Winners 2018

2018 prize-winners

Here you can find the winning photographs in this year’s “European Treasures of Nature” photography competition, organised in cooperation with ‘natur’ magazine, the NaturVision film festival and Gelsenwasser AG. Our warm thanks go to all those photographers who took part!  

Tip: Click on pictures for larger view.

Perfect Harmony

1. Place: Raimund Brandstätter

Forget about Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake! The performance given by these greater flamingos on the Po delta in Italy just before sunset is one of pure elegance with perfect synchronisation. And the tern flying overhead doesn’t want to miss the show either.

The Trio

2. Place: Giuseppe Bonali

What a trio! There’s something rather spooky about the penetrating gaze of these three white featherleg damselflies. What is it that these magnificent predatory flying machines have got their compound eyes on?

Triplets

3. Place: Wilfried Dunckel

Fantastic: lazing on a sandy beach with the sun on your pelt. These three seals are having a spot of relaxation together enjoying the peace and quiet of the mudflats in the Wattenmeer National Park. That’s only possible because the outer ring of sands surrounding the island of Pellworm is out of bounds to us humans.

T-Rex pose

4. Place: Vittorio Ricci

For the majority of the year, the alpine newt is an inconspicuous companion, but in the breeding season males and females get all dressed up in their best swimwear.  Just how striking these amphibians can look at this time of year is shown in this photo.

Gone with the wind

5. Place: Tina Scheffler

A brisk wind is whistling across the Norwegian Dovrefjell mountains on this October day. When the photographer comes across a herd of Musk oxen, she stays right on their trail.  Suddenly the sun breaks through, shining on this female musk ox, who is obviously making the most of the last warm rays of the year.

Leaping into action

6. Place: Andrea Fiora

Diving at full stretch onto the nest, this great crested grebe shows us what parental care is all about. The male and female take turns to sit on the eggs: when one goes fishing, the other wastes no time in taking over brooding duty on the floating nest.  

Three young owls

6. Place: Jose Luis Rodriguez

One of these three really isn’t quite ready to wake up yet. And it can be quite annoying when your brothers and sisters are so adventurous, seeming determined to explore the world beyond the security of this hollow trunk.    

A tender moment

8. Place: Raimund Brandstätter

The eyes meet! These two common blue butterflies (female, left and male, right) are still eyeing each other up, but it’s clear they are drawn to each other. They are both members of the most common species in the family of blues.

Duel

9. Place: Markus Varesvuo

The ruff or reeve is known for its spectacular display. Having arrived at their breeding grounds, the males grow an impressive ruff that they can erect. Then dressed in their extravagantly fancy plumage, they start to duel using their bills as daggers in the hope of attracting the favours of the rather more inconspicuous females.

Thirsty

10. Place: Julian Rad

Luckily for squirrels, there are no crocodiles lurking in our native waters.  So this comical little chap can stop for drink without worrying. Collecting nuts and finding places to hide them really does take a lot out of you…

Lightening on the horizon

10. Place: Miquel Angel Artus Illana

40,000 amps of electric current, between one and two kilometres in length, taking 0.00003 seconds to discharge – and those are just the bare facts about lightening. What the aesthetic effect of this natural phenomenon is, has been captured here in a most impressive way in a photograph taken near Tossa de Mar on the Catalan coast. 

Taking a dip

12. Place: Markus Varesvuo

A cloudy January day in the northeast of Finland: not the weather for a swim, you’d think. Well that shows you don’t know much about dippers! This songbird the size of a starling is perfectly adapted to diving underwater in fast-flowing cold streams where he hunts for the larvae of flies and midges.