote for. After all, you can’t have People’s Choice Awards without the People, can you?

The Candidates are Here, and Each Picture Is Even Better Than The Last

While the Wildlife Protographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London, these pictures have been shot with a wild range of cameras and lenses, in places as varied as London, Rome, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and many more. Let’s take a good look at them!

Snowshoes

This picture has not only drawn a huge smile on my face; as I read the description, it makes me think of how much patience you need to capture wildlife as it should be captured.

Deena Sveinsson had to lie quietly next to the hare for a few hours until it woke up and started hopping off the snow mound in her direction. As you can see, the efforts yielded a good result. A snowshoe hare, mid hop, its feet pulled towards its head, captured in sharp relief against the driven snow.

Swallow Over Meadow

One of the things I’m learning by looking at these images is that Photography —with a capital pee— means Risk. Even if that risk is so low as “do I dare to lay my Very Expensive Camera in the dirt?”.

Taken near a barn —where these swallows nest— using a remote control, everything about this picture draws the eye. From the fame given by the flowers to the serendipity involved in catching the bird as it flies overhead, the image is gorgeous in all senses of the word.

Hope

A haunting image captured in Guinea by Roberto García-Roa, the all-too-human look in the eyes of the rescued chimpanzee makes me ponder if we shouldn’t be doing any better as a species. This, of course, is a rhetorical question. This was taken at the Chimpanzee Conservation Center in the National Park of Upper Niger in the Republic of Guinea, and as the title suggests, this image gives us some hope about the future.

Starling Murmuration

Searching for the best roosting sites at which to capture the starlings as they were heading back home, it took Daniel several hours —and kilometers walked around Rome and its suburbs— to snap this picture.

Again, serendipity and luck are here in spades. It’s not only about the starlings themselves or the location they were found in but also about how Daniel managed to capture them in an almost perfect bird-like —or even whale-like— formation.

Missed Sip of Milk

You may not know this —I know I didn’t— but humpback whales lack lips, something considered very important when you’re feeding from your mom. Lacking a way to latch onto her, sometimes the milk goes astray, and this is precisely what happened here.

As the calf was rising to the surface, Karim Iliya noticed these strands of milk drifting underwater — and managed a composition I’m very, very jealous of.

And Many Other Pictures to Admire and Vote For

I’m wondering what your thoughts are on these images and which ones you are going to vote for. Our comment section awaits you!

They say art is meant to cause strong reactions and emotions in the audience, and by that measure, these pictures are nothing but art. Looking at them, I feel a strange mixture of curiosity, pique, and FOMO. How did they take them? How can I get better at this? What am I doing sitting at home instead of taking my camera to the nearest natural park?

If you’re feeling any of these emotions, I understand you. Now, go pack your gear!

If, by any chance, you’re in London from October 13 to June 30, you can go and take a peek at the original winners in the National History Museum.