Unseen Moments: 76 Stunning Wildlife Photos That Captivated the NPOTY People’s Choice Over the Years

Pitch-black, so-called melanistic common adders (Vipera berus) can be found in the Alps just as frequently as normally colored individuals. This specific animal was crossing a meadow surrounded by forest in the very Eastern part of the Alps. During wintertime, this area is used as a ski slope. It coiled up and stayed in position for a couple of minutes, giving me enough time to pull out my camera. For the first time, I used a flash during daylight for photographing a diurnal snake. I positioned the flash below the camera, and that allowed me to eliminate the daylight and show this interesting gleam, caused by the light, which split into many different colors as it reflected on the scales.

In this area, there is a very large population of Eagle owls. There are Eagle owls in every quarry, sandpit, gravel pit, and also at some churches. In recent years, I have visited the areas where many walkers spend their leisure time. So the animals there are less shy of people.

As soon as the adult birds leave the breeding grounds after about 5 weeks to keep watch from surrounding trees or houses, and the chicks start to explore the territory on their own, it is a good time to take pictures.

The young animals made their first flight exercises and the first hunting attempts in my unhidden presence. They flew at the church roof, crashed during their first landing attempts at the high cross at the church, and cleaned their feathers before taking a nap. All in the presence of the likewise relaxed old animals and me.

These two young sibling Eagle owls lived at a church in northern Germany – Emsland. After a few weeks, the young owls learned to fly. While sitting at the cross in the evening, the owlets were waiting for their mother.

The Kgalagadi National Park is the second largest Nature Reserve in north west South Africa, and borders Namibia. It is one of the Country’s “Arid” parks, and consists mainly of desert and sand dunes. It is home to all of the large African cats, and big herds of springbok, wildebeest, ostrich and many smaller antelopes. To assist survival of these animals during the extremely hot summer months (daytime often above 45C), some waterholes have been created in strategic spots. The sparse vegetation gives great opportunities for wildlife photographers, especially around the few waterholes. The Blackbacked Jackal have learnt to ambush the Cape Turtle Dove and Namaqua Sandgrouse at some waterholes. Both bird species have a ritual of early morning drinking with its hundreds, and that’s when the Jackal tries to catch some food. The hunt is only successful now and then, but this “game” can last for hours. At the cost of extreme patience, it does provide the photographer with some excitement, and the odd rewarding shot.

On January 10th, 2020, I flew over Lake Magadi in Kenya by helicopter, hoping to see the colorful patterns formed by various minerals floating on the water. When I found an area with particularly beautiful patterns, I asked the pilot to circle around this area for a few more laps to give me time to enjoy the rare beauty. Several flocks of flamingos flew leisurely during the period. When they flew to the appropriate position, I shot hundreds of photos with my Nikon D850 set to 200 second. This is one of them.

There was a seasonal swamp near my home in Coochbehar (India). Every monsoon, the swamp is full of different types of insects and amphibians. I visit that place regularly, almost every day, during the monsoon. One day I came across a group of plant-hopper nymphs that found shelter in the grass blades of a bush in the swamp. The bush was in the middle of the swamp. There was knee-deep mud around the bush. I started observing them and found that there were some paper wasps visiting the bush. The wasps came and took the helpless nymphs into their mandibles.

It was a challenge to take pictures of the paper wasps. I was in knee-deep mud; my movements were restricted. The mud was slippery; standing became difficult, and it was hot and humid. I used a C-type bracket and attached a remote control to it. This is how I used my camera with one hand. On the other hand, I held a flash that was remotely controlled by a transmitter. I used a wide angle-macro lens to take both the wasp and the environment in a single picture. The lens is a manual lens, so you cannot focus automatically. I pre-focused at a certain distance and tried to move the camera towards the flying wasp to get the wasp in focus. It was a ‘trial and error’ method, and 99% of my pictures were out of focus. To get the ambient light, I used a slower shutter speed, a flash to freeze the subject, and a lower angle. So the wasp looked like an alien who came down to attack us. I worked there for a week and got only a handful of photos.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14