Skip to main content

Photographers capture stunning shots for Nat Geo Nature Photography contest

An underwater photograph of a school of sardines has just earned French photographer Greg Lecoeur a portfolio review with National Geographic and a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands. The image recently captured the first place slot for the 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year.

The image, which also took first in the Action category, depicts two predatory birds diving under the surface and splitting the school as two dolphins chase the small fish towards the surface. Lecoeur waited for two weeks to capture the shot, working to time the dive with the fish migration.

Recommended Videos

“During the sardine migration along the Wild Coast of South Africa, millions of sardines are preyed upon by marine predators such as dolphins, marine birds, sharks, whales, penguins, sailfishes and sea lions,” Lecoeur said. “The hunt begins with common dolphins that have developed special hunting techniques to create and drive bait balls to the surface. In recent years, probably due to overfishing and climate change, the annual sardine run has become more and more unpredictable.”

The Nice, France, native took the shot in June of 2015.

Along with the grand prize, National Geographic judges Kathy Moran, senior photo editor of natural history, and Joe Riis and Jim Bradenburg, both photographers for the publication, awarded first place prizes in three additional subcategories.

A shot of a snake wrapping itself around a branch and looking into the camera took first for the Animal Portraits category, captured by Varun Aditya, of Tamil Nadu, India.

Global warming took the spotlight in the Environmental Issues category with Vadim Balakin, of Sverdlovsk, Russia, taking the title for his shot of a dead polar bear in a pile of fur resembling melting snow. The cause of the bear’s death is unknown, but the photographer said melting ice is creating a rise in the number of polar bears that die from starvation.

The landscape prize went to a young photographer, Jacob Kapetein of Gerland, Netherlands, for a shot of a small beech tree in a river, with the blue water reflecting much larger, towering trees.

Winning shots from the annual contest, including honorable mentions, can be viewed at the National Geographic website.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Fujifilm’s new Instax mini 41 offers more instant-print fun
Fujifilm's Instax mini 41 instant-print camera.

Fujifilm has just dropped the latest addition to the Instax instant-print family of cameras. 

The Instax mini 41 is an update on the four-year-old Instax mini 40, bringing with it a sleeker look and new features to ensure you don’t waste a single sheet of the photographic paper that you pop in the back. 

Read more
Space station meets aurora in this stunning time-lapse video
An aurora as seen from the ISS.

In his final days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Don Pettit has shared a time-lapse video (below) showing the orbital outpost flying above cities at night before passing over a stunning aurora, shimmering in the darkness.  

https://x.com/astro_Pettit/status/1909841414713704577

Read more
The new Polaroid Flip comes with sonar autofocus
The Polaroid Flip camera, launched in April 2025.

Polaroid has just unveiled a new camera for some instant analog fun.

The Flip comes with fewer features than Polaroid's pricier I-2 model, but is more advanced than the Go, Polaroid's most basic instant camera -- so it could hit the sweet spot for some folks looking for such a device.

Read more