GDT 2024 Photography Winners Unveil Nature’s Beauty

Nature is the most beautiful ever-changing phenomenon, and many photographers try to capture its fleeting moments. To celebrate those artists, The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) has announced their winning pictures of the year 2024.

Contestants were able to submit their work in the following seven categories: Birds, Mammals, Other Animals, Plants and Fungi, Landscapes, and Nature's Studio. In this year's competition, Dieter Damschen was nominated as the photographer of the year with the photo "Winter flood in a riparian forest".

Down below we have shared other 8 winners from all the categories, and if you would like to see more photos, take a look here.

More info: gdtfoto.de | Instagram

8 PHOTOS

#1 Category Mammals, 8th Place Winner: "In The Eye Of The Cheetah" By Monika Morlak

Pictolic reached out to the GDT organizers and got an interview with Sandra Bartocha regarding this year’s competition.

First of all, we were wondering how GDT chose the categories for the photo competition, and how they have changed over time. Sandra wrote: “The categories have remained almost the same for many years, ranging from Birds and Mammals to Plants and Landscapes, as well as some creative categories to cover the range that nature photography offers. Each year we have one special category that focuses on a niche topic – this year it is All Things Flow - Germany’s River Landscapes.”

#2 Category Nature's Studio, 2nd Place Winner: "Aerobatics In The Morning Light" By Christian Brinkmann

#3 Category Mammals, 1st Place Winner: "Bubblenet" By Scott Portelli

Sandra also commented on the judging process and what difficulties judges face when picking the winners.

“The judging process consists of two rounds. In the first round, each judge looks at the images individually, grading them from 1 to 5. For the images with the highest scores, we will ask for the RAW files and then start the final round of judging where we will go deeply into the single categories, discussing the individual images, check the authenticity of the images, and finally decide on a set of 10 images per category. The final ranking is a democratic process by the members of the organization. Every member has the chance to vote online for their favorite image, which determines the winner and runner-up of each category. From those winning images, the last step is to choose the Overall Winner of the whole competition.

The difficulty with judging processes is always being fair to each single image and ensuring that not only loud and colorful images end up in the final selection. Giving enough time to view, process, and discuss the entries is very important. We are also very aware of unethical behavior, staged images, and manipulated images,” explained Sandra.

#4 Category Mammals, 3rd Place Winner: "Pandemonium" By Manfred Foeger

#5 Category Other Animals, 2nd Place Winner: "Tasting The Air" By Kai Kolodziej

We asked Sandra to share how GDT helps the winners and finalists after the competition.

“We believe that winning major competitions with a big media reach will always help the visibility of a photographer. Besides featuring the winning photographers prominently on our website and social channels, we also have a beautifully printed traveling exhibition which adds to the exposure for each single photographer,” wrote Sandra.

#6 Category Mammals, 2nd Place Winner: "Eyes Shut And Waiting For Spring" By Flurin Leugger

#7 Overall Winner: "Winter Flood In A Riparian Forest" By Dieter Damschen

We also asked Sandra to share her opinion on how the winning photos can help people appreciate nature more, and what impact she hopes they have on conservation efforts.

“In a time where more and more people feel alienated from nature, it is important to showcase the beauty, fragility, and vulnerability of nature. The winning images and the captions accompanying the exhibition do exactly that. We see that people are engaging with the images, reading and learning about species they might have never heard of. Additionally, we create the Special Category each year in collaboration with the NABU Stiftung, a German conservation foundation, to emphasize and look at special ecosystems,” shared Sandra.

#8 Category Birds, 1st Place Winner: "Surfing On The Other Side" By Levi Fitze