These incredible images were nominated as finalists for the Nature Photographer of the Year competition for showcasing the beauty of the natural world.
Organised by Nature Talks, there are a variety of sections including landscape, underwater, wildlife and storytelling – with 19,547 images entered from 95 different countries.
The overall winner was Italian photographer Roberto Marchegiani, who was named Nature Photographer of the Year for 2020.
His winning shot was of a giraffe emerging from the forest in Lake Nakuru, Kenya, during the rainy season. Roberto and his friends saw a group of giraffes walking in front of woodland.
But instead of snapping the animals together, Roberto focused on an area of the trees which he thought would frame the long-legged animal well and waited. Eventually a tall creature appeared in his lens, and he got the wonderful shot he was after.
He said: ‘In the end, I was rewarded by my stubbornness: the giraffes passed exactly in the right place. The scene reminded me of a Jurassic landscape, with a herbivorous dinosaur in the same position as the giraffe.’
Other astonishing photos, which were listed as finalists include a wolf covered in snow and a monkey with paper blowing on its face.
The overall winner of the Nature Photographer of the Year competition was Italian photographer Roberto Marchegiani. His winning shot (pictured) was of a giraffe emerging from the forest in Lake Nakuru, Kenya, during the rainy season
Striped Hunter by Karim Iliya won one of the runner up awards. The stunning shot shows a fish diving through waters to catch a meal
Alejandro Prieto was commended for his Border Wall Project. These were photos which looked at how the wall which the USA was building on its border with Mexico was disturbing the wildlife. One spectacular shot shows a jaguar (pictured) framed against the grating of the wall and the night sky
Living in the moment by Amit Eshel received a Highly Commended award in the competition. It shows a baby brown bear waving in a grass meadow
Flyover by Jie Fischer won a Highly Commended award in the competition – it shows a line of birds flying over a sandbank in the middle of the ocean
The World Is Going Upside Down by Thomas Vijayan won a highly commended award and shows an orange monkey hugging a tree in the middle of a rainforest
Morning by Levi Fitze won a runner-up award and his photo shows a chicken stood on top of a hill as the sunrises over the landscape
The Cry of Pain by Francisco Negroni won a Highly Commended award and shows an alpaca crying out over a desolate landscape
Brambling Togetherness by Andreas Geh won the landscape category. Organised by Nature Talks, there are a variety of sections including landscape, underwater, wildlife and storytelling – with over 19,547 images entered, coming from over 95 different countries
A New Immersion by Ruben Perez Novo won a Highly Commended award – it shows an insect’s wings sticking up out of water as it dives in for a dip
A World Away by Oliver Smart was in the Highly Commended category – it shows a group of penguins gathering and and migrating across a snowy landscape
The Ice Grin by Dmitry Kokh won a Highly Commended award in the contest and shows two seals swimming through icy waters together
Nature’s Pitfall by Samantha Stephens shows creatures’ shadows in a venus fly trap. Judging wasn’t easy as there was a new record of 19,547 images entered, coming from over 95 different countries
Insect diversity by Pal Hermansen was awarded in the Highly Commended category. His photo shows an arrangement of different butterflies and insects
Wild Is The Wind by Alessandro Carboni was awarded in the Highly Commended category. Other astonishing photos, which were included as finalists include a wolf covered in snow and a monkey with paper blowing on its face
Starling Apocalypse by Bart Siebelink was one of the winners in the landscape category and shows hundreds of birds flying through the air
Gannet Colony by Petr Bambousek was part of the Highly Commended list. It shows birds nesting on a cliff side and one bird flying through a hole in a cave on the ridge
Heavenly Showers by Neelutpaul Barua was in the Highly Commended section and shows a majestic lion posing on a rock in a rains shower
Alejandro Prieto was commended for his Border Wall Project. These were photos which looked at how the wall which the USA was building on its border with Mexico was disturbing the wildlife. This one shows a rabbit staring at the wall in the dark
Swans in a bathtub by Napat Wesshasartar was on the list of Highly Commended photos and shows two swans enjoy a soak together
Big Blue by Paul Goldstein was also part of the Highly Commended category and shows a blue whale diving into the depths of the ocean
Hope in a Burned Forest by Joanne McArthur was one of the winners in the animal category and shows a Kangaroo with its young in the middle of a devastated forest
Caught In A Blizzard by David Gibbon was part of the Highly Commended list at the awards and show a wolf covered in snow during a storm
Enjoying the early morning sun by David Pattyn was in the Runner-up category and shows a bird perching on top of a tree during a misty sunrise
Cocos Island by Sergio Rivero Beneitez was in the Highly Commended at the awards and is an aerial shot showing crocodiles circling an island
Birch Columns by Kirsi MacKenzie was part of the Highly Commended category and is a beautiful shot of trees in lines in a snowy landscape
Il bosco Incantato by Stanislao Basileo was one of the winners in the landscape category and shows a thick frost covering a forest scene
Web Design by Kallol Mukherjee was part of the Highly Commended category and show an intricate green spider in a web with a blue and black background
Woods in a Pod by Yuan Minghui was on the Highly Commended list and shows tiny black seeds beginning to grow on a wooden background
Alejandro Prieto was commended for his Border Wall Project. These were photos which looked at how the wall which the USA was building on its border with Mexico was disturbing the wildlife. This one shows a big cat walking along the wall
Ant in strange landscape by Paulien Bunskoek was on the Highly Commended list and shows a red and black ant walking across a cracked pavement
I Can Pass by Adriana Sanz was one of the winners in the wildlife category and shows a green frog popping his head up over the top of a leaf
Constellation of Eagle Rays by Henley Spiers was one of the winners in the animal category and shows a group of rays swimming side by side
Evening Walk by Giacomo Redaelli ended up in the Highly Commended category and shows a mother bird walking with its cute chick
Alejandro Prieto was commended for his Border Wall Project. These were photos which looked at how the wall which the USA was building on its border with Mexico was disturbing the wildlife. This image called Still Permeable was one of them
Lone Egret among fall colors of the cypress swamp by Rick Beldegreen was on the list of Highly Commended photographs at the awards
Alejandro Prieto was commended for his Border Wall Project. These were photos which looked at how the wall which the USA was building on its border with Mexico was disturbing the wildlife. This image called Blocked was one of them
Restless Sea was one of the runners up in the nature contest where there was a new record of 19,547 images entered, coming from over 95 different countries
Red deer in white by Kevin Berghmans was on the list of those photographs that was Highly Commended – it shows two deer locked in a fight during a powerful snowstorm
Storm brewing by Oscar Diez was Highly Commended at the awards and shows a group of sea birds bobbing on top of the sea as a storm gathers in the skies above them
Vigneti by Stanislao Basileo was on the list of runners up at the awards and shows deer jumping over lies of trees in the snowy landscape
My Backyard by Alejandro Prieto shows a grey squirrel next to a brightly coloured fence painted by school children in Mexico
In The Hiding by Milos Prelevic was one of the winners in the underwater category at the awards and shows a strange looking fish making its way through seaweed
Golden light with Impala by Artur Stankiewicz was part of the Highly Commended photographs and show the animal stood on its own in a beautiful sunset
Trapped by Andrea Pozzi was one fo the winners in the nature category at the awards.These incredible images have been nominated as finalists for the Nature Photographer of the Year competition
Tiny details by Lili Sztreharszki was one of the winners in the Youth category at the awards and shows an animal’s feet stood in sand
Lonely by Bert Kok was one of the photographs that was Highly Commended by the judges in the competition and shows a stag stood alone in the mist
Faraway so close by Alejandro Prieto was one of the winners in the Portfolio category and shows an animal through the border wall in Mexico
Splash!!! By Antonio Leiva Sanchez was one of the Runner-up photos in the Mammals category and shows a bat splashing in water in the dark
Take care by Yuhui Hu was one of the Runner-up pictures taken as part of the competition and shows a tiny green spider with its eggs
The Lynx King by Ismael Dominguez Gutierrez was in the Highly Commended category and shows the big cat posing in the sunset
Red Deer in Oostvaardersveld by Andius Teijgeler was part of the Highly Commended list and shows the majestic mammal looking out over a body of water
Enchanted Forest by Kevin De Vree was one of the runners-up in the Plants and Fungi category and shows mushrooms growing on a branch
Electric by Joshua Cripps was on the Runner-up list in the Landscapes category at the awards and shows a stormy sea and the cliff face battered by waves
Contact with the Dwarf Minke by Craig Parry was in the Runner Up list for the Animal Portraits category and shows a dwarf minke whale close up
Other astonishing photos, which were included as finalists include a wolf covered in snow and a monkey with paper blowing on its face (pictured) by Wei Fu
The Birds by Isoon Tepsaskul was on the Highly Commended list at the awards and featured in the Underwater category. It shows a group of fish flocking to the surface of the ocean
Big Small by Manuel Enrique Gonzalez Carmona was Highly Commended in the Animal Portrait category and shows a big bird looking at its chick