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FROM THE WILDS of Alaska to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez to a front porch in suburban Ohio, the winners of the 36th annual National Wildlife Photography Awards found inspiration in nature all over North America. This year, for the first time, photographers from all levels of expertise were invited to enter and the competition was conducted in collaboration with Nature’s Best Photography magazine. More than 12,000 images were submitted in eight categories: Mammals, Birds, Other Wildlife, Underwater Life, New Life, Connecting People and Nature, Habitat and Power of Nature. For each, a first-place prize was awarded in both the amateur and professional divisions. One first-place prize was also awarded in the youth division. The grand prize was awarded to an amateur. That image and several of the other winning photographs appear here. To view all of the winning images, along with this year’s honorable mentions and instructions on how to enter next year’s competition, visit www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife and click on “PhotoZone.”
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GRAND PRIZE
Robert M. Palmer
Miliken, Colorado
Late one afternoon in the middle of winter, Palmer was driving around the back roads of eastern Colorado, keeping an eye out for raptors to photograph. Instead, he came upon the makings of a perfect pronghorn action shot. A herd of the animals, startled by the sound of his approaching truck, took off running across a snowy pasture. “I stopped, got out and noticed this ravine that they had to cross,” says the product manager. “So I waited.” Sure enough, the pronghorn reached the ravine and began jumping across, giving Palmer, an amateur photographer, just enough time to use his 500mm lens and 1.4x lens extender to take this digital photograph of about a dozen pronghorn, including one leaping and one landing, in the golden light.
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HONORABLE MENTION, Connecting People and Nature
Peter T. Hartlove
Longmont, Colorado
Every winter, more than 2,000 humpback whales come together off the coast of Silver Banks, Dominican Republic, to mate and give birth. On a trip a few years ago, Hartlove used an underwater film camera and a 15mm lens to photograph this calf (foreground) swimming near the surface while its mother (tail visible in bottom right) keeps close watch, seemingly unperturbed by the diver in the upper left corner of the image. “They’re so intelligent,” says Hartlove of his favorite animals.
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FIRST PLACE, New Life, Professional
James P. Crotty
Kettering, Ohio
Sometimes the most compelling nature is right outside our front doors—literally, in Crotty’s case. Each summer, the photographer’s front porch is home to several young bird families, including this pair of house finches that hatched in a hanging fern. Using a digital camera and a 100mm macro lens, Crotty says he lucked into this image: “I only got that one shot because as soon as they realize you’re not the parent, they go back down into the nest.”
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First Place, Underwater Life, Amateur
Rand McMeins
Edmonds, Washington
“This was probably one of the most amazing things I have ever seen underwater,” McMeins says of his image of a school of thousands of herring being chased by a cormorant. On a dive trip to the Sea of Cortez, the business owner photographed the busy scene using a digital camera, a 10.5mm fisheye lens and a Magic Filter, which helps recapture lost color underwater.
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HONORABLE MENTION, Other Wildlife, Amateur
Erik Enderson
Tucson, Arizona
Enderson came upon this red-spotted toad in a designated wildlife area a few miles from his home. “I heard its distinct call—it’s about a 20-second whistle,” he says. “I found this poor lonely male, all by himself, trying to attract a mate.” Over the next couple of hours, the technical writer returned again and again to find the toad rippling the water with its throat sac as he sang out. He captured the lovelorn amphibian on film using a 180mm macro lens.
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FIRST PLACE, Habitat, Professional
Tony T. Sweet
Eldersberg, Maryland
On a trip to Washington State’s Whidbey Island, photographer Sweet knew just what he was looking for. “I asked someone where the madrona trees were,” he says, “and they told me to go to Madrona Lane.” Once he found the trees (also known as madrone or arbutus), Sweet took “a bunch of photos” of the brilliant red bark, which peels off to expose the wood below. For this panorama, Sweet used a film camera with a 30mm lens.
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