FLORA AND FAUNA FRIDAY WINNERS!!

WEEK #2: FLORA AND FAUNA FRIDAY WINNERS!!

Thank you for all the beautiful entries in the Flora and Fauna Friday Nature Photo Contest! The submissions were judged by yours truly, @shadalene. About me: both my parents were photographers as I was growing up. My dad had a darkroom in our home, and I developed my first photos there (of TV cartoons :) at about nine. I ended up pursuing a career in the humanities and I am currently writing a doctoral dissertation; however, photography is what keeps me balanced and happy, and I am considering a second career in photography.

I appreciated all the entries this Friday. In my evaluation I looked especially for creativity and photographs that convey feeling in addition to composition, lighting, and perspective. I love seeing common things in new and artsy ways, as I also enjoy seeing uncommon flora and fauna. It was pretty difficult to line up the top ten, and a few others could have easily made it, but I settled on the following winners for this contest.

FIRST PLACE (20% of this post's SBD at payout): @snaptravel

“I found this cute baby Macaque and his Mother near a temple in the south of Thailand. It's common to find these monkeys at many temples throughout southeast Asia. Although their natural habitat is the jungle, they're extremely adaptable animals and many groups have moved into urban areas. They're normally cheeky little monkeys, but this one wasn't feeling so brave and needed comforting from his Mum. I guess he didn't like the look of the hairless ape taking his photo.”

SECOND PLACE (12% of this post's SBD at payout): @intrepidphotos

“We spent a couple of nights winter camping in the hope of tracking down some Central Mountain Caribou (an ecotype of Rangifer tarandus caribou). After seeing fresh footprints in the snow the day before we finally located some of these amazing animals on the morning we were due to head home. Mountain Caribou of Northern BC have been in a steep decline since the 1990’s. Their decline is a result of direct habitat loss along with increased predation associated with ecosystem change from land alteration. While they are listed as threatened federally in Canada the Federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has recommended that mountain caribou be listed as endangered. This particular herd was counted via aerial survey at 120 in 2007 and had dropped to 45 by 2012. It seems the implementation of a caribou management plan in 2013 has potentially stabilised the population; however there has yet to be any significant increase with the herd being counted at 50 in 2015. Northern British Columbia, Canada.”

THIRD PLACE (7% of this post's SBD at payout):@jayclar30

“I took this photo at the Toowoomba Carnival Of Flowers. Poppies are one of my favorite flowers and the sun just happened to be in the right position to take some photos of all their natural beauty.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS (3% each of this post's SBD at payout)

@ninahaskin

“Wings of a Butterfly. I took this photo of a butterfly "tasting" a flower in my garden last summer. The colorful pattern on its wingsand the circles serve as protection from predators that think those are eyes of a larger animal. Butterflies set on top of a flower and use their proboscis -- a long narrow tube in their mouth -- like a a straw to get their nurishment. Butterflies taste with their feet. Each of their six legs have sensors on them that can tell by landing on a flower what it tastes like.”

@dmytrokorol

“Here is some of common alpine fauna.”

@yblith

“My submission is this macroshot shortly after some rain in summer.”

@fonteynb

“Last summer we did a roadtrip through the West of USA. When driving through a remote area, part of a reserve, in New Mexico, we saw these animals. At first we thought it was a kind of deer. When I investigated later, I understood these are a kind of antilope, named pronghorn. They were very beautiful and it's amazing to see these in the wild.”

@sjarvie5

“This unique cactus looks like a snake coming up over the rocks. It was taken in the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.”

@fivealive55

“Here is a Bison I found in Yellowstone National Park. This guy was not fazed by my presence, I could tell he was used to a lot of human traffic near him. I only had a wide angle lens on me at the time so I had to creep up pretty close to get this capture.”

@carrieslens

“Puddle shot on my driveway ~~ Hawaii style! It’s been a wet, wet, wet winter here.... I got three kids.... I got a lotta puddle pictures...We pretended that it was kitty cat portal to the netherworld!”

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!

I hope you enjoyed this gallery of nature photography!
See also these stunning galleries featuring previous winners! Your upvotes and resteems will bring the talented photographers a better reward, so show them some love! :)

Mountains Monday Winners Week 2
Trees Tuesday Winners Week 2
Water Wednesday Winners Week 2
Time Lapse Thursday Winners Week 1
Flora and Fauna Friday Winners Week 1
Simple Sunday Winners Week 1

To participate in the contest, check out the SIMPLE SUNDAY and submit a photo before the deadline!

DAILY THEMES and judges for Week 2 (March 5 - 11)
Mountains Monday: @kieranstone
Trees Tuesday: @jarvie
Water Wednesday: @itchyfeetdonica
Time-lapse Thursday: @eaglest
Flora and Fauna Friday: @shadalene
Simple Sunday: @raoul.poenar

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