by
Team Africa Geographic
Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Our Photographer of the Year 2023 is now closed for submissions. Cash prizes of US$10,000 have been set aside for the winner and two runners-up. Winners and their partners will also join our CEO Simon Espley and his wife Lizz on the ultimate private safari
Judging for Photographer of the Year will take place throughout the month of May 2023, and the winners will be announced in early June 2023. ALL winners (winner, runners up and highly commended) must provide raw files of their winning submissions before our winners are announced.
This is Gallery 2 of the finalists. To see the other Photographer of the Year finalist gallery, follow the link: Gallery 1 .
Photographer of the Year is proudly brought to you by Hemmersbach Rhino Force and Mashatu Botswana .
Wait for me! A young lion cub races through the water to join its mother at a feast. Liuwa Plain National Park. © Andrew Macdonald Bakossi and Queen. Bakossi’s family were killed by bushmeat poachers, and she was taken for the pet trade. Now an orphan at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, she is cared for by an expert team of rehabilitators, including Queen. “This image is part of a photographic project about the trafficking of primates in Central Africa and the rehabilitation of those lucky ones that arrive at rescue centres. My big goal is to bring international awareness and support to those fighting to protect our closest relatives.” Limbe Wildlife Centre, Republic of Cameroon. © Gerard Carbonell “This is an Afar Salt Caravan crossing the desolate Danakil Depression. These Caravans deliver salt to Marakiele in the Ethiopian Highlands.” Danakil Depression, Ethiopia. © Hesté de Beer Feasting on fate. A southern ground-hornbill snacks on a young leopard tortoise. Okavango Delta, Botswana. © Jack Swynnerton Young herders tend to their cattle as the sun rises. Omo Valley, Ethiopia. © Kevin Dooley The gory details of a Rüppell’s vulture tucking into a fresh wildebeest meal. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. © Michael Stavrakakis In the shadow of Mount Kenya lies one of East Africa’s most successful rhino sanctuaries. Solio Conservancy, Kenya. © Preeti John Chacko Spot the odd one out. A giraffe bull looks on at the chaos of a migration river crossing. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. © Tomasz Szpila A wildebeest succumbs to the teeth and claws of its four cheetah pursuers. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. © Amith Krishna Feeding frenzy. After some effective teamwork, social spiders (Stegodyphus sp. ) devour a garden fruit chafer (Pachnoda sinuata ). National Botanical Gardens, Harare, Zimbabwe. © Anjuli Rebelo A parent’s work is never done. A white-throated swallow feeding a beak full of dragonflies to its almost fully-grown chick. Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa. © Dustin Van Helsdingen All that glisters is not gold. A moment of peace for this young male leopard on a misty morning at Transport dam. Kruger National Park, South Africa. © Garry Mills A Natal forest tree frog peeks out from behind a leaf. Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. © Hendrik Louw A male dugong grazing on the ocean floor. “Once a common sight in the Red Sea, populations have plummeted in recent decades. The seagrasses of Abu Dabbab still provide refuge for a few of these magical creatures of the sea.” Abu Dabbab coast, Marsa Alam, Egypt. © Francis Glassup The new arrival. Recent research indicates that the social lives of giraffes are more complex than we ever imagined. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. © Jenny Zhao The thaumaturgy of water, soda, and sand transforms Lake Magadi into a swirling palette of colour. Every year, hundreds of thousands of greater and lesser flamingos gather to feed and breed in the salty, shallow waters. “Seen from the sky, everything suddenly seems unreal.” Lake Magadi, Kenya. © Alexandre Bès A dawn desert duel between two bull giraffes. Namib Desert, Namibia. © Mark Nissenbaum Snatched from the jaws of defeat. An exhausted young yellow baboon fights for his life as he is repeatedly pulled under the water by a crocodile. Amazingly, the photographer reports that he later escaped – undoubtedly painful, but perhaps somewhat the wiser for his misadventure. Tsavo River, Tsavo West National Park, Kenya. © Nicolas Urlacher Soaked after an afternoon shower. “The rains in Mara opens doors for some very unique and magical frames.” Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. © Remya Warrier Africa’s iconic giants. Super tusker Craig poses in front of Mount Kilimanjaro. Amboseli National Park, Kenya. © Vicki Jauron Battle ensues at a giraffe kill. Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, South Africa. © Wayne Donaldson A misunderstood Kenyan sand boa (Eryx colubrinus ) waits for prey in the red sands of Tsavo. They are sometimes called the “snake of seven steps’, based on the traditional but erroneous belief that if it bites you, you will take seven steps and die. It is non-venomous. Tsavo National Park, Kenya. © Robin James Backhouse The dry season colour palette. MalaMala Game Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. © Michael Raddall A brown-headed parrot adorned in a smorgasbord of tasty weeping boer-bean buds.Kruger National Park, South Africa. © Joschka Voss Out of the darkness. A portrait of one of Laikipia’s melanistic leopards. Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Laikipia County, Kenya. © Ateeb Hussain To comment on this story: Login (or sign up) to our app here - it's a troll-free safe place 🙂.
