[imagesource: Qiang Guo / Wildlife Photographer of the Year]

I live vicariously through the vast number of photography competitions we cover.

Working from home is great but it doesn’t come close to the joy that must come with snapping wildlife photos for a living.

The winners of the 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition have already been crowned, and top spot went to French underwater photographer and biologist Laurent Ballesta.

A judging panel determined all of that but for the People’s Choice award, the public was asked to vote on a shortlist of 25 photos.

From those 25, one was chosen as the overall winner and four were dubbed “highly commended” finalists.

The shot up top, reports Gizmodo, shows “two male golden pheasants jockeying for position atop a tree trunk in the Lishan Nature Reserve in Shanxi Province” and earned Qiang Guo of China one of those “highly commended” spots.

Italian photographer Cristiano Vendramin won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2021 for this mesmerizing view of Santa Croce Lake in Belluno, Italy.

The photo received over 31,800 votes, establishing it as the overall winner of the competition.

The three other “highly commended” finalists are as follows.

Ashleigh McCord

A touching image of two male lions sharing a tender moment in the midst of a heavy downpour was one of the four highly commended photos. Ashleigh McCord of the United States captured the photo of the pair while visiting the Maasai Mara in Kenya.

McCord said the affectionate behavior got more intense as the rain got heavier, and at one point the deluge got so intense she could barely see the cuddly cats through the rain.

Jeroen Hoekendijk 

This photo by Jeroen Hoekendijk from the Netherlands is as amusing as it is terrifying. Black bear cubs often climb trees while waiting for their mothers to return with food, but this little guy took the opportunity to sneak in a quick nap.

Unbeknownst to the cub, however, a juvenile bald eagle had been roosting in the same tree and decided to come in for a closer look—perhaps out of curiosity or to ponder a possible meal.

The photo was taken in Anan, Alaska, from a nearby hill Hoekendijk climbed.

Jo-Anne McArthur

This haunting image of an eastern grey kangaroo and her joey captures the plight of Australian animals in the wake of devastating bushfires that ravaged parts of New South Wales and Victoria in 2020.

Jo-Anne McArthur of Canada took this photo at a burned eucalyptus plantation, which she did to document the effects of the fires on wildlife.

Those fires really were heartbreaking to watch from afar. Some estimates claim as many as a billion animals were killed.

The contest is produced and run by London’s Natural History Museum, with more than 50 000 photos from 95 countries submitted.

[source:gizmodo]