Winners of WSC23: Wildlife and Nature

The following post list the winners of WSC 2023.

The winning submission of Wildlife and Nature category shows us the eggs of a salamander freshly deposited in a small hole, surrounded by leaves, soil, and roots. It was made by Pablo Jimenez Velayos.

Comment from the author:

I am a software engineer based in Spain and photography is one of my main hobbies. I’ve been taking photos for most of my life, always fascinated by the ability to freeze a moment in time and being able to relive it later. I also use it to counteract my bad memory.

I was not always a fan of showing my works, deeming them average. It took self-reflection, lots of trial and error and finally, pursuing a degree in photography and video, before I decided to start sharing them with my closest ones. Actually, it was my partner Estela who pushed me to submit some of them to this competition.

The story behind this specific picture is one of cold weather, firewood and foggy mornings. At the time, we lived in a little house in the middle of the forest. Several times a day we would go out to the woodshed to collect logs for the fire that warmed our home. One day, we spotted a huge black and yellow salamander inside the shed. Not far from it, was this little clutch of eggs inside a small hole in the ground.

I took my tripod and tried to get as close as possible to it. I didn’t have a macro lens at hand so I even tried inverting the lens while holding it, but the depth of field was too thin. So, I relied on my 18-35mm while using my phone flash and a hiking headlamp as my sources of light.

After taking some pictures, we covered the hole partially with a log to avoid stepping on them. Day after day we visited to see the progress but sadly, we missed the day the eggs hatched.

Comment from the jury:

Widely appreciated by the volunteers community, this image maybe transcends the typical “wow” factor of wildlife photography, but excels in both artistic expression, with its sharp focus, ideal lighting, and thoughtful composition, and scientific value.

It offers a glimpse into the delicate early stages of life, showcasing some aspects of amphibian reproduction and particularly its relation to its habitat.

Runners-up:

A collection of crane flies hanging from their nest. RidhaAnshari85 from Indonesia.
Macro Shot of the face of a Giant peacock moth caterpillar. Loic92 from France.
Coryphella sp., a nudibranch gastropod (Otranto, Lecce – Italy). Federico Stefanelli from Italy.
Common Blue Damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum) mating. Tavo Romann from Estonia.
The close-up of a full color Galaxea spp in the Sulu Sea. Achierchung from Malaysia.
Hover Fly (possibly Fazia (Allograpta) micrura) on a wild sage (Salvia verbenaca). Tashkoskim from North Macedonia.

Files were published under CC BY 4.0 license.