While diving into the Blue Corner, a coral reef off the coast of Palau in the Western Pacific, Yung Sen Wu was drawn to an impressive school of barracudas.
After spending four days swimming with them, the photographer was eventually accepted as "part of the group".
It was on this fifth day, after fifty minutes of exhausting swimming among the fish, that he was able to take “the perfect photo” representing “the point of view of a barracuda within his group”.
The barracudas of Yung Sen Wu (Taiwan).
Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Yung Sen Wu
This spectacular image was selected by the Natural History Museum in London for the 58th Wildlife Photography Competition of the Year. And she is one of the “25 unforgettable scenes” competing in the People's Choice Award, alongside an elusive Costa Rican tapir, a polar fox in the icy Norwegian air, rescue a pink dolphin from the Amazon or a herd of zebras grouped together near a body of water in Namibia ...
This year, the 2021 Grand Jury Prize went to French diver Laurent Ballesta for a snapshot of a grouper fertilizing eggs.
It is also within the framework of this competition, considered the most important in the world in terms of animal photography that a 15-year-old high school student from Jaujac in Ardèche succeeded this year in being spotted by the jury of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Karl Samitsch (Austria) seized a squirrel in action in a Scottish forest.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Karl Samitsch
If you are passionate about animals, the environment and photography, you have until February 2, 2022 to vote online and choose your favorite shot.
These images were selected by the Natural History Museum from among 50,000 photographs from 95 countries and are currently also on display in London.
Captured by the photographer's gaze in less than a second, they are very often the result of a long hunt.
Meetings made of a lot of patience, on the one hand of luck and meticulous preparations.
Note that the name of the winner will not be known until a few days after the voting closes on February 9.
Patience and extreme conditions
Like Yung Sen Wu's spectacular shot among barracudas, getting the right shot takes a lot of persistence.
It took Andy Skillen to capture the passage of a female grizzly bear walking on a tree trunk above the water along a remote river in the Canadian Yukon.
Andy Skillen (United Kingdom) waited in the cold for a female grizzly bear to pass over a tree trunk above the water in the Canadian Yukon.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Andy Skillen
He had to wait patiently in a cold of - 30 ° C before being able to grab and immortalize the wet fur of the bear which had turned into ice cubes.
Andy could even hear them jingling as the female took small steps.
To take this shot, the photographer had to go deep into the wilderness as the nearest town was two hours away by helicopter.
To capture unique moments, you sometimes also have to venture into the heart of the jungle at night.
This is what Javier Aznar González de Rueda did to bring back the photo of a female thorn-hearted weaver spider building a… egg crate.
To capture this moment, the photographer went one night to the Amazon rainforest near Tena, Ecuador.
He watched an arachnid mother, suspended from a single silk thread, spend hours carefully constructing a safe cocoon for her eggs.
Javier Aznar González from Rueda (Spain) spent a night in the Amazon rainforest near Tena, Ecuador, to see this mother arachnid, suspended from a single silk thread.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Javier Aznar González de Rueda
Among the breathtaking images selected are also the very moving one of a mother kangaroo and her baby, survivors of a eucalyptus forest burnt by the devastating bushfires that swept through the states of New South Wales and New South Wales. Victoria in Australia at the start of 2020.
Strengthen our connection to the natural world
“The public prize offers striking observations of nature and our relationship with it, arousing our curiosity and strengthening our connection with the natural world,” underlines Dr. Natalie Cooper, researcher at the Natural History Museum and member of the jury.
It is an incredible challenge to choose only one of these images ”.
If the winner will be presented until next June at the heart of an exhibition dedicated by the Museum to the animal photographers of the year, the five best images of the People's choice Award will be displayed online.
Through this event, which appeals to the eyes of amateurs and professionals, the London Museum has pursued the same objective for more than half a century: "To use the unique emotional power of photography, through these images which are seen by millions of people around the world, highlighting the beauty and diversity of the natural world to call for its protection ”.
