The renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year announced its 2018 winners in October, but the LUMIX People’s Choice Award, which is an extensions to the Wildlife Photographer competition announced its winners last week.
From a shortlist of 25, David Lloyd took home the prize for his touching photograph of two male adult lions greeting each other by nuzzling faces.
The photograph was captured while David was in the Serengeti “I’m so pleased that this image did well because it illustrates the emotion and feeling of animals and emphasizes that this is not limited to humans,” said Lloyd. “It is something I think more people need to be aware of for the sake of all animals.”
Even though Lloyd was the winner, four other photographs were honored with the Highly Commended title. The four photograph included some wild dog puppies, a polar bear barely surging in the Arctic.
Lloyd’s winning photograph will be on display as part of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which runs until June 30, 2019. As the public enjoys these newly revealed winners, the 2019 contest is already in full swing. An expert panel is currently judging work in anticipation of a winner’s announcement in October 2019.
Here are the images who received the highly commended prize:
One Toy, Three Dogs” by Bence Mate, Hungary. While adult African wild dogs are merciless killers, their pups are extremely cute and play all day long. Bence photographed these brothers in Mkuze, South Africa–they all wanted to play with the leg of an impala and were trying to drag it in three different directions!
“A Polar Bear’s Struggle” by Justin Hofman, USA. Justin’s whole body pained as he watched this starving polar bear at an abandoned hunter’s camp, in the Canadian Arctic, slowly heave itself up to standing. With little, and thinning, ice to move around on, the bear is unable to search for food.
“Three Kings” by Wim Van Den Heever, South Africa. Wim came across these king penguins on a beach in the Falkland Islands just as the sun was rising. They were caught up in a fascinating mating behavior–the two males were constantly moving around the female using their flippers to fend the other off.
“Fox Meets Fox” by Matthew Maran, UK. Matthew has been photographing foxes close to his home in north London for over a year and ever since spotting this street art had dreamt of capturing this image. After countless hours and many failed attempts, his persistence paid off.