Wildlife photography brings amazing glimpses of the natural world, making it a timeless way to connect and see the natural world in a different light. The 2022 Big Picture Photography Competition has announced the winning shots of its ninth edition. The contest has been bringing forth some of the most spectacular natural world imagery. This year’s competition encouraged photographers to submit images showcasing life on the earth, and showcase some of the planet’s threats.
The Grand Prize of this year was earned by an incredible shot of cactus bees in a rarely documented position making a “mating ball,” by photographer Karine Aigner. This intimate moment of mating witnesses a swarm of male bees forming a ball for a chance to mate with one female bee. Here are the winning shots and best finalists entries of The Big Picture Competition 2022 that will entirely mesmerize you.
Bee Mating Ball: Like bees to honey, these male insects are running toward a female to get the chance to mate and procreate.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Shiny Bat: This beautiful shot of a fruit bat is aptly titled “Frame Within a Frame,” encapsulated in a ring of pristine, green foliage.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Hidden Underwater World: This deep cenote on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is home to tiny crustaceans.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Montage of Insects: This picture, incredibly impressive, was a result of an overnight outdoor lamp trapping dozens of dead insects inside.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Feeding Frog-Leg Trade: This food market decimates species and creates nonequilibrium in the ecosystem. This photo captures the horrors of this trade.
Image: Big Picture Competition
The Spider and the Beaver: Captured in Hungary’s Kiskunsag National Park, the two different species are bathed in the early sunlight.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Feeding on the Dead: Beautifully colorful bat stars is feeding on a dead sea lion while dotting its body like flowers on a grave.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Aquatic Shooting Star: This Leach’s sea star shot sperm in the water, giving it a Milky Way-like ambiance.
Image: Big Picture Competition
“Tunnel Vision”: Atlantic goliath groupers gather every year to spawn, and this shot is a rare glance of the aftermath.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Snow Dance: A stoat emerging from its burrow in the early morning was surprisingly happy to see the freshly fallen snow.
Image: Big Picture Competition
Glassy Embryos: A female Wiley’s glass frog housed fertilized eggs in a gelatinous mass that deters predators on a fern before dropping into the water to continue their metamorphosis.
Image: Big Picture Competition
The Prey and the Predator: Elusive jaguar coming face to face with a domesticated pig, exhibiting nature’s food chain process.
Image: Big Picture Competition