The winners of the Natural History Museum's famous Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition were announced on October 10 during an awards ceremony in South Kensington. The award has been showcasing the world's best nature photography every year since 1965. The Natural History Museum in London hosted the flagship Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, featuring the winning photos on October 13, 2023. This year, six Indian photographers were among those honoured with prestigious awards. The winners were chosen from 49,957 entries from 95 countries.
Sriram Murali received The Wildlife Photographer of the Year award in the ‘Behaviour: Invertebrates’ category for his photograph of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve forest in Tamil Nadi illuminated by fireflies in the background of fading twilight. To get the shot, Murali combined fifty 19-second exposures during a 16-minute period.
Vihaan Talya Vikas, secured the award for ’10 Years and Under’ with his image capturing an ornamental tree trunk spider preventing its prey from escaping near Karnataka’s Nallur Heritage Tamarind Grove in Karnataka. He shot it with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II Laowa, 15mm f4 lens; 1/200 at f5.6; ISO 100
Vishnu Gopal's incredible shot of a lowland tapir in a swampy Brazilian rainforest in Tapiraí, São Paulo was featured in the list. He shot it with a Nikon D850, 14–24mm, f2.8 lens, at 14mm; 1/30 at f6.3; ISO 1600.
Other winners were Nejib Ahmed, whose riveting image featured a distressed tiger among anxious people on the fringes of Assam's Orang National Park; Vinod Venugopal's shot which showcased the Neoscona spider; and Raj Mohan's photograph of the Pallikaranai marshes, a Ramsar site, enveloped in flames from burning rubbish. For more, check their Insta page.
