Royal Society Photography Award Winners

The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. The Royal Society Publishing photography competition was launched earlier this year by two of the Society’s biological sciences journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B and Biology Letters. It celebrates the 350th anniversary of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

“TADPOLES OVERHEAD,” BERT WILLAERT, BELGIUM

OVERALL WINNER

CATEGORY WINNER: ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

ROYAL SOCIETY PUBLISHING

Bert Willaert, a biologist of amphibian evolution and an environmental advisor took the winning shot in a canal local to his home in Belgium. His winning photo stood out from over 1,000 entries for giving a tadpole’s glimpse of the world beyond the water — an alternative perspective of an everyday biological phenomenon.

“To me, the winning photo communicates the power of a common biological phenomenon visualised in a new light, and from a perspective that emphasises the other half of the ecosystem; the half we usually miss when looking down at a tadpoles’ puddle, but one that is very much part of the tadpoles’ own view — the clouds, the trees, and the sky.” – Alex Badyaev, 2011, 2012 and 2014 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Winner