Who is the Best Wildlife Photographer in the world?

Wildlife Photography Oscars

Who is the best wildlife photographer in Africa? Who is the best photographer in South Africa or any other country for that matter? All top professional wildlife photographers ask the same question and we turn to the wildlife photographer of the year contest for answers.

Every year a select panel of judges meet at London’s Natural History Museum to select just 100 photographs to represent planet earth and to choose the wildlife photographer of the year. Top international professional wildlife photographers and famous nature photographers compete to be the world’s best wildlife photographer. But it is not only top professional wildlife photographers who compete, the competition is open to everyone and entries are totally anonymous. This anonymity is what helps answer the question of who is the best wildlife photographer in the world? The WPY is the most prestigious photo competition in the world and it is the only contest entered by the most famous nature photographers and top professional wildlife photographers, including National Geographic’s big assignment photographers.

The winning photographs form an annual exhibition that travels the world and is seen by millions of people. The competition is quite simply the Oscars of world wildlife photography. What are you waiting for? You have to be in it to win it and you too could be in the running for the title of world’s best wildlife photographer. Entries open each year on October 20th.

Read the Wildlife Photographer of the Year’s history here.

world's best wildlife photographer - this black and white wildebeest crossing photo placed in the wildlife photographer of the year competition.

River Crossing - This artistic rendition of the wildebeest crossing the Mara River placed in the 2009 edition of the competition, in the black and white category. Here you see a wildebeest leading the charge and jumping into the turbid water, while the rest of the herd follows (Masai Mara, Kenya).

who is the best wildlife photographer in the world? This photo of a black rhino won an award in the endangered category of the wildlife photographer of the year

Golden Rhino Forest - A black rhino feeds on a fallen Acacia tree deep inside a forest (secret location in Kenya). This photograph won me a Gerald Durrell award in the endangered category of the 2010 edition of the competition.

top professional wildlife photographers - this elephant photo won the wildlife photographer of the year contest

Essence of Elephants - This photograph won me the most prestigious title in world wildlife photography when I was named the 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013'. A slow shutter speed, polariser, cool white balance, wide angle lens, rear curtain flash and a very obliging baby elephant, that ran past the front of my camera, all helped to create this mysterious and moody portrayal of elephants (Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana).

best wildlife photographers on instagram - greg du toit has placed 7 times in the wildlife photographer of the year

Twilight Pelicans - My car broke down, most fortuitously, on the shore of Kenya's Lake Nakuru. As it got dark the pelicans came home to roost. Using a very slow shutter speed and a flash, I created this ghostly portrait which was one of just a handful of images selected in the 'Birds Category' of the 2014 edition of the competition.

who is the best wildlife photographer in the world? This wildebeest in the flames won an award in the wildlife photographer of the year photo contest

Fleeing the Flames - In Tanzania's Serengeti National Park a wildebeest with a broken leg faces a raging grass fire. It was tough to watch but also impossible to leave. Focusing in the low light was nearly impossible! This photograph was selected in the most competitive category of all, the mammals category, in 2014. The wildebeest survived, narrowly escaping with its life.

famous nature photographers - an example of a photo by a famous nature photographer

Wild Dog Pack - This pack of wild dog killed an impala antelope right where we were camped, in Mana Pool's Chitake Springs, and it won me a place in the 2017 Black and White category of the competition (Zimbabwe).

wildlife photographer of the year - this is an example of a winning image in the wildlife photographer of the year

Behind the Veil - This abstract portrait of a lioness in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve won a place in the portrait category of the 2020 competition. This photo is currently on display in London's Natural History Museum and will tour the world as a part of a traveling WPY 56 exhibition.

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