Natural Landscape Photography Awards Shows Nature As It Truly Is

Sep 23, 2026 - 13:10

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Natural Landscape Photography Awards Shows Nature As It Truly Is

A split-screen image showing a jagged, snow-dusted mountain range on the left and a close-up of cracked, dry earth on the right.

The Natural Landscape Photography Awards (NLPA) has announced its latest winners, a collection of beautiful landscape and nature photos that emphasize realism and authenticity.

The Natural Landscape Photography Awards embraces photographers who value creating work that closely captures a scene as they see it. This means a set of relatively rigid rules that prohibit many techniques and tools often allowed in other competitions. The NLPA’s guiding principle is that “the integrity of the subject should be maintained.”

“A viewer familiar with the landscape and photographic process should not feel deceived if they were shown the original scene and raw file,” NLPA says.

Many post-processing techniques are still allowed, including stitching and stacking, but others are not. Introducing new elements to a scene, for example, is not allowed, whether it was achieved via compositing or something more obviously against the spirit of authentic photography, like generative AI. Even something like dodging may get an image removed from contention, as it is adding the effect of light that wasn’t in the scene at the time of capture. Digital photos that get past the first stage of judging must also be supported by RAW files. Film photos are also very much welcome in the competition.

The sixth annual edition of the competition drew 11,929 entered photographs from 1,086 photographers in 52 different countries. Of these, 2,558 photos and 88 projects made it to the RAW verification stage and final judging.

Photographer of the Year

Winner

This year’s Natural Landscape Photography Awards Photographer of the Year is Lukas Furlan. His winning series features a diverse range of subjects and techniques, from macro images of ice to expansive vistas of a mountain range. What all the photos share is their commitment to natural, realistic processing.

Three large, jagged rock formations stand on a grassy, rocky slope beneath a cloudy, mist-filled mountain sky.

“I’m deeply honored. It’s kind of a déjà vu also for me, because I was runner-up last year. I am a bit speechless, and I appreciate it. Thank you so much,” says Furlan. “A big part of my portfolio came from a solo trip, my very first solo trip from last year, in Spain. The rest of it is around Vienna where I currently live and, of course, the Dolomites. The last few years, I tried to get more personal with it to avoid the main viewpoints and also to keep an eye out for the smaller details there.”

A moss-covered tree with twisted branches and autumn-colored leaves stands against a backdrop of a forested hillside.

Runner-Up

Several tree trunks rise vertically out of a frozen, snow-dusted pond, each surrounded by a small, circular patch of open water.

Third Place

A close-up view of vertical, fan-shaped ice formations with textured, crystalline surfaces in shades of white and pale blue.

Photograph of the Year

Alongside the “Photographer of the Year” category, NLPA also names an individual “Photograph of the Year.” This year’s winner is Abraham Saikley for a remarkable photo of a jagged mountain range.   

Golden sunlight illuminates the sharp, snow-dusted granite peaks of a mountain range against a dark, dramatic sky.

Projects Winner

Photographer Gabriel Stankiewicz won the best project in this year’s contest for his series focused on pine forests.

“Growing up in the flat landscapes of Central Europe, I initially found the local pine forests ‘unphotogenic’ and unremarkable. It was only after traveling across the continent to photograph dramatic mountains and waterfalls that I noticed a recurring theme: the pine tree. I realized the irony of my journey — I had traveled far away from the familiar only to photograph the ‘familiar,'” Stankiewicz says.

His series, captured across a vast geographical range from Norway, the Canary Islands, Scotland, and more, is a photographic love letter to pine trees in all phases of life and in diverse habitats, from verdant and full of life to extremely harsh. In many cases, a pine tree will have been there before any particular photographer and will remain long after they capture their final frame.

Sunlight illuminates the tips of pine branches and two central trees against a backdrop of a dense, shadowed forest.

Projects– Runner Up

A large, sunlit pine tree stands in the foreground next to a smaller, bare tree in a misty, frost-covered landscape.

Projects — Third Place

Snow-covered trees and rugged rock formations stand on a misty, frozen mountainside under a soft, golden light.

Category Winners

Alongside the big prizes above, the Natural Landscape Photography Awards also includes a dozen other categories where photographers submit just a single photo. The top three finishers in each category are presented below.

Grand Landscape

A high-angle view of a pale, shallow lake surrounded by arid, brown hills under a dramatic, cloudy sky with snow-capped mountains.

Intimate Landscape

A long-exposure shot of water flowing over a dark, submerged surface, creating swirling, blurred white streaks.

Abstract Landscape

An aerial view of a glacier surface featuring intricate, dark, swirling patterns of debris and deep crevasses across the ice.

Black and White

A high-angle view of a thick, light-gray liquid surface featuring concentric circular patterns and a dark, irregular opening at the top.

Platinum / Palladium

A group of mountaineers traverses a snow-covered ridge beneath dramatic, cloud-filled skies and jagged mountain peaks.

Multiple Exposure and ICM

A surreal, vertically mirrored landscape showing a sunset sky and silhouetted pine trees reflected in calm water.

Night

Mountains

Sunlight streams through clouds over a deep mountain valley, framed by large, layered rock formations in the foreground.

Fungi and Lichens

A cluster of small, glossy orange mushrooms grows within a deep, weathered crevice of a dark, textured tree trunk.

Waterscapes

A dark, stormy sky hangs over a golden-brown hillside and a small cluster of bare trees beside a dark lake with reeds.

Common Places

A horizontal view of a field of dry, golden-brown grass in the foreground against a dense thicket of bare, grey winter trees.

Frozen Worlds

An aerial view of pancake ice floating on dark, deep blue water.

Even More From the Natural Landscape Photography Awards

Many more winning photos from this year’s competition, including fourth- through sixth-place finishers in Photographer of the Year and additional honorees in the Project category. In total, 170 photos made it to the finals.

All of the honored photos can be viewed on the Natural Landscape Photography Awards website.

Image creditsNatural Landscape Photography Awards. Individual photographers are credited in the captions.

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