Home Photography Shortlist: 2023 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

Shortlist: 2023 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

By AG STAFF • June 11, 2023

This photograph, titled 'Neighbour's Dispute', has been shortlisted in the Animals in Nature category of this year's awards. Image credit: Ofer Levy

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Here are some of the shortlisted images for the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year awards for 2023, showcasing the year’s best wildlife and landscape photos.

Welcome to the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year collection for 2023.

Our involvement with this competition is very much part of our mission to encourage photography of our region’s landscapes and wildlife. Our region offers so much for any would-be photographer, and not just in our wild and remote areas. The flora and fauna in our backyards and city parks are all worthy subjects too. Photography encourages you to look carefully at the world around you. It increases knowledge and understanding, and raises awareness. Nature photographers are active conservationists, and that is the real power of this competition. Some of us will be looking carefully at the f-stop number or the lens type, but for most, it’s a chance to be inspired by the beauty of nature.

We commend all those who entered (550 amazing photographers) and extend our gratitude to this year’s judges, Mike Langford, Adjunct Professor Wayne Quilliam and Jackie Ranken, who faced an epic task evaluating more than 2000 entries.

And this year it was even harder, with a new category attracting awe-inspiring images.

“This year we introduced the well-received macro category, with photographers submitting incredible larger-than-life-sized images of nature’s smallest scenes,” says the Museum’s acting director Justine van Mourik.

That meant there were 10 categories this year:

Animals in Nature
Urban Animals
Macro
Landscape
Threatened Species
Monochrome
Astrophotography
Our Impact
Junior
Portfolio

Australian Geographic Editor-in-Chief, Chrissie Goldrick, says “It’s great to see the way this competition evolves year on year, adding new categories that invite photographers to look at fresh ways of documenting the natural world and engaging the viewer. Nature has never been at greater risk than now and the talented photographers who participate in the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year have a golden opportunity to help focus attention on the precious things we stand to lose. Congratulations to all who have been shortlisted and I would also like to commend all who entered for your passion and dedication to your craft.”

The awards are a partnership between Australian Geographic and the South Australian Museum, who produce the competition and accompanying exhibition. The museum will announce the overall winner, category winners, runners-up and the Portfolio Prize in August.

Until then, here’s a look at the shortlisted images:

Animals in Nature

World’s Deadliest by Damien Esquerré
Goose Barnacles On The Beach by Keith Horton
Aftermath by Matty Smith
Estuarine Crocodile by Lewis Burnett
Somewhere Under The Rainbow by David Robinson
Weaner Portrait by Andrew Peacock
Hang Time by Nathan Watson
A Bee-eater Rainbow by Gary Meredith
Talk To The Hand by Asher Allison
The Clown Coral Blennies by Pam Osborn
Neighbour’s Dispute by Ofer Levy
Blue Spot by Sputnik

Urban Animals

Anyone For Tennis? by Natalie Murray
Kerbside Snack by Douglas Gimesy
Cretaceous Stride by Ethan Mann
Window Shopping by Trevor Rix
Galah Play by Angela Robertson-Buchanan
Marching to a Different Drummer by Raoul Slater
Emergency Exit – Run, A Giant Spider! by Douglas Gimesy
Frog In A Bog by Tom Owen Edmunds
Ducks In A Row by Hamish Burrell

Macro

Mr Mohawk by Rosa Dunbar
Adolescent Alien by Andy Wingate
Nectar Of Life by Daniel Jones
Hairy Harry by John Magee
Mushroom cyclone By Liu Yang
Blue by Mary Gudgeon
Hover Flies’ Love Dance by Merrick Bailey
A Home Among The Polyps by Daniel Sly
Turret by Garth Travis
Mellow Gecko by Alun Powell

Landscape

Intricate by Tania Malkin
Armed Forces by Reed Plummer
Moonlit Storm by Adam Edwards
The Crescent by Lawrence Chan
Floating Trees by Matt Palmer
My Country Burns by Samuel Markham
Weddell Sea Storm by Robin Moon
Dune by Paula McManus
Heaven’s Gate by Murray Parkinson
Bathurst Rays by Marley Butler
Sponars by Charles Davis

Threatened species

A Mother Spotted Handfish Bravely Guards Her Eggs (Spotted handfish, Brachionichthys hirsutus) by Matt Testoni
Hidden Hoiho (Yellow-eyed penguin, Megadyptes antipodes) by Sabrina Velasco
Newly Fledged (Baudin’s black-cockatoo, Zanda baudinii) by Angela Robertson-Buchanan
Humphead Maori Wrasse (Humphead Maori wrasse, Cheilinus undulatus) by Simone Caprodossi
Great Hammerhead Shark (Great hammerhead, Sphyrna mokarran) by Lewis Burnett
A Numbat’s Glance (Numbat, Myrmecobius fasciatus) by Joel Evans
Golden Seahorse (White’s seahorse, Hippocampus whitei) by Peter McGee
Disappearing Act (Hawksbill turtle , Eretmochelys imbricata) by Harriet Spark
Carnaby’s Black-cockatoo (Carnaby’s black-cockatoo, Zanda latirostris) by Dennis Gregory Brennan
Baby on board (Grey-headed flying fox, Pteropus poliocephalus) by Doug Gimesy
The Nursery (Dugong, Dugong dugon) by Michael Tropiano