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Two Whales

Jim Guerard

United States of America

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An adult polar bear wakes from an afternoon nap on the edge of the ice sheet near Svalbard, and after stretching and scratching, decides to move along on its never-ending search for food.

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Nominee

Honorable Mention

Wake-up Call

A group of white horses pause to study me in the tidal pools of Camargue.

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Curiosity

Taken at Loch Ard in Scotland on a foggy October Morning.  The "story" told about this marker is that the cross marks the spot where Helen MacGregor, (wife of Rob Roy) dragged a British spy and drowned him after her husband was captured.

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Helen's Cross

While photographing Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone at sunrise one morning, I decided to opt for zooming in on small sections of the hot springs, highlighting the structure and patterns as the steam allowed.

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Silver

Layers

After an exhausting hunt and dragging her kill for over 100 yards to a bush where her young cubs were hiding, a mother leopard decides to take a well-deserved nap on a large limb of a dead tree.  Captured in the Okavango Delta region of Botswana.

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Lazy Afternoon

Captured at dawn on a foggy morning in one of the cypress swamps near Savannah, Georgia.  The adult trees stand guard, yet provide an opening to view the young sapling in the middle.

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Morning Mist

An adult moose sprints through the deep, fresh snow on a beautiful morning in the Lamar Valley region of Yellowstone National Park.

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Snowplow

A group of horses sprint toward and around me in the surf on a summer morning in Camargue.

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Stampede

A group of horses enjoy a casual morning run through the tidal pools near Camargue.

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Sunrise Run

A pair of African Bee Eaters seem to be at a stalemate after a spirited conversation in the Maasai Mara, Kenya.

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The Conversation

A rare melanistic leopard steps into the light and pauses one evening at dusk as she begins to hunt.

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The Night Stalker

Captured in the early morning light as the haze began to clear on The Isle of Skye, Scotland.

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The Quiraing

Captured at dusk in White Sands National Park, USA.  White Sands is the largest gypsum dune field in the world.  During the bright daylight sun the dunes are a blinding white, but at dawn and dusk they do a magnificent job of reflecting the colors in the sky.

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A Line in the Sand

An African Fish Eagle plucks his breakfast from the Zambeze River on the border between Botswana and Namibia while striking an angelic pose as if he's looking down from the heavens above.

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Angel Eagle

I captured this image at dawn on a cold November morning from a kayak in the cypress swamps of Louisiana.  It was a mile-long kayak paddle in the dark using a headlamp to reach this spot and I tried not to think about what might be lurking in the water beneath the surface.

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Misty Morning in the Cypress Swamp

A large polar bear wakes-up from an afternoon nap and scratches is back before beginning his hunt for dinner.  I captured this image from a zodiac along the edge of the ice sheet off the coast of Svalbard, Norway.

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Happy Bear

A mother leopard takes a well-deserved afternoon nap on the branch of a dead tree in the Okavango Delta, Botswana after killing a gazelle for her two cubs.

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A thick morning fog begins to burn off a loch in the Scottish Highlands and reveal the fall colors on the far shore.  The iron cross in the foreground has many local stories about how it came to be and its meaning that range from a simple warning for boats of shallow water to classic urban legend.

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Foggy Morning on the Loch

A group of white horses go for a morning run on the beach in Camargue, France enjoying the ocean breeze in their manes and the splattering of cool, wet sand on their bodies.

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Sunrise Run on the Beach

A pair of oxpeckers hitch a ride across the open planes of Amboseli National Park, Kenya on the back of super-tusker "Tee-Jay" on a stormy afternoon.  "Tee-Jay" is one of only ~20 super-tuskers left in Africa.  A super-tusker is a bull elephant whose tusks each weigh in excess of 100 pounds.