Bernhard Schubert

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 by GDT

2nd place – Rewilding Europe Award

Huchen habitat

A pair of huchen (Hucho hucho), also known as Danube salmon, swim above a spawning pit that the female has dug into the streambed. The fact that these fish have reached this stage of their life cycle is far from guaranteed. Reaching their spawning grounds requires uninterrupted migration paths, yet they face numerous obstacles, such as impassable weirs. Untamed river sections, like this one on the Pielach in Austria, are crucial for their survival.

Highly Commended – Birds

Bird

Among pelican species, the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is famed for its dramatic hunting technique: diving headfirst from the sky into the water. But this young brown pelican took a more relaxed approach, choosing to perch on a bridge pillar, waiting patiently for a fisherman to toss his bycatch. Bit by bit, I was able to approach, taking my time to capture the intricate details of its plumage and distinctive bill.

Biophoto Contest 2024

Seas, oceans and coastlines – 2nd place plants and fungi

Tidal pool eye

Red algae growing in a tidal pool of a rocky coastal stretch on the Canary Island of La Gomera. The circular shape of the formation drives the red algae to grow towards the center, creating a visually striking pattern.

DGHT “Herpetofauna in the spotlight” 2024

Overall winner

Austrian Nature Photographer 2023 (VTNÖ)

1st place and photo of the year– Mammals

Swarming bats

Every day at dusk an impressive natural spectacle takes place in the dense jungle of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán Peninsula. Millions of bats emerge from the lower cave entrance to make their way to their hunting grounds. They wind up clockwise in the form of a spiral, bringing air from the underground with them — a sensory experience for both the eyes and the nose.

1st place – Nature as Art

Glamour plumage

Turkeys are not particularly famous for their beautiful appearance, and the same goes for the species native to the Yucatán Peninsula, the ocellated turkey. However, their plumage is all the more impressive; at the right angle, it shimmers in a multitude of colors. The pattern itself, reminiscent of the scale-like coat of a fish, immediately fascinated me. Among the deeply hidden Maya ruins of Calakmul in the jungle close to the Belizean border, a group of Ocellated Turkeys allowed me to get closer, enabling me to take even close-up photos.

1st place – other animals

Bat snack

The Yucatán rat snake typically hunts for lizards and small mammals on the forest floor. However, in the Mexican Kantemo cave, they have found a completely new niche – bats. As the bats leave the cave system in swarms at the onset of dusk, the scaled predators lie in wait in absolute darkness at narrow passages, for their easy meals.

1st place – insects and spiders

Unusual encounter

A washed-up scrawled cowfish on a Mexican sandy island sparks a conversation between two ants. Presumably, it won't be long before the area is swarming with fellow ants eager to partake in this feast. With their rigid body shape and short fins, boxfishes are probably the least capable among all fishes to maneuver themselves out of such a dilemma back into the water.

3rd place – nature in human hands

Coral farm

Hotel operators in the Balinese town of Candi Dasa learned a sad lesson through experience. The removal of coral reefs for construction materials allowed the waves of the Indian Ocean to reach the beaches unimpeded and with full force. To prevent ongoing erosion and sand loss, substantial breakwaters were constructed, essentially taking on the protective role of the reef. With gained insight, many coastal areas have since been revitalized with coral reefs. However, this process is slow due to the gradual growth of coral and their sensitivity.

3rd place – insects and spiders

Prominent’s painting

Nothing really motivated me to take the camera out of my backpack during my hike through the Leitha floodplain on this cold, damp late November day. Darkness quickly set in, and I made my way back with a headlamp. Moths fluttered towards me repeatedly, only to find themselves on the ground or in the bushes after a downward spiral. Upon closer inspection, I determined that they were probably plumed prominent moths. In the end, the subject was indeed found, and the excursion was not entirely in vain. Using a slower shutter speed, the light from my headlamp, and a flash, I attempted to capture this spiraling flight photographically.

Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2023

Highly Commended – Landscapes

Foggy Landscape

During autumn, as most kinds of trees drop their leaves, I visited the Alps of Berchtesgaden. Leaving the hard and pretty unimpressive ascent behind, the fog slowly cleared up and set some of the neighboring hilltops free. Between other evergreen conifers, the larch trees were already in full process of changing colour and stuck out of the landscape. I actually had Alpine ibexes and chamois in mind as I went out for a 2-day hike into the Alps of Berchtesgaden. Equipped with a 135mm f/2 lens, I was looking forward to getting some amazing subject separation of the aimed animals. However, the trip came out a little bit differently than I had hoped, and I did my best to take landscape pictures of the foggy mountains.

Highly Commended – Small World

Magic spores

On a night hike through a Bornean national park, I noticed this bracket fungus releasing masses of spores. At first, I held my headlamp behind the fungus to get a better sense of the floating spores. As I tried capturing the scene with my camera and a flash, I noticed that the white light split up into many different spectral colours. Experimenting around with the right angle of the flash and my camera position took me quite a while, but in the end, I was rewarded with this picture. The cockroach that came by later added just the final touch to it.

Festival de l’oiseau et de la nature 2023

1st place – Bird portrait

Enchanting swans

Whooper swans at the edge of Lake Kussharo, where hot water from a natural hot spring flows in. Obviously the warm water is very welcomed by the swans especially considering the extreme temperatures as cold as -30°C. The steam rises up and covers the whole scene in a mystical mood. Although not breeding on Hokkaido, whooper swans come here for overwintering.

Biophoto Contest 2023

Seas, oceans and coastlines – 2nd place plants and fungi

Perishable beautiful dish

A false blister beetle is attracted by the scent of a blooming fish poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica) whose flowers only bloom for one night. In the middle of the flower, the beetle finds some liquid and is therefore rewarded of becoming a pollinator. The body of the final fruit will disperse the species in the same way of a coconut, by the current of the ocean. The seeds of this so called box-fruit are poisonous and are used for easier fishing by grinding them and poisoning the water.

Memorial María Luisa 2023

Highly Commended – The world of birds

Get out of the way

Two impressive Steller's sea eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus) battle for fish which was brought out by local fishermen. Although they do not breed on Hokkaido, one third of the overall population overwinters here, where they are classified as a National Treasure. In February masses of Pacific cods and Alaskan pollocks appear in the Rausu Sea and along the Nemuro Strait, resulting in big numbers of Steller’s and white-tailed sea eagles.

GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2023

5th place – Other animals

Trilobite beetle

Trilobite beetles are a mysterious and prehistoric looking genus of beetles. Actually the big impressive forms like this one are all either larvae or adult females. The males remain tiny and look like a "normal" beetle with wings to fly, sightings of these seem to be extremely rare and can only be achieved by observing females and waiting until a male appears.

Oasis Photo Contest 2023

Honor of the press – Vegetal world

Perishable beautiful dish

A false blister beetle is attracted by the scent of a blooming fish poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica) whose flowers only bloom for one night. In the middle of the flower, the beetle finds some liquid and is therefore rewarded of becoming a pollinator. The body of the final fruit will disperse the species in the same way of a coconut, by the current of the ocean. The seeds of this so called box-fruit are poisonous and are used for easier fishing by grinding them and poisoning the water.

Nature Photographer of the Year 2022

1st place – Other animals

An adaptation for death

All kinds of benthic invertebrates are crowded together in the last remaining milky puddle of a soda lake. One of those tiny creatures sticks out as it is larger and has a distinct shiny blue egg sack. Branchipus schaefferi is the species name and it belongs to a group known as fairy shrimps. They depend on periodically drying water bodies. When those dry up, most of the small crustaceans have already dispatched their eggs and they die. Their eggs can survive for centuries in the dry ground until they get flooded again and hatch. In spring, the soda lakes are typically filled with water, containing masses of fairy shrimps which are an important food source for migrating and breeding waterbirds. However, those soda lakes are at high risk to get lost due to rising spring temperatures which lead to faster evaporation and continuously dropping ground-water levels, probably caused by the extensive watering of the surrounding agricultural area. With time, this enables nutrifying plants and shrubs to grow on this ecologically valuable area. Their roots penetrate the sealing layer of the soda lakes which leads to an even faster loss of water and will finally lead to a shrub encroachment of the former soda lake.

Austrian Nature Photographer 2022 (VTNÖ)

2nd place – Plants & fungi

Fruit fly party

A jelly fungus, growing on a dead branch, is surrounded by fruit flies as it emits an obviously irresistible odor for those insects.

3rd place – Invertebrates

Perishable beautiful dish

A false blister beetle is attracted by the scent of a blooming fish poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica) whose flowers only bloom for one night. In the middle of the flower, the beetle finds some liquid and is therefore rewarded of becoming a pollinator. The body of the final fruit will disperse the species in the same way of a coconut, by the current of the ocean. The seeds of this so called box-fruit are poisonous and are used for easier fishing by grinding them and poisoning the water.

3rd place – Minimalism

Copy and paste

Large-billed crows on a frozen lake on Hokkaido, waiting for fishermen to get rid of the fish leftovers from the market. Originally used to attract eagles for tourists, those leftovers are also appealing to crows, kites and foxes.

Memorial María Luisa 2022

Highly Commended – World of the tinniest - Macro Photo

Sugar suckers

Giant forest ants are among the world’s largest ants. These workers are 21 millimetres long (nearly an inch), while soldiers are 28 millimetres (just over an inch). Yet, despite their size and formidable pincers, capable of inflicting a painful bite, they are not particularly aggressive and for sustenance rely mainly on honeydew, supplemented by insects and bird droppings. At dusk in the forests of southeast Asia, hordes of them congregate at their nest entrances before a sudden mass exodus into the forest canopy in search of food. I discovered this small party on a night hike in Kubah National Park, Sarawak, Borneo. Stroking a large planthopper with their antennae, the ants (a subspecies particular to Borneo, with distinctive pale thighs) are stimulating the colourful sap‑sucker to release sugary honeydew from its rear, which they are eagerly sucking up. In return for this energy-rich liquid, some of which they may regurgitate later to other workers, the ants may offer the planthopper some protection from predators and parasites. Despite being buzzed by large, nocturnal wasps drawn to my head-torch, I stayed poised to catch this momentary formation of ants, bustling around their eye‑catching benefactor.

Wildart Photographer of the Year 2022

Editors choice – Wet

Rainforest Echo

The long-nosed horned frog (Megophrys nasuta) is an iconic species from the South East Asian tropics. For a better resonance and a therefore longer perceiving range to attract females, this male positioned itself on an elevated rock right in front of a waterfall, calling in the direction of the rocky overhang, which concentrated the sound and reflected into the forest.


Highly commended – Abstract

Scale Spectrum

Pitch-black, so called melanistic common adders (Vipera berus) can be found in the Alps just as frequently as normally coloured individuals. This specific animal was crossing a meadow in the forest which during wintertime is used as a ski slope. It coiled up and stayed in position for a couple minutes, giving me enough time to pull out my camera. For the first time, I used a flash during daylight for photographing a diurnal snake. I positioned it below the camera and that allowed me to eliminate the daylight and show this interesting gleam, caused by the light split up in many different colours as it reflects on the scales.

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022 by GDT

2nd place – Other animals

An adaptation for death

All kinds of benthic invertebrates are crowded together in the last remaining milky puddle of a soda lake. One of those tiny creatures sticks out as it is larger and has a distinct shiny blue egg sack. Branchipus schaefferi is the species name and it belongs to a group known as fairy shrimps. They depend on periodically drying water bodies. When those dry up, most of the small crustaceans have already dispatched their eggs and they die. Their eggs can survive for centuries in the dry ground until they get flooded again and hatch. In spring, the soda lakes are typically filled with water, containing masses of fairy shrimps which are an important food source for migrating and breeding waterbirds. However, those soda lakes are at high risk to get lost due to rising spring temperatures which lead to faster evaporation and continuously dropping ground-water levels, probably caused by the extensive watering of the surrounding agricultural area. With time, this enables nutrifying plants and shrubs to grow on this ecologically valuable area. Their roots penetrate the sealing layer of the soda lakes which leads to an even faster loss of water and will finally lead to a shrub encroachment of the former soda lake.

Biophoto 2022

Seas, oceans and coastlines – 2nd place birds

Get out of the way

Two impressive Steller's sea eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus) battle for fish which was brought out by local fishermen. Although they do not breed on Hokkaido, one third of the overall population overwinters here, where they are classified as a National Treasure. In February masses of Pacific cods and Alaskan pollocks appear in the Rausu Sea and along the Nemuro Strait, resulting in big numbers of Steller’s and white-tailed sea eagles.

Austrian Nature Photographer 2021 (VTNÖ)

2nd place – Form & composition

Traces of wings

The long exposure of one second, results in tracks, created by the bright white wings of the red-crowned cranes against the dark background.

2nd place – Landscape

Coastal zones

The coastal zones in the Adriatic sea can be easily distinguished by it's colour from above. With the forest bordering the rocky shore, this zone is a great example of edge effect where biodiversity is the highest.

Close-up Photographer of the Year 2021

3rd place – Insects

Magic Spores

A bracket fungi from Borneo releases masses of spores which caused the refraction of light, while a cockroach is feeding on something.

Montphoto 2021

Highly Commended – Birds

Enchanting Swans

Whooper swans at the edge of a big lake in Japan, where hot water from a natural hot spring flows in. The steam rises up and covers the whole scene in a mystical mood. Although not breeding on Hokkaido, whooper swans come here for overwintering.

WildArt Photographer of the Year 2021 – Light

1st place winner

Magic Spores

A bracket fungi from Borneo releases masses of spores which caused the refraction of light, while a cockroach is feeding on something.

Asferico 2021

Highly Commended – Plants

SiO2 vs. Lichens

Section of a big quartz rock covered partly by map lichens (Rhizocarpon geographicum). Map lichens grow on naked siliceous, acidic rocks in montaneous areas. Their slow radial growth of the map lichen allows dating back certain events from when on the rock became exposed. Among others it is possible to date back lake level changes or monitor the speed of glacial retreat. With an estimated age of 8.600 years, a map lichen from the Artics is thought to be the oldest living organism on earth.

Memorial María Luisa 2021

Highly Commended – World of the tinniest - Macro Photo

Cheshire Gecko

The cat gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus) has a very impudent facial expression, reminding of the Cheshire Cat from “Alice in Wonderland”. In fact, it takes its name from the habit of curling up his tail, for covering itself when sleeping, similar to a cat. I found this species during a nightwalk through the Kubah Nationalpark on Borneo (Malaysia). I carefully placed an external flash under the leaf and gecko, so that still some parts of the gecko’s head were illuminated. A few centimetres in difference of the flash resulted in a completely differently illuminated picture.

WildArt Photographer of the Year 2021 – Eyes

GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2021

2nd place – Other Animals

Cheshire Gecko

The cat gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus) has a very impudent facial expression, reminding of the Cheshire Cat from “Alice in Wonderland”. In fact, it takes its name from the habit of curling up his tail, for covering itself when sleeping, similar to a cat. I found this species during a nightwalk through the Kubah Nationalpark on Borneo (Malaysia). I carefully placed an external flash under the leaf and gecko, so that still some parts of the gecko’s head were illuminated. A few centimetres in difference of the flash resulted in a completely differently illuminated picture.

Overall winner

Austrian Nature Photographer 2020 (VTNÖ)

1st place – Form & composition

Scale Spectrum

The scales of a black common European viper (Vipera berus) break the light in many different spectral colours.

1st place – Other animals

Well camouflaged

The long-nosed horned frog (Megophrys nasuta) is extremely well camouflaged. It’s overall appearance with the the pointed „hornes“ on eyes and nose, makes the frog’s shape dissolving. It seems to be just another leaf on the forest floor.

1st place – Rough conditions

Survival test

A sika deer stag on Hokkaido (Japan) shaking off the deposed snow blanket which regularily accumulated during a heavy snowfall.

2nd place – plants

Biodiversity hotspot

In the tropical rainforest, only very little light is penetrating the forest floor due to to dense canopies. Epiphytes evolved a life strategy where they can catch more light by growing on trees, but therefore they are threatened by desiccation, as their roots don’t stick in the soil. In cloud forests like on this picture on Mount Kinabalu on Borneo at around 1800 a.s.l., epiphytes are surrounded by moisture all the time and can so grow in high numbers and diversity.

2nd place – mammals

Ezo red fox

An Ezo red strolling over a snow field on Hokkaido (Japan).

2nd place – other animals

The Glance of Death

The Malayan Krait (Bungarus candidus) is one of the most venomous and dangerous snakes in the world. In more rural areas where huts tend not to be sealed that good to the outside, this snake could potentially creep in. Many people are used to sleep on the floor and so most snakebites happen when people move during sleep and accidentally turn onto the snake which answers with a deadly bite.

2nd place – invertebrates

Sugar suckers

Giant forest ants are among the world’s largest ants. These workers are 21 millimetres long (nearly an inch), while soldiers are 28 millimetres (just over an inch). Yet, despite their size and formidable pincers, capable of inflicting a painful bite, they are not particularly aggressive and for sustenance rely mainly on honeydew, supplemented by insects and bird droppings. At dusk in the forests of southeast Asia, hordes of them congregate at their nest entrances before a sudden mass exodus into the forest canopy in search of food. I discovered this small party on a night hike in Kubah National Park, Sarawak, Borneo. Stroking a large planthopper with their antennae, the ants (a subspecies particular to Borneo, with distinctive pale thighs) are stimulating the colourful sap‑sucker to release sugary honeydew from its rear, which they are eagerly sucking up. In return for this energy-rich liquid, some of which they may regurgitate later to other workers, the ants may offer the planthopper some protection from predators and parasites. Despite being buzzed by large, nocturnal wasps drawn to my head-torch, I stayed poised to catch this momentary formation of ants, bustling around their eye‑catching benefactor.

Close-up Photographer of the Year 2020

3 finalists and 1 short-listed

National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Photo Contest 2020

Cover of the Magazine: Curious Brown Bear – Highly Commended – Mammals

Part of the Interview for Cover:
“Not only I’m happy, that I managed to envision my idea of a wild bear next to a big old mossy tree, but it’s the way this bear presents itself. Of course bears have a lot of power and there are some individuals which you don’t want to meet in the middle of the night at the wrong time of the year. But most of the time, you’d only notice the tracks of bears as they are quite shy and that’s what illustrates my photo quite nicely, I think - curious, but shy. It’s a photo which makes me chuckle. I hope that my photo has a similar effect on people as it has on me, making them chuckle. I think this bear on the photo is sympathetic to people, as it kind of reveals a part of its character. My photograph illustrates a different, more accurate picture of bears, than we might have in our prejudiced heads. It’s important to me, to show people the real characters of wildlife and to eliminate negative prejudices. Because overstated imagined fears do not justify to kill. “

Nature’s Best Photography – Windland Smith Rice Awards 2020

highly commended – Animal antics

Cheshire Gecko

The cat gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus) has a very impudent facial expression, reminding of the Cheshire Cat from “Alice in Wonderland”. In fact, it takes its name from the habit of curling up his tail, for covering itself when sleeping, similar to a cat. I found this species during a nightwalk through the Kubah Nationalpark on Borneo (Malaysia). I carefully placed an external flash under the leaf and gecko, so that still some parts of the gecko’s head were illuminated. A few centimetres in difference of the flash resulted in a completely differently illuminated picture.

Overall winner

Austrian Nature Photographer 2018 (VTNÖ)

1st place – Plants

Snowed-covered

Like many early-flowering plants, pasque flowers seem to be well adapted to sudden snowfalls. While other individual plants were already in full bloom, this specimen outwaited adverse circumstances under the snow cower. The sun rays give the plant some warmth while the delicate hairs protect its organs against frost bite.

2nd place – Birds

White stork during winter

Whilst almost all white-storks migrate into the South during winter, some individuals stay here at Lake Neusiedl. Those storks risk their lives by not finding enough food and freezing due to cold temperatures. As a trade off they will most likely be able to occupy the best nests and have a better breeding success. I've been waiting for hard snowy conditions like in this picture for longer now, but never had the chance to take a picture, as the snow disappears fast again in this area. This year I managed to capture photos of white storks wading through a field of snow.

2nd place – Form & Composition

Ice Structures

Ice structures from collapsing ice floes of a groundwater fed river in Austria. By using my tripod as an “arm-extension”, I managed to capture this scene perfectly centered from above.

3 Highlights

Bird Photographer of the Year 2018

Commended – Birds in the Environment

Firework

I photographed this tawny owl (Strix aluco) in autumn, at a time when the leaves of most trees had already changed colour. By moving a little bit back from the subject and including the beautifully coloured leaves in the foreground, I tried to capture the scene just as I experienced it with my own eyes.

Golden Turtle 2018

Commended – New Camera Techniques

Predator of the Night

Description below (VTNÖ 2017)

Commended – The Portrait of the Animal

Eyes of the Night

Description below (GDT 2016)

GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2018

10th place – Other Animals

Scorpions during Night

Hidden during day, scorpions can easily be spotted during night with the use of an UV-light source. This order belonging to the arachnids possesses a cuticle which fluoresce cyan-greenish, when exposed to ultraviolet light. I found those four scorpions of the genus Euscorpius on the inner side of an arch of an old ruin in Croatia.

BioPhotoContest 2018
- Prairies, steppes and savannah -

Commended – Other Animals

An owlfly (Libelloides) from the Croatian Mediterranean steppe is just about to take off.

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 by GDT

Highly commended – Other Animals

- Upstream - 

Two American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) slowly swim against the current up Rio Tarcoles in Costa Rica. Visitors can safely watch this endangered crocodile species from a bridge across the river. Most animals rest in the sun along the river banks. But occasionally some of them emerge in the middle of the river to drift in the current.

Overall winner

Austrian Nature Photographer 2017 (VTNÖ)

1st place – Insects and Arachnids

Mediterranean Stick Insect

Finding those well camouflaged and cryptic living animals in wild nature is very tricky. Especially in Europe, in this case Croatia, I only rarely hear from encounters with this kind of insects. A special modified lens was used to get such an extreme wideangle macro photo where the magnification is still big enough.

2nd place – Landscape

Foggy Landscape

During autumn, as most kinds of trees drop their leaves, I visited the Alps of Berchtesgaden. Leaving the hard and pretty unimpressive ascent behind, the fog slowly cleared up and set some of the neighboring hilltops free. Between other evergreen conifers, the larch trees were already in full process of changing colour and stuck out of the landscape. I actually had Alpine ibexes and chamois in mind as I went out for a 2-day hike into the Alps of Berchtesgaden. Equipped with a 135mm f/2 lens, I was looking forward to getting some amazing subject separation of the aimed animals. However, the trip came out a little bit differently than I had hoped, and I did my best to take landscape pictures of the foggy mountains.

3rd place – Insects and Arachnids

Lycosa singoriensis is the biggest tarantula (wolfspider) one can find in Europe and even is one of the rarest spiders of Austria. The animals are nocturnal and live on large sandy spaces. Whilst females build a tube up to 50cm deep in the ground, the males prowl around in search of females.

3rd place – other animals

Fire-salamanders can actually be found quite easily near my home. Basic prerequisite is a rainy weather which drives the amphibians leaving their holes and go in search for food or mating partners. Similar like the photo of the stick insect, I used a modified lens.

5 Highlights

GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2017

7th place – Landscape

Foggy Landscape

During autumn, as most kinds of trees drop their leaves, I visited the Alps of Berchtesgaden. Leaving the hard and pretty unimpressive ascent behind, the fog slowly cleared up and set some of the neighboring hilltops free. Between other evergreen conifers, the larch trees were already in full process of changing colour and stuck out of the landscape. I actually had Alpine ibexes and chamois in mind as I went out for a 2-day hike into the Alps of Berchtesgaden. Equipped with a 135mm f/2 lens, I was looking forward to getting some amazing subject separation of the aimed animals. However, the trip came out a little bit differently than I had hoped, and I did my best to take landscape pictures of the foggy mountains.

GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2016

3rd place – Other Animals

Eyes of the Night

The reticulated python belongs due to the incredible lengths and the beautiful pattern to one of the most impressive snakes of whole South East Asia. This individual was just about to cross a frequently driven road. At one part of its body, the snake was very thick because of a larger meal which still needed to be digested. Though the animal could only move slowly and would have never made it on the other side of the road. As I stopped, the snake turned around and rested next to the street. I encouraged the snake to move its head on top of the big part of its body by moving my head closer and closer to the snakes head while staring at it. As it was in position, I lightened the animal with two torches from different angles. After this photo, the animal was carefully moved to the other side of the road where it obviously wanted to go.

IFWP 2016 International Federation of Wildlife and nature Photography

1st place – Other animals

I managed to get this photo of a fire salamander larva, by using a waterproof torch which I put beneath the leaves underwater. As I wrote my bachelor thesis about fire salamanders, I was in the field quite frequently. At my study site, the salamanders are very common and there are lots of larvae in the small pools, so it did not take long until a larva passed by. 

3rd place – Insects and Arachnids

The blue ground beetle is definitely one of the most eye-catching carabids of Austria. By using a longer exposure I tried separating the beetle from the busy mossy underground on which it was running on.

Austrian Nature Photographer 2016 (VTNÖ)

1st place – Birds

It simply was the perfect time at the right location allowing me to capture this photo of a curiously looking long-eared owl. Nearly all leaves of this willow turned already yellow serving well for a colourful picture. Also there was not only this one individual sitting in the tree but even more than 15! This so called communal roosting behaviour during winter is well known for this owl species and can be observed annually at the same trees. Unfortunately this beautiful willow was destroyed by a thunderstorm only one and a half year after I took this photo.

6 Highlights