© SHANGZHENFAN/ WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHEROF T H EY E A R2 ) WINNER 2019, URBAN WILDLIFE: The rat pack by Charlie
Hamilton James, UK. On Pearl Street, in New York’s Lower
Manhattan, brown rats scamper between their home under a
tree grille and a pile of garbage bags full of food waste. Their
ancestors hailed from the Asian steppes, travelling with traders
to Europe and later crossing the Atlantic. Today, urban rat
populations are rising fast. The rodents are well suited for city
living – powerful swimmers, burrowers and jumpers, with
great balance. They are smart – capable of navigating complex
networks such as sewers. Lighting his shot to blend with the
glow of the street lights and operating his kit remotely, Charlie
realised this intimate street-level view.
3 ) WINNER 2 0 1 9, EARTH’S ENVIRONMENTS: Creation by Luis
Vilariño Lopez, Spain. Red-hot lava tongues flow into the
Pacific Ocean, producing huge plumes of noxious laze – a mix
of acid steam and fine glass particles – as they meet the
crashing waves. This was the frontline of the biggest eruption
for 200 years of one of the world’s most active volcanos –
Kîlauea, on Hawaii’s Big Island. Kîlauea started spewing out lava
on its lower East Rift at the start of May 2018. In days, the lava
had reached the Pacific and begun the creation of a huge delta
of new land. It would continue flowing for three months. By the
time Luis could hire a helicopter with permission to fly over the
area, the new land extended more than 1.6km from shore.
4 ) WINNER 2 0 1 9 BEHAVIOUR, AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES:
Pondworld by Manuel Plaickner, Italy. Every spring, for more
than a decade, Manuel had followed the mass migration of
common frogs in South Tyrol, Italy. Rising spring temperatures
stir the frogs to emerge from the sheltered spots where they
spent the winter (often under rocks or wood or even buried at
the bottom of ponds). They need to breed and head straight for
water, usually to where they themselves were spawned. Mating
involves a male grasping his partner, piggyback, until she lays
eggs – up to 2,000, each in a clear jelly capsule – which he then
fertilises. Though common frogs are widespread across
Europe, numbers are thought to be declining.
5 ) JOINT WINNER 2 0 1 9, BEHAVIOUR: MAMMALS: The equal
match by Ingo Arndt, Germany. Fur flies as the puma launches
her attack on the guanaco. For Ingo, the picture marked the
culmination of seven-months tracking wild pumas on foot,
enduring extreme cold and biting winds in the Torres del Paine
region of Patagonia, Chile. The female was Ingo’s main subject
and was used to his presence. But to record an attack, he had to
be facing both prey and puma. This required spotting a
potential target – here a big male guanaco grazing apart from
his herd on a small hill – and then positioning himself
downwind, facing the likely direction the puma would come
from. Four out of five puma hunts end like this – unsuccessfully.December 2019 Digital SLR Photography 19
1 ) WINNER 2 0 1 9, TEN Y E ARS AND UNDER: Humming surprise
by Thomas Easterbrook, UK. On holiday with his family in
France, Thomas was eating supper in the garden on a warm
summer’s evening when he heard the humming. The sound
was coming from the fast-beating wings of a hummingbird
hawkmoth, hovering in front of an autumn sage, siphoning up
nectar with its long proboscis. Its wings are reputed to beat
faster than the hummingbirds that pollinate the plant in its
native home of Mexico and Texas. With the moth moving
quickly from flower to flower it was a challenge to frame a
picture but Thomas managed it, while capturing the stillness
of the moth’s head against the blur of its wings.© INGO ARNDT/ WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THEYEAR
© MANUEL PLAICKNER / WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHEROFTHEYEAR451