THE BEST OF THE ANIMAL WORLD

The winners of our latest contest with Photocrowd have been revealed

In our most recent competition in association with Photocrowd we challenged you to submit your best images of the animal world, and after sifting through over 3,100 impressive photos, the winners have been selected. Both crowd-voted and expert winners will win a licence to Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual the standard of submitted images was high and selecting the stand-out shots was very difficult.

1ST PLACE WINNER

GREAT GRAY OWL

PHOTOGRAPHER: Harry Collins

OUR COMMENT: This is a truly superb capture, showing an incredible bird midaction, about to pounce and capture its prey. There’s really nothing about this image that could possibly be any better.

2ND PLACE

THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE

PHOTOGRAPHER: Msaaed Al Gharibah

OUR COMMENT: This image demonstrates what’s possible when patience is applied. Three months and three different cameras seems absolutely worthwhile in order to produce a photo of this quality. The gaze of the animal and the atmospheric colour palette make for something truly special.

3RD PLACE

THE LINEUP

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jacques-Andre Dupont

OUR COMMENT: The animal world can look truly incredible in black and white, and this wildebeest capture is a superb example both of the magic of monochrome and the power of compressed perspective, which is used to excellent effect here.