The Annual Photography Awards once again dropped jaws worldwide with their Nature category winners — fifteen jaw-dropping shots that make you fall in love with Earth all over again. These photos aren’t just about pretty sunsets or forest trails; they’re pure storytelling through light, patience, and passion. From misty mountain tops to the thunderous roar of storms, every frame captures the heartbeat of the planet.
Taking first place this year is Sombre Lumière, whose striking photograph “Xavier Delorme” is a symphony of lightning, land, and emotion. He describes his journey as one spent chasing storms across the country, seeking that perfect balance between chaos and calm — “a confrontation between the human imprint and the power of nature.” His image doesn’t just freeze a moment; it electrifies it.
The other winners bring equally mind-bending perspectives — glaciers glowing like jewels, forests drenched in gold, deserts whispering their secrets under starry skies. Together, these images remind us that our planet isn’t just alive — it’s art in motion.
What makes this year’s collection so powerful is the emotion behind every shutter click. You can feel the wind, smell the rain, and almost touch the silence. These photographers don’t just show nature — they let us feel it.
The Annual Photography Awards 2025 is now officially open for entries, with the deadline set for December 14th. Whether you’re a pro with a DSLR or a dreamer with a phone, this is your shot to showcase the world through your own lens.
You can find more info:
#1. Nature Photographer of the Year: "Xavier Delorme" by Sombre Lumière
"These many years, traveling the roads of the country to photograph storms, led me to a search for more striking compositions between sky and earth. I started with cereal landscapes, but the storm structures are not very varied. So I went looking for new horizons to immortalize lightning and stage landscapes where the human imprint confronts the power of nature."
#2. Climate & Weather – 2nd Place Winner: "The Magical Rainbow Over the Truso Valley" by Pawel Jagiello
"An extraordinary rare phenomenon of a full, circular rainbow captured from a bird’s-eye view over the Truso Valley in Georgia. The low-hanging sun in the west beautifully illuminated the dense downpour approaching from the south, creating an exceptionally intense circular rainbow. Additionally, part of a secondary rainbow is visible, with its colors inverted."
#3. Climate & Weather – 3rd Place Winner: "Night and White" by Carole Reboul
"A series that takes us into the deep darkness, in winter, with snow and under the stars.
This is the nocturnal world as we see it, a world where other senses take over. The cold or humid air, the roar of the wind or the silence, the mysterious silhouettes, everything contributes to the magic of these sleepless nights. Why B&W ? At night, our eyes are not able to perceive colors."
#4. Humans Impact & Conservation – 1st Place Winner: "The overflowing earth" by Sebastian Piorek
"Over the past two years, I have traveled across various landfill sites in Poland, capturing the sprawling landscapes of waste that grow with alarming speed. Each image provides a view of the sheer magnitude of trash piling higher and spreading wider."
#5. Humans Impact & Conservation – 2nd Place Winner: "Chimp Paradise" by Alian Schroeder
"Founded in 1997, Save the Chimps is the largest privately funded chimpanzee sanctuary in the world. Its mission is to provide a safe haven to captive chimps that have been exploited by humans for research, testing and entertainment."
#6. Humans Impact & Conservation – 3rd Place Winner: "Forgotten lives" by Human Cruel Ties
"This powerful series captures intimate portraits of animals trapped within the confines of industrial farming. Each image reveals the emotional depth and resilience of the animals, offering a rare, close-up view into their lives."
#7. Macro & Micro – 1st Place Winner: "Frozen" by Oleksandra Budna
"The ephemeral beauty of flowers captured in ice, then frozen in time with a camera."
#8. Macro & Micro – 2nd Place Winner: "Kalia" by Guylaine Couttolenc
"From a very young age, coexistence with nature has been a very important pillar in my life."
#9. Macro & Micro – 3rd Place Winner: "The many faces of a soap bubble" by Luc Pouliot
"In this photographic series, we journey into the delicate and mesmerizing world of soap bubbles, capturing the intricate beauty and ephemeral nature of one of the simplest yet most fascinating phenomena. Through the lens of macrophotography, we reveal the many faces of a soap bubble—its shifting colors, fragile reflections, and transient forms that often go unnoticed by the naked eye."
#10. Natural Landscapes – 1st Place Winner: "Mulagljufur Canyon" by Timo Zilz
"This is the most enchanting an beautiful scenery ive ever witnessed. This picture nearly combines everything about iceland. Green moss, a river flowing in a canyon and in the background a majestic mountain top, covered in snow and sorrounded by fog."
#11. Natural Landscapes – 2nd Place Winner: "Rock Safari" by Austin Irving
"ROCK SAFARI is a large format analog study of rock outcroppings illuminated by a high-powered, long-range hunting flashlight. Nestled in various locations of the Mojave Desert, these formations are slowly and selectively painted with light during exposures on 4×5 color negative that range from eight to forty-five minutes."
#12. Natural Landscapes – 3rd Place Winner: "Wonderful world of glaciers" by Nadine Galandi
"The glaciers of Iceland cast a spell over me every time. This millennia-old ice, in blue or covered with lava ash, which is unfortunately becoming visibly smaller every year. The continuous glacier, which feeds the two glacial lakes Jokurlsarlon and Fjallsarlon via a continuous ice cap, is a pure natural beauty from above, from the side and also from below. What a pity that in a few decades all this will have disappeared."
#13. Wildlife & Animals – 1st Place Winner: "Osprey Intensity" by William Pully
"An Osprey spirits away its catch with maximum focus and intensity."
#14. Wildlife & Animals – 2nd Place Winner: "The Mara" by Anup Shah
"This is the visual portrait of the big animals of Maasai Mara, Kenya. I have attempted to propels the viewer into the middle of this evocative land and its resident animals, immediately and intimately. I have tried to provide a startlingly fresh and rarely seen view of life in this wild habitat."
#15. Wildlife & Animals – 3rd Place Winner: "Maternal Serenities" by Estebane Rezkallah
"This mother bear, nursing her cubs, makes us privileged witnesses of this sacred moment."
