These award-winning nature photographs will blow you away

"After spending [a] few days in Borneo, I got this frame stuck in my mind. To get this shot, I selected a tree that was in the water so that I could get a good reflection of the sky and its leaves on the tree. The water formed a mirror, making the image look upside-down. Then I climbed up on the tree and waited for hours. This is a regular path for the orangutans to use, so patience would surely pay off."

"Taken in South Africa, a fish is caught in the moment it is snapped up by a crocodile. The look of surprise really made this shot stand out to me."

"Captured on my DSLR camera trap in a patch of small woodland to the rear of my house. One off-camera flash was positioned to the rear of the subject in an effort to create this silhouette."

"A pine marten inside an abandoned cottage in the Scottish Highlands. I ran a camera-trap in the abandoned house for several months after seeing pine marten scat (droppings) outside the entrance."

"Suspended in time; a sense of waiting pervades this valley where nothing seems to have happened for a thousand years. The shadow of an ancient Camel Thorn tree reaches out, like a blackened hand to the delicate tracings of the Tsauchab River [in Namibia]; yearning for the life that once was."

"Patterns formed by mineral deposits trapped in lagoons."

"Every year after the first rains, the future kings and queens of fungus-growing termite colonies leave their nest on a nuptial flight. They lose their wings minutes later and most will fail in their quest to start a new colony. The flight only happens for a day or two per year and its timing is dictated completely by local rainfall. The termites from this colony were attracted to a light, but after taking several shots, I realized that I could only capture the effect of the swarm by using a slow shutter speed and gradually panning with the flight of the insects. As they were all moving in different directions, I had to take hundreds of shots to capture what I wanted. It was tricky focusing on composition, having to pre-focus and wait for a termite to fly into my focal plane. Meanwhile, I had many termites crawling all over me, but it was worth it in the end."

"On the day I made this image, I was following researchers [at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station] on their daily surveys of the [northern pitcher] plants. Typically, pitchers contain just one salamander prey at a time, although occasionally they catch multiple salamanders simultaneously. When I saw a pitcher that had two salamanders, both at the same stage of decay floating at the surface of the pitcher’s fluid, I knew it was a special—and fleeting—moment. The next day, both salamanders had sunk to the bottom of the pitcher."

"Manta rays are filter feeders, sustaining their huge size by consuming large amounts of plankton and small crustaceans, like krill. The Maldives is one of the only places in the world where you can dive with these majestic animals at night time. For this image, I was positioned flat on the sand, watching one Manta looping around and around whilst feeding on a cloud of planktonic creatures which had gathered. After some time, the manta drifted closer and closer to me until eventually I was able to capture this shot."

"I searched aimlessly for my target underwater, and then I found it. Under the irradiation of light, it presents such a natural circle. Taken in the Philippines."

"There are many instances of negative human interactions with wildlife. But sometimes there are good things, like with these barn swallows building their nest right inside this shop in the Himalayas—safely away from predators. Barn swallows are revered as the goddess of wealth and fortune. They are taken as the harbingers of peace and prosperity. So the people gladly accept the feces and other nuisances made by the birds."

"Arabian Red Foxes usually breed in the desert far away from humans. This is a really rare case and one that I monitored for almost three months. I found two dens near the city of Kuwait, with each den having a family of five kittens with their parents. One den was close to the houses next to the shore of Kuwait, which amazed me when I first saw them! The other den was still next to houses but in an old palm reserve. Finding breeding foxes near the city is something really unusual. Land degradation, habitat loss, human impact, and overhunting in the desert may be why these two families decide to risk it all and breed near the city."

"We were watching this rather photogenic polar bear for a while in Svalbard, Norway, when he climbed a ridge and decided to just rest. All the while the soft afternoon skies created the perfect backdrop for a 'sleepy bear.'"

"Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of rhino poaching, I wanted my picture to convey a sense of hope—a new beginning almost—as if these were the first rhinos being forged in a fire of creation. The effect of the backlit dust, creating a blurred shadow image, added to the ethereal effect. Botswana only reintroduced rhinos to the wild relatively recently. So far the program has been doing well, but ironically the safari companies and organizations involved are reluctant to publicize any details about the rhinos in case it attracts the attention of poaching syndicates. Even so, it is a constant battle to deter and combat potential poachers."

"This photo was taken while we were watching a starling murmuration. This peregrine came out of nowhere to attack the murmuration and I was pleased to capture it at work!"

"I took this picture whilst on a long hike in Switzerland. I saw how the father of these two mountain goats was teaching them how to fight."