This absolutely striking wildlife photo won the award for best animal portrait and is by Nick Dale of the UK. https://www.nickdalephotography.com/about
A Bengal tigress with a catchlight in her eye lies up to her neck in the dark shadows of a water hole.
The interplay of light is stunning.
The full article can be seen here: https://mymodernmet.com/2020-world-nature-photography-awards/
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 
Excellent photo well deserving best photo
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Yes, it certainly is. 🙂
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Stunning Lynette
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Yes, it’s quite a striking photo. 🙂
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This photo makes me wish I could be standing right there in real life, while at the same time being ever so grateful that I’m not.
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Yes, I feel the same way! I often wonder about the safety protections some of these photographers follow (or if they follow any at all).
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I assumed that he was using a big zoom lens.
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I also wondered if it was an automated set-up, but then I thought that a photo this good couldn’t be the result of a motion-activated camera.
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I’ve seen four tigers in the wild, and three of them were resoundingly asleep and the fourth (in typical big cat swagger) couldn’t even be bothered to look round! Not an easy species to photograph so this really is special.
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I have never seen a tiger in the wild. Lions, yes, but not tigers. The lions that I saw were also asleep and not too bothered. I agree – I’ve been wondering if it was done with an automated set-up, but it’s such a well-composed picture that the odds of that are very slim, I think.
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These wildlife photographers must have an incredible amount of patience. I can’t imagine how many hours are spent getting into position and then waiting for a shot like this.
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Yes, I agree. I’ve been wondering if this might have been the result of an automated set-up at a water hole favoured by tigers, but I don’t really think so. The composition is so good that it’s unlikely this photo could be the result of that.
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