The winners of the different series of the Nature Picture of the Year competition were chosen from among more than 12,000 pictures.
A year nature picture 2024 is Timo Myllärin bird picture Peak. The results of the Nature Photo of the Year competition, organized for the 44th time, were announced on Saturday in Helsinki.
Mylläri from Seinäjoki photographed the awardee Traffic jam in his home region in April 2023.
“I went to the fields in the plains to photograph migratory birds in the evening during the spring floods,” Mylläri says by phone.
He saw a flock of grouse eating on the side of the field road.
“I turned the car so that I thought the car was a hidden stall.”
A flock of about three hundred birds took flight away from Mylläri.
“Then they did a U-turn, flew back and turned right in front of the car so that everyone’s pale belly cover was visible.”
The back side of none of the birds is visible in the picture.
“When I uploaded the picture to the competition, I thought that I have never seen such a picture. That’s how coordinated their flight is. I still couldn’t think about success.”
Miller works in the city of Seinäjoki as a park maintenance foreman.
“I’m an amateur photographer, although I shoot a lot in my spare time.”
Myllari especially photographs birds. “In my opinion, everyone on the finalist list of the bird series of the competition are top photographers. If you can get ahead of them, I consider it a good performance.”
Peak first won the competition’s Birds series, after which it was chosen as the nature picture of the year from all the series winners. The birds series was the most popular series of the competition. 3,365 pictures were sent to it.
The competition the jury praises the photo as a “unique and striking shot of a flock of marsh plovers in flight”, the press release says.
“The whole area of the picture bursts with the fervor of spring, which spreads and continues beyond the picture,” the justification says.
The marsh cuckoo is classified as an extremely endangered species in Finland.
The Nature Photo of the Year 2024 competition was attended by 774 photographers who sent a total of 12,116 photos to the competition. Acting as judges Mika Honkalinna, Lasse Kylänpää , Tero Pelkonen and Eva Roos.
As prizes more than 20,000 euros were awarded in the competition. Timo Mylläri’s main prize is 5,000 euros.
Photo by Timo Vesterinen Lehto won the Landscape series.
Tommi Kuisma’s photo Something old, something new won the Plants and Mushrooms series.
Photo by Mikael Koskinen The family of five won the Mammals series.
Hannu Ahonen’s picture Life under the ice won the Other animals series.
Ilpo Aalto’s photo Hiekkaranta won the Nature details and shapes series.
Elmeri Juut’s photo Tuho won the Human and Nature series.
Tiitus Hanf won the under-18 category with his picture Jänikset.
One of the nine series of the Nature Picture of the Year competition changes every year. This year, the theme of the changing series was black and white pictures. It was won by Arto Juvonen with his picture Peeking into freedom.