Which photo won grand prize in the 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest? Photographers submitted images of scenes from around the world, from sardine hunts to powerful tornadoes. Nat Geo editors and expert judges reviewed thousands of images before selecting the finalists. Browse this gallery of winners to find out which images won top prizes and visit our contest homepage to explore even more photography.
Honorable Mention, Environmental Issues: American Flowers #1“In Greenland’s pristine landscape lies a United States Air Force base that was abandoned in 1947. Everything at the base was left behind, including vehicles, structures, and over 10,000 aviation fuel barrels. The Inuits who live in the region call the rusted remains ‘American Flowers.’ In 2014 and 2015, I camped out solo to photograph the area.”
Honorable Mention, Animal Portraits: Crow Chasing a Puffy Owl“The crow saw the puffy owl resting and decided to chase the owl from its territory.”
Honorable Mention, Landscapes: Serendipitous Green Meteor“This picture of a green meteor was captured while taking a time-lapse photo to document the urbanization around the Sky islands in India. The camera was set at 15s exposures for 999 frames and this image came from one of those shots. Green meteor’s greenish color comes from a combination of the heating of oxygen around the meteor and the mix of minerals ignited as the rock enters Earth’s atmosphere. I think for those 15 seconds, I was the luckiest photographer on the planet to have captured this phenomenon.”
First Place Winner, Landscape: Struggle of Life“Many steps are necessary to restore original natural dynamics in streams. Along the Leuvenumse beek trail in the Netherlands, a nature organization tried to increase heterogeneity of the river bottom and water retention by putting dead wood in the stream system. In autumn when rainfall is high, pieces of the forest flooded. I saw this little beech tree in the water, trying to survive under these harsh conditions. I returned to this place to take pictures and one evening all the conditions were right [to make this picture.]”
Second-Place WinnerPhotographer: Ezekiel Ogle, @go_ogle Location: Bulls Island, Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina “Fellow adventure-seeker and lifelong friend Harry Carlin (@jedipope), my six-year-old dog Jack, and I all canoed over to Bulls Island to camp for a night in the Boneyard [Boneyard Beach]. “Bulls Island [is] on the edge of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge on the east coast of South Carolina. More specifically, we were going to visit the northeastern portion of the island aptly named the Boneyard. On this portion of the island, the forest is being slowly overtaken by the advancing ocean. As the ocean encroaches on the forest, the terrestrial plant life is killed by saltwater, leaving only the bones behind. This provides a unique landscape in which the slow battle between the sea and land can be observed. The bare trees are left standing temporarily before the inevitable happens.”
