Photography award winners showcase nature from stunning angles

Photographers captured wildlife, landscapes and humans from stunning new perspectives in this year's Nature Photography Contest. The winning photo was Sea Lion in Los Islotes , by Glenn Ostle, showing a sea lion apparently posing for his camera in Mexico. The Photographer of the Year title went to Alain Schroeder for a selection of powerful images. He also won the Sharing the Planet category. Bangladeshi photographer Muhammad Hossain won the environmental impact category with his startling image of a woman sleeping on top of rubbish. The Nature Photography Contest is an annual international award open to professional or amateur photographers from all over the world. Its guiding principle is to remind people of what we have and cannot lose. There are 10 categories including funny nature, birds and underwater. The natural landscapes category was won by Marek Biegalski for his Burning Flower image of Icelandic rivers. “One of my favourite things when exploring Iceland is the incredible glacial river perspective seeing from up high. They're called 'braided river' systems, as they often resemble an intricate jumble of patterns, intertwining in an almost inexplicable fashion,” he said. Soumya Ranjan Bhattacharyya won the wildlife section for Stories in the Sand , showing a scorpion on sand dunes. The macrophotography winner was Adrian Truchta's The Dreamer – Philaeus chrysops. Iceland was also the location for the birds winner, Alessio Calviani's shot of a puffin. Plant life was won by Marcio Cabral for his image, Pandora , showing the beauty of Chapada dos Veadeiros, a Brazilian national park. Marc Marco won the Night World category with Los Arcos y la Cueva , his photo of a panoramic night sky in which the Milky Way passed over a natural rock arch. Environmental impact winner Hossain explained his shot Fatigue Sleep. “Many homeless people in Bangladesh have lost their homes and properties due to frequent floods, river erosion and other natural calamities,” he said. “They were forced to migrate to the Dhaka city in search of a better future. These people have no place to take shelter in big cities. Their day starts in dump hills and streets, in roads or boats to nowhere.” Schroeder won the Sharing the Planet section with a photo of an orangutan being prepped for surgery The Funny Nature award went to Panisara Sripratoom for Monday , an image of a spotted owlet emerging from a hollow in a tree. A shot of a coiled Larval Moray Eel, called Tangle by 家 住, won the underwater section.

Photography award winners showcase nature from stunning angles

The contest operates on the guiding principle of reminding people of what we have and cannot lose

Close-up photographer of the year – in pictures