Every visit to Yosemite since my first, I’ve looked up at the waterfalls and yearned to be closer. I’ve always had a drive to not only observe nature but to interact with it, to feel it. And, of course, to photograph it.

Many of you may have recently seen images of an upside down American flag hung from a cliff’s edge at Yosemite National Park in California. I was one of the photographers who captured this scene, which has been interpreted as a protest against the recent firings of over 1000 National Park Service employees. Here is what was going through my head when I captured these distressing images.

I arrived at Solio Game Reserve on February 21, 2025, to spend three days photographing rhinos. Sitting on the plains between Mount Kenya to the east and the Aberdare range to the west, Solio has a population of 250 rhinos, both white and black, on its 20,000 acres. Solio is a paradise, and it was there I learned to love these unlikely creatures. 

I’ve spent countless days photographing African wildlife. While I usually have a general focus in mind, I often end up capturing whatever crosses my path. To break free from these familiar patterns, I decided to shake things up and challenge myself: What if I dedicated an entire trip to documenting just one cheetah family?

Canadian photographer Andrew Mielzynski took the top prize in the International Landscape Photographer of the Year (ILPY) 2024 contest. Mielzynski, who was the runner-up in last year’s ILPY competition, was named the overall winner in 2024 for a collection of four of his images.

When the world’s most famous grizzly bear, known as 399, was struck and killed by a car in Wyoming last month, one wildlife photographer, Thomas D Mangelsen, took it particularly hard. Mangelsen had chronicled 399 in photos and video from his first magical sighting of her in 2006 until recently.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest recently announced the winning images for 2024 with a striking shot of tadpoles gliding through a pond taking the top prize. The overall winning photo, shown above, was captured by Canadian marine conservation journalist Shane Gross.

The winners of the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024 were recently announced in London, revealing stunning images including the overall winner (above) by Rafael Fernandez Caballero, which shows a Bryde’s whale about to engulf a swarm of sardines. In Caballero’s winning image, the sardines are forming what is known as a “baitball,” which is a defensive tactic to ward off predators.