20 incredible award-winning nature photographs you need to see

The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year exhibit opened this week at the Powerhouse Museum, showcasing the incredible winning entries from this year’s competition. The winners were selected from over 2000 submissions, with Western Australian photographer Mat Beetson’s ‘Fin Whale’s Demise’ announced as the overall winner. Beetson in his winning drone photograph captured the beautifully surreal moment of a Fin whale that was stranded on Cheynes Beach in Albany, WA, whilst being circled by sharks.

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The competition judges Justin Gilligan, Glenn McKimmin and Tui De Roy said that “despite seeing millions of nature photographs over the decades, we have never seen anything that remotely resembles this image. Unique and exciting, it reveals incredible beauty in death… The image surprises by revealing such a shocking scene in a beautiful setting, and speaks volumes of the new dimension the latest technology has opened up for photographers.”

Winners and runner-ups have also been announced for the ten award categories, including New South Wales-based photographer Charles Davis who was awarded the Portfolio Prize for his many entered works, including his heartfelt ‘Big Step, Little Step’ that captures a mother and baby wombat marching up a snow covered hill leaving only small footprints behind in the snowy hillside. Another is the haunting ‘The Watering Hole’ from South Australian Melissa Williams-Brown, who was the winner of the Our Impact award with her photograph of the dried up Cawndilla Creek where animal remains scatter the lakebed, a stark reminder of the ongoing drought Australia is currently experiencing.

See their photographs and others below in our selection of 20 of our favourite entries from the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year exhibition.

The work of these photographers along with the other winners and runners-up can be experienced from Wednesday the 21st of August until Sunday the 20th October at the Powerhouse Museum. The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition is produced by the South Australian Museum.

Above: Fin Whale’s Demise by Mat Beetson

Mountain Echidna by Charles Davis (detail)

Bride in the Bath by Melissa Christi

Decorator Crab by Ross Gudgeon

Cradle Mt Possum by Charles Davis

The Heat Run by Scott Portelli

Life in the Sky by Charles Davis

Gliders’ Home by Charles Davis

Spider on Ice by Raoul Slater

Small but Mighty by Richard Smith

The Ghost of the Forest by Marcia Riederer (detail)

Barron Falls by Neil Pritchard (detail)

Through the Curtain by Nick Monk (detail)

King Pair Conversation by Andrew Peacock

Big Step, Little Step by Charles Davis

Texture by Tracey Jennings

In the Dark by Floyd Mallon

The Watering Hole by Melissa Williams-Brown (detail)

Quoll Reflections by Charles Davis

Curious Encounter by Etienne Littlefair (detail)