Seeing an animal on a deserted street in the middle of the night can seem both strange and invigorating.
Especially during the pandemic, city dwellers have been shocked to see emboldened animals straying into the deserted streets of confined urban spaces.
Deer in Paris, goats on the streets of Llandudno in Wales and even a cougar stalking the streets of Santiago, Chile, all captured the imagination of audiences who were trapped at home with nothing to do but scroll through social media.
Well, the art of urban wildlife photography is now the subject of a new competition organized by Picfair.
The Urban Wildlife Photography Awards received 6,000 entries from amateur and professional photographers and featured pigeons, foxes, lizards and squirrels enjoying the cityscape of melbourne at Mexico.
The ‘Nightlife’ category saw a rat emerge from a sewer in Mexico City taking home the top prize, while a flamingo in Italy won in ‘Daylight’.
In a public vote that took place on social media, an image of a Racoon in a ravine near a subway station in the “Fancy Seeing You Here” category.
Meanwhile, the winning entry, by an amateur photographer who works in digital marketing, showed a pair of coyotes on a street in Ontario.
“I thought it was my car that caught their attention as I turned the corner, and maybe it did at first, but as I rolled down the window I heard it was another group of howling coyotes that had piqued their interest,” says the winner. , Andrew Interisano.
“I parked, turned off the engine and went frantically to work with the camera…however, in the rush of that moment, I was quickly forced to put my camera down and soak up the the scene.”
Nightlife Winner: Austin Montero’s Life Beyond the Sewer
“The pandemic has forced me to stay in a small town for the past two years. This led me to find several animals using different parts of our town. They shelter under bridges, move in aqueducts or nest along roads. But generally, we don’t notice it, ”explains the photographer.
Winner ‘Daylight’: Window to the Salt Pan by Mano Aliczki
“This national park in Sardinia is home to one of the largest colonies of flamingos on the island and allows flamingo photography with the city and the now abandoned salt evaporation facilities as a backdrop, creating opportunities for I managed to capture the moment when a feeding flamingo entered a wooden frame in a dike on a pan of salt,” says Aliczki.
“I want to see you here”, winner: Trash Panda by Jill Finney
“I had dreamed of photographing wildlife since I was a child and didn’t start serious photography until I was almost 50, during the covid lockdown when I decided it was time to shoot my own Natgeo dreams, even if it was just squirrels in the backyard,” says Finney.
Finalist: Illuminated by Oliver Schultz
“I was coming back from Victoria Station on a cold English evening, and the hour of twilight was fading. There was a cold breeze blowing through the air, and looking around I saw a lone pigeon huddled against a warm light, just waiting for the night to pass,” Schultz explains.
Finalist: Urban Fox by Jenny-Louise Read
“I went out to take this photo because foxes, although common in most parts of my country, are rarely seen here. Especially for me silent ghost hunters in the night! I wanted to capture the grunginess of the street as well than the elusive personality of my local foxes. I am a disabled photographer with one arm, so my goal through my photography is to A) create stunning photos of our world’s most magical creatures and B) show the world that Being disabled doesn’t mean I’m not capable!”
Finalist: Kick by Cheryl Rogers
Photo of a native Australian Brolga bird
See the full gallery of finalists and winners on Picfair here. All Picfair profits from print sales will go to Re:Wil, a global non-profit conservation organization.
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