#nature-photography

#nature-photography

The 2025 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition celebrated its 22nd year by showcasing breathtaking images that reveal the delicate beauty of the natural world. Western Australian photographer Ross Gudgeon won top honors with a mesmerizing macro shot of cauliflower soft coral, praised for its originality and use of advanced underwater technology.

He'd been shooting large-format prints of lakes in Ontario, he explains, and was trying to capture the mist that rises off their mirrored surface at dawn. "It was really the fog that interested me-much more than the lakes," he says. "The right combination of fog and morning light and the lake reflecting it all was somehow very spooky and serene at the same time."