Exposure One Unveils 40 Stunning Images From Its First Black & White Nature Contest

Exposure One’s debut nature photography contest has delivered a stunning showcase of talent and vision. From sweeping landscapes to intimate glimpses of wildlife, these black and white images prove that sometimes, less truly is more. Stripped of color, each photograph draws attention to texture, contrast, and emotion, revealing the raw beauty of the natural world in its purest form.

Whether it’s the intricate patterns of a leaf, the quiet strength of a lone tree, or the fleeting grace of an animal in motion, these photos capture moments that are both striking and timeless. Explore the collection and experience nature in monochrome like never before.

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#1 "Eyes Raised High" By Laura Dyer

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals Category at the Professional level. Description: Cheetah cubs, snuggling on their mom in a rain storm notice something flying overhead. They are alert to all dangers, especially in the rain as it dampens sounds. Mom is relaxed, but she know aerial battles are not of concern to the small family.

#2 "Black And White_elephant" By Sergey Gorshkov

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Professional level.

#3 "Drifters In Monochrome" By Christina Ford

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Underwater Category and the Animals Category. Description: This series shows jellyfish glowing softly in darkness, their bells like lanterns and tentacles trailing like delicate strokes. Without color, they become pure form and motion, drifting like living shadows. Each image reveals quiet grace—slow pulses of light and gentle, weightless movement.

#4 "Deadly Fluff" By Wouter Van Hofwegen

Image source: Exposure One Awards Gold Award in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Description: Thick fur hides claws and power. The bear’s paws show both strength and comfort, made to endure the endless winter.

#5 "Evolution In Tandem" By David Volonte

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#6 "Crowned In Dust And Shadow" By Mark Fernley

Image source: Exposure One Awards 2nd Place, Overall Contest. Silver Award in the Animals Category at the Professional level. Description: A young male lion steps through a cloud of dust lifted by his own movement and caught in the back light. The night around him stays silent, but the glow reveals every contour of rising strength. A rare, intimate moment from the waterhole here in the Shompole Conservancy, southern Kenya.

#7 "Dreams Of Ice" By Douglas Sturgess

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Description: A lone polar bear rests on a barren Arctic shore, its white fur glowing softly against the dark stones. In the stillness, there’s both peace and fragility, a quiet reminder of life enduring at the edge of a frozen world.

#8 "The Trust" By Alena Kámen Jakubová

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Nominee in the Lights & Shadow category at the Non-Professional level. Description: "The calm face of the animal, sharing the present peacefulness, the rust in the eye of the horse."

#9 "Tiger" By Abdul Kader Kagalwala

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Description: "He rules the silence of the jungle — unseen, unwavering, untamed."

#10 "Clean-Up" By Jon Ehrmann

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Nominee in the Wild Portraits category at the Non-Professional level. Description: "This voracious wild predator meticulously cleans up after a meal. The back and white rendering with steely texture articulates the power of the Praying Mantis. A bokeh halo completes the composition."

#11 "Against A Quiet Current' By Michael Paul

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals Category at the Professional level. "An elk and her yearlings ford a rocky mountain river as the morning fog burns off. The current was so placid, it neither impeded their crossing nor concealed the sloshing of their steady march to the far bank."

#12 "Tails Of The Sea" By Anthony Brown

Image source: Exposure One Awards Bronze Award in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Honorable Mention in the Ocean category at the Non-Professional level. Description: A large humpback whale had just breached. Just as a whale behind it started to tail slap. Making it look like this was just one big tailslap.

#13 "The Open North" By Rachel Spencer

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at Professional level.

#14 "Through The Fog" By Evan Watts

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention, Animals Category. Nominee, Light & Shadow Category. Description: "High in the Wyoming Rockies, a grizzly bear sow and her cub cross a mountain river. It was a cool morning, and thick fog hung overhead as steam rose from the river, creating an ethereal scene around one of nature's most respected predators."

#15 "Skysurfing" By Xiaoping Lin

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals Category at the Professional level. Description: "When an egret was fishing, it happened to encounter a silver carp rushing out of the sea. One of the egret's feet pressed the silver carp under its feet, like an egret playing skateboarding in the air."

#16 "The Giants Whisper" By José Miguel Angulo

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals Category at the Professional level. Description: Photographs of elephants made in Amboseli (Kenya) as part of a long project in support of this ecosystem and the maasai community in Africa, driving to the publication of the book "The Giants Whisper"

#17 "The Horses Of Camargue" By Laura Mommicchi

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category. Description: "Freedom at its finest. The white horses of Camargue, free, galloping in the wilderness. The Guardians, showing the care and the love that humans have for horses for centuries and generations in this region. A dance to witness. Complicity, Tenderness and Rawness."

#18 "Exhale" By Richard Bagdasarian

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Description: Manitoban Elk during a cold and frosty morning in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (U.S.A)

#19 "Bighorn Battle!" By Jeff Beatty

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Description: Horns clash and rocks fly as two bighorn rams battle for dominance.

#20 "Majesty In Focus" By Saleh Alshamali

Image source: Exposure One Awards Bronze Award, Animals Category. Nominee, Wild Portraits Category. Nominee, Light & Shadow Category. Description: A striking black and white portrait of a falcon, symbolizing power and grace. The sharp contrast of light and shadow highlights every feather detail, capturing the bird’s regal presence and untamed spirit.

#21 "Don't Even Think About It" By Tom Raymond

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention, Wild Portraits Category Nominee, Animals Category. Description: Adult hippo strikes a menacing pose, as if to say don't even think about coming any closer. Photographed in the Northern Kruger, South Africa.

#22 "Reverence" By Pam Dorner

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Honorable Mention in the Wild Portraits category at the Non-Professional level. Description: Baby bear looks up at Mom with such deep respect at Katmai National Park.

#23 "Bear Shake Down" By Charles Janson

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Description: In the last light of day, a backlit Brown Bear shakes his wet coat. He was foraging for salmon in a nearby creek and had just emerged onto land.

#24 "Antarctic Storm" By Michel Groleau

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals Category. Description: Frozen for more than 30 million years, Antarctica is the coldest place on our planet. Antarctica plays a major role in regulating the climate of the entire planet. Less than 1% of Antarctica is not covered in ice. These rocky formations are the only places where penguins can lay their eggs.

#25 "Začudno" By Lidija Novković

Image source: Exposure One Awards 1st Place, Overall Contest Winner. Silver Award, Abstract Category. Honorable Mention, Animals Category.

#26 "Classic" By Lidija Novković

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals Category at the Professional level.

#27 "Black And White_young Foxes" By Sergey Gorshkov

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Professional level.

#28 Aguila Mora (Geranoaetus Melanoleucus) By Alejandra Rebagliati

Image source: Exposure One Awards Silver Award in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#29 "One Fine Morning" By Will Runk

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals Category at the Professional level. Description: A pod a spinner dolphins surfaces and dives off the coast of west Oahu, HI.

#30 "Ouch!" By Janet Gustin

Image source: Exposure One Awards 1st Place winning image at the Non-Professional Level ⁠. While siblings nurse below, one kit fox pup demands attention the only way he knows how - by gently biting mom's face. The tender chaos of motherhood captured in a single frame. Even in the wild, kids compete for affection, and sometimes getting noticed means being a little bit bold.

#31 "The King" By Klaus Mayer

Image source: Exposure One Awards Silver Award in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Description: "This look. This expression. This confidence and showing of power. He looks like the real king of the plains. What a fantastic sighting. I'm still getting goosebumps watching him. One of the male lions of the pride that resides around the Mara Bush Camp."

#32 "Mothers Love" By Kerrie Norrie

Image source: Exposure One Awards Bronze Award in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#33 "Ascend" By Titch Tetley

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Professional level. Desription: "Taken in the Masai Mara in the heat of the day. I had put my camera away but as we headed back to camp we saw this sight and I just had to capture it. The tree is such an iconic symbol of the plains and with the giraffe reaching up I managed to capture the image that I saw."

#34 "Just A Little Swish" By Bayliss Ward

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category.

#35 "The Gentles" By Amit Armoza

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#36 "Sinister Eyes" By Faisal Zahir

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Nominee in the Wild Portraits category at the Non-Professional level. Nominee in the Minimalism category at the Non-Professional level. Description: Shot at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, New Jersey

#37 "Scar" By Titch Tetley

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals Category at the Professional level. Description: "The ox pecker was coming in land and I wanted to capture him in motion. It wasn't until later that I noticed the scar down the giraffe's eye."

#38 "Taking A Bear Break" By Heidi Ferguson

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level. Nominee in the Wild Portraits category at the Non-Professional level. Description: "This two year old was following mom fishing in Alaska, when it decided to take a little rest. We were supposed to have left that day but the weather was too windy, and as a result I got the chance to photograph mom and baby. This is the photo I had hoped to get and felt that B&W was best."

#39 "In Motion" By Rachel Spencer

Image source: Exposure One Awards Nominee in the Animals Category at the Professional level.

#40 "Textures Of Survival" By Saleh Alshamali

Image source: Exposure One Awards Honorable Mention, Earth’s Textures Category. Nominee, Animals Category. Description: A black and white portrait of a chameleon clinging to a branch. The fine textures of its skin and the dramatic play of light and shadow reveal nature’s intricate design and the quiet resilience of wildlife.