It is a butterfly photo that allowed Emelin Dupieux, a 15-year-old high school student from Jaujac (Ardèche), to be spotted by the jury of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
The photo titled "Apollo Landing" shows an Apollo butterfly resting on a daisy at nightfall.
Emelin took it on vacation in the Jura.
And he had the good idea to send it to the Natural History Museum in London, which organizes this wildlife photo competition, considered one of the most important in the world.
The teenager dreams of “becoming an animal photographer, traveling to the Far North and to Antarctica”.
Emelin Dupieux
"They received 50,000 photos and I was selected among 100 laureates", proudly tells the young man, who has a special admiration for this endangered butterfly, with white wings adorned with black spots and red ocelli. .
“The Apollo is a large butterfly, a little clumsy, easily recognizable by its very slow flight,” says Emelin Dupieux.
Passionate, like his dad Nicolas, project manager at the Monts d'Ardèche Regional Natural Park, by the nature that surrounds him, the young high school student spends his free time immortalizing wildlife: hours of scouting and hiding to photograph animals.
I would like to offer people a different perspective on nature, as I see it, with this desire to protect it.
"
Read alsoThese emblematic species threatened with extinction on our doorstep
In Ardèche, Emelin likes to contemplate in winter the plunger, a small bird which fascinates him. One day he dreams of immortalizing on glossy paper an encounter with a lynx or a Tengmalm owl. “My dream is to become a wildlife photographer, to travel to the Far North and to Antarctica. There is still a long way to go, but Emelin has certainly found his way.