This year (2025) the Nature Photo of the Year contest for the first time included a portfolio category, where all the images in a submission share a connecting story or theme. The images may depict any Finnish nature subject, and unlike the other categories, the date range for the images is from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024. Such a category has been my wish for years — a place to see and evaluate a larger whole in the style of international contests.
The contest in numbers
In the Nature Photo of the Year 2025 contest, a total of 12,033 images were uploaded from 735 photographers. The rotating (annual) category was Portfolio, and there were 266 submitted portfolios. In the first judging round, the jury selected 1,510 semifinal images from 426 photographers. 78 portfolios advanced.
All semifinal images were scored for the final round. 589 images from 207 photographers made it to the final. 39 portfolios advanced to the final.
The jury comprised Kai Fagerström (Salo), Hannu Laakso (Klaukkala), Marjo Lalli (Tampere), and Jukka Risikko (Lapua).
How did my own images fare?
I had success in two categories — Birds and Portfolio — the latter being of course the one closest to my heart. Doing well in the portfolio category requires eye, effort, and ability to work with a whole. In the traditional categories, a photographer can sometimes get an impressive image by being in the right place at the right time — for instance, my honorable mention in the Birds category (apparently the same trick also worked in one of my portfolio images). The conditions that morning were so beautiful that you could not really mess it up. More on that below in this blog.
I will later break down my contest images in blog posts with comments, but besides the awarded ones, the finalists also included:
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two bird images
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three mammals
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one other animal
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two “human and nature” images
Some of these will have another attempt next year.
For several years I have refrained from publishing my contest images on social media or on this blog (apart from a few), because some jurors like image freshness and novelty even though the rules do not forbid or direct publication.
Let’s now see which images this year appealed to the jury.
PORTFOLIO – 3rd Place: “My Neighbor the Flying Squirrel”
The images in my “My Neighbor the Flying Squirrel” portfolio were taken between 2020 and 2023. When I first began choosing a subject for the portfolio, the flying squirrel was the first thought. I also considered the badger and the fox, but fairly quickly decided on the flying squirrel.
More time went into selecting images that would form a harmonious and comprehensive series on the topic, and into presentation — I chose and cropped all the images to vertical orientation so the series would be as consistent as possible.
Top row, from left:
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Two flying squirrel youngsters leaving the nest, 2020
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Flying squirrel (likely a male) waiting for a female near the nest, 2023
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Flying squirrel on a lookout branch near the nest tree, 2021
Bottom row, from left:
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The courtship season of flying squirrels is underway: the female on a branch, the male arriving to sniff, 2021
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Flying squirrel peeking out from its nest hollow, 2021
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Flying squirrels mating, 2023
Jury comment:
“Many have heard talk of these neighbors, but how many have photographed them? The flying squirrel is a demanding subject, and producing such a series shows dedication. From technically challenging situations the images are beautiful. They convey the squirrel’s charming mysterious nature moving in the dim light. Perhaps the series could have omitted a couple of frames — it would have been stronger then, and the images would not ‘eat’ each other. Now the series has a bit of repetition.”
Reflections on the jury comment
I am happy that the jury elevated my portfolio to third place. Still, I’m a bit disappointed that in two of the three awarded portfolios the jury would have reduced the number of images — including mine. In the description of the contest portfolio category it states:
I: Portfolios (annual rotating theme). Submit 4–6 images that all have a connecting story or theme. The images may depict any Finnish nature subject; unlike the other categories, the date range is 1.1.2020–31.12.2024.
When I worked on the flying squirrel theme, I wanted to build a consistent and comprehensive whole. I included images from various stages of the flying squirrel’s life: from nest peeking, to lookout, courtship, mating, to the life of the offspring. Of course one could have pared the portfolio down to the minimum (4 images), as the winner’s portfolio did, but that would not have been for me a coherent whole but a curated “best-of.” Cropping to vertical format and even number of images also support visual cohesiveness.
If the portfolio returns as a rotating category in coming years, then many portfolios may feature only four images, as brevity was the message from this year’s jury.
Ultimately — this was the view of this year’s jury, as always — there must be at least some room to disagree.
Larger versions of the images
(Here follow enlarged images in the original post.)
BIRDS – Honorable Mention: “Morning Concert”
Morning Concert, July morning 2024. I was photographing moose when the sun was already fairly high. The moose had moved into the forest, and I continued my circuit by car. In front of me was the car of another photography group, but apparently at the crucial moment they did not look right — when a crane (grus) stood atop a rock.
On the passenger seat I had my trusted 100–400 mm zoom always ready. I took several different crops of the scene, both tighter and more landscape-styled. The crane quickly descended behind a hill, and I knew I had captured strong images. The morning was productive in general, though among animals the moose images didn’t bring success in this year’s contest.
EXIF:
Canon EOS R6 & EF 100–400 f/4.5–5.6 L IS USM II
1/6400, f/5.6, ISO 100
Exposure compensation –2.3 stops
Focal length 321 mm
Jury comment:
“The early bird captures its breakfast — and the early photographer an excellent image. It perfectly conveys the mood of a magnificent summer morning, and on top of that there’s a crane! It’s good that the photographer placed the bird in the landscape and not a tight shot just of the crane in morning light. The silhouette stands out magnificently, and the surrounding color palette is softer than soft. The composition leaves nothing to be desired; the rising sun and the crane create a fine line. The diagonal composition and the bird’s placement in the golden section align beautifully with the image’s golden hues.”
A bit of history about that rock
From this rock ledge in past years several reliable photos have been taken; one of them was awarded 2nd place in the Birds category of the Nature Photo of the Year in 2018. That photo was Kurkien huuto (the cranes’ call), by Arto Ketola. In that same year another finalist photograph was taken from that same rock — perhaps even on the same morning. This rock seems to be a crane-favored spot during summer, since one frequently sees them on the field by the rock.
Some photos from the event
(finnish text above)
