Slideshow: The winner and finalists from the 2020 GDT Nature Photographer of the Year contest

GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2020 winners

Members of the Society for Nature Photography have selected the GDT Nature Photographer of the Year. The 7th annual competition received 5,046 submissions from 307 GDT (German Society of Nature Photography) members across 11 countries. Peter Lindel was declared the Overall Winner with ‘A Hare’s Dream.’

‘The European hare, once a common inhabitant of open country all over Germany, has become a rare sight. While the large number of hares that I used to spot every morning on my way to work in the fields and meadows North of Dortmund, prompted me twelve years ago to explore this area with my camera, it has now become increasingly time-consuming to find hares and present them in an appealing photograph,’ Lindel explains.

For the first time, voting was conducted online instead of a general meeting on account of the pandemic. 70 winners and finalists were selected by judges and members for the following categories: Birds, Mammals, Other Animals, Plants and Fungi, Landscapes, Nature’s Studio, and the Special Category: Water. All winning and finalist photographs can be viewed here.

While GDT Nature Photographer of the Year is open to the society’s members only, GDT’s European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is open to all photographers residing in Europe.

Overall Winner: ‘A Hare’s Dream’ by Peter Lindel

GNPY 2020, Peter Lindel, GDT

About this photo: ‘A hare’s dream was taken in July of 2019 when months of searching a suitable location led me to a dirt road, which offered the most beautiful morning light, lovely vegetation and … three hares. Dreamy, curious, careful, anxious. These are the adjectives that I find describe the expression of “my hare” best,’ says Lindel.