(Image: Greg du Toit/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013)
If you鈥檙e going to crouch all night in a sunken metal freight container, you鈥檇 want a good payoff. And so there was, for South African photographer Just after dawn, a herd of elephants arrived at the watering hole in front of his hideout at the in Botswana, allowing him to snap the mysterious shot that has won him the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013.
Du Toit wanted to represent the animals as gentle yet ghostly, so he set a slow shutter speed, used a polarising filter and messed with the white balance to create a cool atmosphere. As he waited, a baby elephant trotted right in front of him, just in time for him to capture the moment.
Advertisement
(Image: Udayan Rao Pawar/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013)
Udayan Rao Pawar, who has won Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013, also went out of his comfort zone to catch this shot of baby gharials 鈥� a type of crocodile 鈥� riding on their mother鈥檚 head.
He camped near a gharial colony on the banks of the Chambal river in Madhya Pradesh, central India, and got up before dawn to stake out the babies. The result is this photo, Mother鈥檚 little headful.
Gharials were once common in India but only about 200 breeding adults remain today, in just 2 per cent of their former homeland. 鈥淭he Chambal river is the gharial鈥檚 last stronghold, but it鈥檚 threatened by illegal sand-mining and fishing,鈥� says Pawar.
These photos, as well as the other winning snaps, will be on display at the at London鈥檚 Natural History Museum, from 18 October 2013 until 23 March 2014
