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“Anybody home?” A curious young lion plays with a tortoise in the Kalahari Desert, Botswana.
Credit: Jens Cullmann
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“It’s been over two decades since I first witnessed a dipper darting through a waterfall,” photographer Konrad Wothe says. “The small passerine bird was flying back and forth to a nest tucked away safely behind a dense curtain of water. Of course I attempted to capture the dipper on film, but my analogue camera gear did not allow me to freeze this split-second moment in sharp focus.”
Twenty years later and armed with a faster camera, Wothe captured the magical moment a white-throated dipper crashed through a waterfall. The image (seen below) earned Wothe top honors at the 2025 GDT (German Society for Nature Photography) Nature Photographer of the Year awards.
White-throated dipper flying through waterfall.
Credit: Konrad Wothe / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025 Konrad Wothe
More than 8,000 images were submitted for consideration at this year’s awards. Visit GDTfoto for a full gallery of the winners and scroll some of our favorites below.
Puffin courtship display during the mating season in Newfoundland.
Credit: Karsten Mosebach / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025 Karsten Mosebach
A flock of ostriches photographed on the way to De Hoop Nature Reserve in South Africa.
Credit: Peter Mrasek / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025
The Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) lives in the wilderness of Mongolia where this photograph was taken at -35° Celsius.
Credit: Dr. Beate Oswald / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025 Beate_Oswald
While on the lookout for fallow deer and stonechats, I was surprise by this red fox.
Credit: Angelika Krikava / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025
A stray dog from Rumbak in Hemis National Park (Ladakh) being attacked by a snow leopard.
Credit: Ulrich Heermann / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025
Painted Cliffs on Maria Island (Tasmania, Australia)
Credit: Uwe Hasubek / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025
The body of a melanistic viper is a risky spot for a wolf spider to warm up.
Location: Wurzacher Ried (one of the most important peatlands in southern Germany)
Credit: Ulrich Hopp / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025
Dr. Ulrich Hopp
Photographed during a doors off helicopter flight over Iceland’s highlands at an altitude of approx. 300 metres – a rare spectacle.
Credit: Peter Schwager / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025
With this photograph, I tried to depict the familial interaction between two sea turtles off the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
Credit: Joshi Nichell / GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025 Joshi Nichell
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