Montphoto international photography contest has announced the category winners for the 2021 competition. The British photographer Will Burrard-Lucas was awarded the overall Prize of Honour for the 25th edition of the international MONTPHOTO photo and video competition.
Burrard-Lucas was awarded with his image titled ‘Ghost’, which has also won the award for best photograph in the Mammals category and depicts an elusive hunting leopard in the night.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Festival which took place in Lloret, Spain.
To view the images as a slideshow, click on the arrows in the top right hand corner of the photos below.
!["On]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/A-1PREMIO-Manuel_Ismael_Gomez_A_El_monstruo_del_kayak-8b727ad.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"A-1PREMIO-")
On a glacial lake in Iceland, kayakers seemed to escape from imaginary monsters, created by the shape of icebergs that floating in its waters.
!["An]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/B2-1PREMIO-Bret_Charman_B2_A_Beakful-4cf9230.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"B2-1PREMIO-")
An Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) makes its way seemingly through a tropical forest on Skomer Island. It was trying to find its nesting hole, hidden by the dense vegetation, with a beak full of fish to feed its young. As it ducked through a patch of bracken, in the pouring rain, I was able to capture this beautiful moment.
!["A]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/B3-1PREMIO-Jaime_Culebras_B3_Huevos_de_esperanza-79b8f8d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"B3-1PREMIO-")
A clutch of Wiley’s Giant Glass Frog (Nymphargus wileyi) eggs hangs over a small creek in the cloud forest of the Ecuadorian Andes, at Yanayaku Biological Station, the only place where this species has been found. It is unknown how healthy its population is, so finding their eggs hold the flame of hope in a world of extinctions.
!["I]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/B4_1PREMIO-Imre_Potyo_B4_Spore_ghost-b42c08f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"B4_1PREMIO-")
I have been taking photographs of spore clouds, and I found Tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) and puffball mushroom (Basidiomycota Gasteromycetes s.l.) to be the most exciting emitters. When aging, puffball mushroom develop a crusty surface, which after cracking as a result of some disturebance which can be a raindrop emits spore in large filaments.
!["This]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/B5-1PREMIO-Mauro_Tronto_B5_The_Astonishing-ebc3574.jpg?quality=90&resize=275%2C413" "\"B5-1PREMIO-")
This shot is a mix of magical elements: the light of the moon whose incidence at the right angles generates a magnificent rainbow, beautiful Northern Lights shot during just above the lunar rainbow itself and one of the most famous and spectacular waterfall in Iceland, Godafoss.
!["La]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/C-1PREMIO-Xavier_Salvador_Costa_C_Bajo_la_luna-069f303.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"C-1PREMIO-")
The fried egg jellyfish (Cotylorhiza tuberculata) is harmless, since it has replaced a large part of its cnidocytes with zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium sp.). In this case, the photograph was taken at sunset and what for a moment I thought was the moon, turned out to be a feather.
!["Slovenia]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/D-1PREMIO-Marc_Graf_D_Culled-490456e.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"D-1PREMIO-")
Slovenia is allowed to cull a certain number of bears each year. Culling is legal in Slovenia however highly controversial. In the EU, brown bears are protected by law and in many neighbouring countries such as Italy and Austria the number of bears is still very low. However, Slovenia plans to reduce its bear numbers by shooting them.
!["Aerial]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/E-1PREMIO-Gheorghe_Popa_E_Yin_and_Yang-2f5da9f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"E-1PREMIO-")
Aerial view of Cuejdel lake in winter before the complete frost of the water. Cuejdel is the biggest natural dam in Romania, that’s the explanation for these trees.
!["Thanks]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/F-1PREMIO-Milan_Radisics_F_Fox_drinking_from_the_pool-8705903.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"F-1PREMIO-")
Thanks to the hunting cameras, I realised that a fox had been regularly visiting my yard and drinking from the small pool. I observed its behaviour from the windows and operated underwater camera with remote release cable.
!["A]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/MONTPHOTO-AWARD-Will_Burrard-Lucas_B1_Ghost-30910c4.jpg?quality=90&resize=551%2C413" "\"MONTPHOTO")
A long exposure camera trap photograph of a Leopard (Panthera pardus). The Camtraptions camera trap was set up to expose stars but the moon came up and resulted in this ghostly impression which captures the essence of these elusive cats.
!["(Macaca]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/23/2021/10/PREMIO-PORTFOLIO_6_DSC7739-6cbe61e.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413" "\"PREMIO")
Long tailed macaque being trained for the practice of street shows known as Topeng Monyet. Surabaya, Indonesia. (11/2017)