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A peckish tiger lunching on a softshell turtle, an ant snacking on honeydew, and a pair of glittery slug moth larva are just a handful of scenes depicted in the winning images from the Nature inFocus Photography Awards 2023.

The prize, based in India, recognizes both local and international photographers capturing critical moments in the natural world.

Nature and wildlife storytelling platform Nature inFocus runs the competition. “Every year, we see images that reveal new facets of our natural world while shining a light on pertinent global conservation issues,” said Rohit Varma, one of the group’s founders, in a press release.

A six-member jury composed of wildlife and environmental specialists across film, photography and business selected the winning photographs for each category from 24,000 images that were submitted by 1,500 photographers, according to Nature inFocus.

The winners were presented with their awards during a ceremony on July 29 in Bangalore.

Among the winning images is a photostory focusing on the devastation facing the intricate mangrove forests of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Using a drone to capture a birds-eye view of the mangrove destruction, Srikanth Mannepuri highlighted the many risks forests face, including plastic waste, deforestation, and aquaculture – despite being a carbon sink and integral buffer against coastal erosion. Mannepuri, a wildlife conservationist, filmmaker and photographer, earned the “Photographer of the Year – Portfolio” title.

Other winning images include rarer wildlife sightings, such as a pair of agitated mountain goats locking horns in a cinematic rocky landscape. In the “Wildscape & Animals in Their Habitat” category, photographer Amit Eshel traveled to Israel’s Zin Desert to capture the two male Nubian ibexes in a heated face-off during rutting season.

According to the IUCN, the Nubian ibex is a vulnerable species – facing threats from agriculture to extreme weather.

In the “Conservation Focus” category, Jo-Anne McArthur was recognized for a haunting image depicting the scorched remains of a eucalyptus plantation following Australia’s bushfires in 2020. McArthur photographed a veterinarian searching for survivors whilst surrounded by charred trees.

Varma takes pride in the Award’s global scope.

“We are thrilled to see the growth in the number of participants and the geographical locations. It truly has become an international platform for wildlife photographers.”

SANTEE, CA — Patch reader Margie Pastorek captured this photo of people on a duck pedal boat at Santee Lakes.

“Watching ducks” at Santee Lakes, she said.

Thanks for sharing!

If you have an awesome picture of nature, breathtaking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny or something unusual you happen to catch with your camera, we’d love to feature it on Patch.

We’re looking for high-resolution, horizontal images that reflect the beauty that is San Diego County, and that show off your unique talents.

Send your photos to [email protected]. Be sure to include photo credit information, when and where the shot was taken, and any other details about what was going on.

Rarely can Katy Fielder picture her father and not see a camera in his hands. 

Across a more than 40-year career, John Fielder made a name for himself as one of Colorado’s premier nature photographers, producing roughly 200,000 photos in his ongoing attempt to capture the state’s natural beauty. 

Fielder, who died Aug. 11 at the age of 73 following a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer, will be remembered for his love of life and his commitment to nature, friends and family. 

“I’d always imagined my dad — with what an outdoorsman he was — hiking and skiing until he was 90 years old and never having any issues with it,” said Katy, Fielder’s youngest daughter. “It’s a huge, huge loss.” 

Katy said her father passed away peacefully, while looking out at the Gore Range where he had explored endless trails and crevices, at his Summit County home with family by his side. 

‘Always pointed at nature’

From her earliest memories, Katy, 37, said she was swept up in her family’s expeditions to various pockets of Colorado. It began as a toddler harnessed to her father’s body while they glided on skis across High Country snow. As she grew older, Katy became accustomed to routine camping trips that could be weeks long. 

“I don’t think there was a day that went by without him looking out at the mountains and saying how incredibly beautiful this place is and how grateful we are to live in it,” she said. “As kids, when he would take us out into the wilderness, I think he’d show us that the world and the environment is a really big place.”

And Fielder, “never did not have his camera with him,” Katy said. “It was always pointed at nature.” 

But it wasn’t until one evening on the Eastern Plains, standing near the Pawnee Buttes, that Katy, then aged 8 or 9, stopped to think about what her father was doing. As the warm light of sunset fell over the two rocky sentinels that make up the formation, Katy stared at Fielder, who was engulfed in his work. 

“I remember I realized just how incredible and how beautiful the state was, and seeing my dad capture it, I really understood what he was doing,” Katy said. 

Fielder embraced involving his family in his work, said Katy, who remembers peeking under the cloth of her father’s large frame camera before he captured a shot. At home, Fielder would bring Katy and her siblings downstairs to the basement where they would ponder over photo transparencies on his light table. 

Fielder would even ask which ones they wanted to see in his books and calendars. For Fielder’s acclaimed pictorial history book 1870-2000, or as Katy calls it, “the big brown book,” he had the family help pick the cover.

Since beginning as a professional photographer in 1973, Fielder’s work has appeared in more than 50 books. In January 2023, he donated his Colorado photography to History Colorado and wrote in a subsequent column for the Summit Daily News: “I have never felt that I ‘owned’ my photographs, only that I was borrowing these places to visit and record, and that I would give them back someday.”

‘An inspiration to many’

Mountain guide author Jon Kedrowski, who became a close friend later in Fielder’s life, said he remembers growing up with the Colorado photographer’s work in the 1990s. 

“I had coffee table books of John’s that my parents had bought me when I was a kid,” Kedrowski said. “He was such an inspiration to many people, including myself.”

The two first met in the late 2000s during one of Fielder’s book events where they struck up a conversation about their love for outdoor exploration. Fielder told Kedrowski to reach back out and, roughly a week later, Kedrowski did. 

They formed a friendship for the remainder of Fielder’s life that included mountaineering, rafting and backpacking with llamas, one of Fielder’s favorite ways to get around, Kedrowski said. 

“At a time when I was trying to find life in my direction and my career, we could go out and leave the world behind,” Kedrowski said. 

Kedrowski said Fielder became a mentor to him, helping him navigate his own aspirations of becoming a photographer and nature writer. For Kedrowski’s first book in 2012, Sleeping on the Summits, Fielder wrote the foreword and later provided photos for subsequent mountain guides. 

Outside of his professional standing, Fielder helped grow Kedrowski’s outlook on life, too. 

Fielder was always “finding the joy out of struggle,” Kedrowski said. Whether it was avoiding capsizing during a 165-mile rafting trip or triggering an avalanche in the backcountry (the latter of which ended in a swift return home and a round of margaritas), Fielder lived life with a smile. 

“He always had a desire to seek more wilderness, more adventure and never look back because life is too short,” Kedrowski said. 

He remembers a time during one of their backpacking trips when this philosophy was acutely noticeable. Kedrowski said he asked Fielder what time it was to which he replied, “Time doesn’t matter here.”

Kedrowski said the message he heard was, “Don’t wait, if you’ve been putting something off that you’ve been wanting to do, don’t wait.”

‘The soul of the place’

Fielder’s life was not without tragedy. In 2005, he lost his wife Gigi to Alzheimer’s disease. In 2006, his son J.T. died by suicide. 

After both losses, Fielder became heavily involved as a volunteer in raising awareness around Alzheimer’s and suicide prevention, said Colorado author Steve Walsh, who published a children’s biography of Fielder in 2019. 

“He did a lot of work on the environment and conservation but also in the personal aspects of his life,” Walsh said. “I think it showed what a really well-rounded person he was. Family and nature were No. 1 for him, in that order.”

Fielder’s environmental and conservation work was in many ways an extension of his photography and deeply held beliefs about the natural world, Walsh said. 

When taking a photo, “Probably the most important thing was the essence of the place, the soul of the place,” Walsh said. “It wasn’t just how pretty a mountain was around him, but what it elicits.” 

Fielder has helped lead public policy on environmental efforts, such as the Great Outdoors Colorado initiative in 1992, which has since protected 2 million acres of open space, parks, trails, wildlife habitat and ranches worth $2 billion using Colorado lottery profits and other funds.

Fielder’s photos were also used to promote the passage of the 1993 Colorado Wilderness Act, which enacted a slew of environmental protections. 

His daughter, Katy, said those efforts show how Fielder’s work offered more than just scenic imagery. His photos were also a call to action. 

“Our politicians really are crucial for protecting Colorado and the beauty and land we love to use here. And if they’re not seeing it every day, it’s probably easier to lose sight of that,” Katy said. 

“The most important part of his legacy was not how much he loved Colorado,” she added, “but showing everyone else how beautiful Colorado is so that they could love it as much as him.”

By Steven Josephson, The Summit Daily

John Fielder, a prolific and prominent nature photographer who has lived in Summit County since 2006, died Friday, Aug. 11, after a prolonged struggle with pancreatic cancer, according to an email from his daughter, Katy Fielder. He was 73 years old.

During a career that spanned 50 years, Fielder worked to protect Colorado’s ranches, open space and wildlife. Over 50 books have been published depicting his Colorado photography. In January 2023, he donated his Colorado photography to History Colorado. The museum is the home of a collection of more than 7,000 photos distilled from 200,000 he made since 1973, and which are now available to the public for personal and commercial use.

“I have never felt that I ‘owned’ my photographs, only that I was borrowing these places to visit and record, and that I would give them back someday,” Fielder wrote in a column for the Summit Daily News talking about his donation.

His photography influenced people and legislation and earned him recognition including the 1993 Sierra Club Ansel Adams Award, in 2011 the Aldo Leopold Foundation’s first Achievement Award ever given to an individual, and in 2017 Colorado Mountain College presented him an Honorary Degree in Sustainability Studies.

He leaves behind two daughters Ashley and Katy, and six grandchildren. John lost his wife Gigi to Alzheimer’s disease in 2005 and their son J.T. to suicide in 2006.