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These 49 Black & White Nature Photos Prove You Don’t Need Color To Feel The Moment

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In many ways, black-and-white nature photography is a more challenging art form than your standard color snapshot. It strips away the ‘easy’ beauty of color and forces the image to stand on its basic tenets: light, shape, texture, and timing. When it works, the results are no less than color photography. Instead, they feel more direct. More honest. Like you’re looking at a dark chocolate candy instead of the pretty wrapper.

That’s the whole point of the inaugural Black & White Nature Photography Contest by the Exposure One Awards. Photographers from around the world were asked to show what nature reveals when you take the obvious hook away. And the 2025 winners, nominees, and honorable mentions make a pretty compelling case that monochrome isn’t about removing something, but rather about perfecting composition.

Let us know in the comments which are your favorite animal photos here, and of course, check out submissions from this and other categories on Exposure One’s website and Instagram page.

More info: Instagram | exposureoneawards.com | Facebook

#1 "Scar" By Titch Tetley

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."

Without color to guide your attention, everything shifts. Fur starts to read like topography. Dust becomes a physical thing you can feel in the air. Water turns into a sheet of metal, or a soft gradient of gray that feels endless.

#2 "Black And White_elephant" By Sergey Gorshkov

Nominee in the Animals category at the Professional level.

#3 "Eyes Raised High" By Laura Dyer

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.

Even familiar subjects, animals, landscapes, and simple weather phenomena, can suddenly look unfamiliar and otherworldly. Contrast and shadow take over in the visual storytelling.

#4 "Deadly Fluff" By Wouter Van Hofwegen

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 "Sinister Eyes" By Faisal Zahir

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

#6 "Drifters In Monochrome" By Christina Ford

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.

You get a sense of weight, tension, and curiosity, captured at exactly the right fraction of a second. Close-ups feel personal rather than decorative. Wider scenes feel like you’ve stepped into a place where the air itself has texture.

#7 "Dreams Of Ice" By Douglas Sturgess

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 "Evolution In Tandem" By David Volonte

Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#9 "Against A Quiet Current' By Michael Paul

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."

What connects the strongest photographs in this set is discipline. No visual noise. No gimmicks. Just a clear idea, a strong composition, and the patience to wait for the moment to line up.

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

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.

#11 "Exhale" By Richard Bagdasarian

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)

#12 "The Trust" By Alena Kámen Jakubová

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."

It’s a kind of confidence, really, letting the subject carry the image without adding extra “look at me” energy on top.

#13 "Tiger" By Abdul Kader Kagalwala

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

#14 "Clean-Up" By Jon Ehrmann

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."

#15 "Tails Of The Sea" By Anthony Brown

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.

Taken together, the awarded and honored shots are a reminder of why black-and-white still matters. It slows you down. It makes you look closer.

#16 "The Open North" By Rachel Spencer

Nominee in the Animals category at Professional level.

#17 "Through The Fog" By Evan Watts

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."

#18 "Skysurfing" By Xiaoping Lin

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."

#19 "Začudno" By Lidija Novković

1st Place, Overall Contest Winner. Silver Award, Abstract Category. Honorable Mention, Animals Category.

#20 "The Horses Of Camargue" By Laura Mommicchi

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."

#21 "Bighorn Battle!" By Jeff Beatty

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

#22 "Majesty In Focus" By Saleh Alshamali

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.

#23 "Antarctic Storm" By Michel Groleau

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.

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

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.

#25 "The Giants Whisper" By José Miguel Angulo

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"

#26 Aguila Mora (Geranoaetus Melanoleucus) By Alejandra Rebagliati

Silver Award in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#27 "Reverence" By Pam Dorner

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.

#28 "Bear Shake Down" By Charles Janson

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.

#29 "One Fine Morning" By Will Runk

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 "Classic" By Lidija Novković

Honorable Mention in the Animals Category at the Professional level.

#31 "Black And White_young Foxes" By Sergey Gorshkov

Nominee in the Animals category at the Professional level.

#32 "Just A Little Swish" By Bayliss Ward

Nominee in the Animals category.

#33 "The King" By Klaus Mayer

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."

#34 "Mothers Love" By Kerrie Norrie

Bronze Award in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#35 "Taking A Bear Break" By Heidi Ferguson

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."

#36 "Black And White_the Arctic Fox 2" By Sergey Gorshkov

Honorable Mention in the Animals Category at the Professional level.

#37 "In Motion" By Rachel Spencer

Nominee in the Animals Category at the Professional level.

#38 "Ouch!" By Janet Gustin

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. ⁠

#39 "The Gentles" By Amit Armoza

Nominee in the Animals category at the Non-Professional level.

#40 "Ascend" By Titch Tetley

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."

#41 "King Of The Night" By Diego Romero Sandoval

Honorable Mention in the Animals Category. Description: An Alpha Lion patrolling at night.

#42 "Traffic Jam" In Tanzania By Tom Raymond

Nominee in the Animals Category at the Professional level. Description: A crush of thousands of Wildebeest at the Mara River, Tanzania

#43 "Textures Of Survival" By Saleh Alshamali

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.

#44 "The Thinker" By Stafford Robinson

Nominee in the Animals category at the Professional level. Description: Snow Monkey, Nagano, Japan.

#45 "Under A Veil Of Algae" By Jana Hejzlarova

Gold Award in the Animals category at the Professional level.

#46 "Born To Soar" By Jason Marino

Bronze Award, Wild Portraits Category. Honorable Mention, Animals Category. Description: An eagle soars among the mountain peaks of Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

#47 "King Of The Coast" By Evan Watts

Honorable Mention, Animals Category. Nominee, Wild Portraits Category. Description: Alaska's Bear Coast stretches hundreds of miles and boasts some of the best brown bear habitat on earth. This massive boar was the largest and most dominant on his stretch of coast, and in this image, he is seen eyeing a sow, a potential mate, that might allow his dominant bloodline to continue.

#48 "Hawk" By Joe Dollens

Nominee in the Animals Category at the Professional level.

#49 "Individuality" By Takayuki Nakamura

Bronze Award in the Animals category at the Professional level. Description: "I collect and photograph the skulls of Japanese deer. It is difficult to understand the individuality of each animal. However, when they die and only the bones remain, their individuality becomes clear."

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