“Nima’s breathtaking and poignant picture permits us to see the sweetness and fragility of our planet,” mentioned Douglas Gurr, director of London’s Pure Historical past Museum, which hosts the yearly competitors.
Greater than 50,000 pictures had been entered into the competitors final 12 months, of which 25 had been shortlisted by a panel of judges and the Pure Historical past Museum, it mentioned. “Ice Mattress” was chosen because the winner by 75,000 members of the general public — a document quantity, the museum mentioned.
Listed below are the 4 different pictures that had been extremely counseled within the competitors:
Tzahi Finkelstein captured this second between a Balkan pond turtle and a northern banded groundling dragonfly, whereas photographing shore birds in Israel’s Jezreel Valley.
“The dragonfly unexpectedly landed on the turtle’s nostril, however as an alternative of snapping up the insect, the turtle gave the impression to be experiencing pleasure from the interplay as they shared a second within the midst of the swamp’s murky waters,” the Pure Historical past Museum mentioned.
‘Starling Murmuration’
Daniel Dencescu spent hours following starlings round Rome on a cloudless winter’s day earlier than he managed to seize a flock of them swirl into the form of an enormous chicken. The mesmerizing phenomenon of flock of starlings shifting into totally different shapes is often known as murmuration.
On this photograph by Mark Boyd, a pair of lionesses might be seen splitting parenting duties as they affectionately groom one of many pleasure’s cubs in Kenya’s Maasai Mara.
Audun Rikardsen performed with publicity and flash to {photograph} an impressive aurora borealis — often known as the northern lights — illuminating a pair of moon jellyfish within the waters of a fjord exterior Tromsø, northern Norway.