Over 50 Award-Winning Wildlife and Nature Photos From the 2027 NANPA Showcase
The North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) has unveiled the incredible winning photos from its annual 2027 Showcase. The award-winning images show wildlife doing amazing things, stunning landscapes, and the most beautiful nature from around the world.
Best In Show
This year’s Best In Show winner is Texas-based nature and wildlife photographer Cissy Beasley, who won the top honor for her incredible shot of a frog catching a dragonfly in mid-air. It’s an exceptionally well-timed shot, with water droplets suspended in the air and the frog in a great pose.
“As we sat by a country pond, we watched a springy and ambitious Leopard Frog try his luck and skill at leaping up to snatch dragonflies from a perch or mid-air…over and over,” Beasley says. “Finally, he scored, securing an Eastern Pondhawk with his long, sticky tongue.”
Beasley’s photo also won the Macro / Micro / All Other category.
NANPA Showcase 2027 Category Winners
Alongside Beasley’s Best In Show victory, the NANPA Showcase 2027 recognized 249 other great nature photos, including winners across eight categories. The winners, runners-up, and Judges’ Choice honorees across all eight categories are featured below.
Birds
Charles Janson won the Birds category for his action-packed photo of a male Pileated Woodpecker hammering away at a dead Ponderosa Pine tree.
Mammals
Over in the Mammals category, this year’s winner is Kevin Lohman. Lohman’s award-winning photo shows a pair of polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, clashing with beautiful backlight. It’s a stunning silhouette.
‘Scapes
In the ‘Scapes category, which is just a shortened version of landscapes, John Benford’s nighttime photo of Castle Geyser in Yellowstone National Park earned top marks.
Macro / Micro / All Other
The Best-In-Show winner Beasley also won the Macro / Micro / All Other category. Her winning photo is shown again here, alongside the first runner-up and two judges’ choice photos.
Conservation
The Conservation category is an emotional mixed bag this year. While some of the awarded photos offer reasons for hope, the winning photo by Graham Gerdeman shows a dead Great Horned Owl lying face down in a puddle at a city cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the second Great Horned Owl found dead like this. No necropsy was performed despite the cemetery’s proximity to industrial sites.
Altered Reality
Creative approaches to photography are encouraged in the Altered Reality category. The winning image by Dave Hattori has been heavily edited in Photoshop to create artistic special effects, while the first runner-up is a composite of 139 photos showing the consistent flight patterns of Gannets in Norway.
Comedy / Humor
While not strictly focused on comedic wildlife photos like the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards, the NANPA Showcase still offers plenty of laughs. This year’s winning photo by Kevin Lohman shows a seven-week-old Great Horned Owl fledgling looking shocked as a gray squirrel jumped at it. Lohman adds that although the owl did fall off its perch, it was thankfully unharmed.
Series
While all the other categories focus on single image entries, the Series category asks photographers to submit seven photos related to a specific topic. In this case, photographer Parham Pourahmad’s winning series tells the story of how coyotes have adapted to more urban lifestyles and habitats in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pourahmad’s seven photos plus the seven shots from the three other winners are featured below.
More From NANPA Showcase 2027
Alongside the winning photos featured above, the 2027 NANPA Showcase judges recognized 250 works, including in the Top 100 and Top 250 galleries. All of these recognized photos are available to view on NANPA’s website.
Image creditsNorth American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) Showcase 2027. All photographers are credited in the image captions.
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