Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Nanyuki, Kenya:

Najin 33 one of the last two Northern White rhinos left in the world resting under a hot afternoon sun with her friend and caretaker Zachary Mutai in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The northern white rhino is all but extinct. The two last males died several years ago. The two females are still with us, but too feeble to bear babies. In an Italian lab, their eggs are now artificially fertilized by sperm from the late males, and kept at minus 196 celsius, in hopes that surrogate rhinos from another sub species can carry the northern white back from the brink.

On the Barents Sea, somewhere above the Arctic Circle, Svalbard, Northern Norway: A Polar bear studies a slight movement of my camera.

Antarctica: Adelie penguin chicks find refuge in an intricate tunnel system calved into nearby icebergs. Using these passageways to avoid predators, they group together for safety. Leopard seals patrol the surrounding waters, while skuas survey the vulnerable chicks from above.

Okavango Delta, Botswana: A large male lion peers through the remains of a buffalo killed the day before.

Isa city, Kagoshima, Japan: On this day, temperatures dipped below freezing point. I was initially disappointed to see the entire Sogi-No-Taki Waterfall covered with a thick mist upon arriving before dawn. I decided to try my luck and waited. Fortunately, when the sun rose, it lit up the falls beautifully and cleared away some of the mist.

Pongo-Songo, Republic of Cameroon: Chimpanzees in Cameroon are under constant threat from poaching for bush meat, by deforestation and by trafficking in the babies. Pongo-Songo island is a sanctuary on the Sanaga river, managed by Papaye, France, where rescued injured and orphaned chimpanzees are able to roam freely and safely in their natural habitat.

Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana: A lone Burchell’s Zebra crosses the dry Makgadikgadi salt pans.

Marsa Alam, Egypt: Mobius loop underwater. Most wave photographs are taken above water from a shore. This image was taken on a scuba dive during the storm. The picture does not fit ordinary underwater photography because it investigates the surface and not the deep of the sea. This is the view normally seen by underwater creatures who are curious about the world beyond their natural environment just as humans are curious
about the world under the surface.

Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, China: The wonderful moment when a Mountain Bulbul picks wild berries.

Salar de Arizaro, Puna de Argentina, Argentina: ‘El Cono Arita’, a spectacular geological formation where erosion has shaped an almost perfect cone that seems to be lost in a vast desert of the Salar de Arizaro. Using a drone, I was able to capture the magnificent shadow of Arita on this beautiful, cloudless evening.

Kennedybukta, Svalbard, Norway: Not everything is great in the polar bear realm. This starving polar bear mother and her two young cubs hadn’t eaten anything in a long time, since the ice melted sooner than before. Due to the extreme starvation, the mother’s milk has dried out long ago and two days after this photo was taken,we heard reports that both cubs died. This image is a testimony of climate change’s impact.

Stratford, Connecticut, USA: Capturing a snowy owl in the snow was a dream shot for me, and after multiple failed attempts, I finally managed to capture one. After watching her for a few hours from a safe distance, she finally flew into the snowstorm leaving me
with a personal favourite shot.

Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe: An African elephant among the herd.

Yamagata, Japan: Fallen trees becomes nurseries for living things, such as fireflies, and the richness of the forest circulates through repeated regeneration. This image was taken with 10 multiple exposures inside the camera.

Dickson Fjorden, Svalbard, Norway: Arctic Foxes are the ultimate survivors of the high Arctic. They don’t have the body mass of the polar bears or the walruses, so they must put their trust in the most insulating fur in the animal kingdom. This curious fox was interested in my camera. In his eyes’ reflection, you can actually see me and the snowmobiles of the expedition I was leading.

Northern Serengeti/Tanzania: Dramatic wildebeest crossing of the Mara river in northern Serengeti. The vast number of animals raised massive dust clouds as they crossed.

An unnamed shabono village of the Yanomani people in southern Venezuela: Young Yanomami children form a circle in the middle of their shabono, a traditional communal housing. The Yanomanis are indigenous people who live in some 250-300 villages in the Amazon rainforest along the border between Venezuela and Brazil.

Samburu, Kenya: A group of endangered Grevy’s zebras.

Vik, Iceland: I traveled to Iceland in July 2021. As Iceland to me is the most otherworldly-looking place on the planet I bought a special prop with me – an astronaut costume and helmet. The Vik beach looks like a scene straight from ‘Interstellar’ and I asked a friend to put on the costume and we started walking as all the other tourists around started smiling and taking pictures of him. I did many shots with pro cameras at this spot, but this iPhone photo is my favorite.

Iceland: Glacial rivers become visible only when you are high up in the sky. They’re called ‘braided river systems, as they often resemble an intricate jumble of patterns, intertwining in an almost inexplicable fashion and colours.

Tres Chimbadas Oxbow Lake, Tambopata National Reserve, Peru: A Black-skinned Parrot Snake draping its elongated body over a branch above an oxbow lake. I always take the time to search trees overhanging rivers and lakes, as wildlife use these transition zones to hunt and rest.

West Greenland / Disko Bay Area Greenland: Year after year the same natural spectacle takes place on the Greenland Icecap. As the summer approaches, large meltwater lakes appear at the edge of the icet, which are drained towards the sea by a network of streams, rivers and crevasses. The water filters all spectral colours from daylight until only blue tones remain, which are scattered and reflected on the icy bottom of the lakes. All photos were taken from within a small plane.

Iceland: Glacial rivers become visible only when you are high up in the sky. They’re called ‘braided river systems, as they often resemble an intricate jumble of patterns, intertwining in an almost inexplicable fashion and colours.

Canosa di Puglia, Italy: La Desolata, is one of the most poignant processions in the Christian world during Holy Week, in the village of Canosa di Puglia, Italy.

El Paso, La Palma, Spain: As the new vent opened lava found new ways down the mountain, destroying new houses in the neighborhood of El Paso on November 30th. The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma Island is the island’s longest-running volcano eruption. Huge rivers of lava and enormous amounts of continuously falling volcanic ash have transformed this Spanish holiday paradise. 7000 people have been evacuated; more than 1700 buildings were destroyed by the volcano. Strong earthquakes and permanent tremors were traumatizing the local population.

Kalash Valley, Chitral, Pakistan: The Kalasha are a Dardic indigenous people, considered unique among the peoples of Pakistan. Their richly embroidered clothes serve as the most obvious symbol of identity for the Kalash community.

Sesriem, Namib desert, Namibia: Curves of the Namib desert. The photo series was created in Namibia in the Namib desert using a helicopter. During the flight I tried to capture the unusual shapes created by the sun, light and shadow, along with the sand dunes.

Southeast Cameroon: A diminutive, graceful figure appears from the jungle, a faint accent of colour in a vanishing world. For thousands of years Baka pygmies have lived in harmony with magnificent jungles in southeast Cameroon, but within a generation much of their unique lifestyle will be gone forever due to deforestation and industrial interests, the policies of sedentarization and preservation of protected areas that has forced them to abandon their traditional life.

Brekkuskógur, Iceland: An aerial view of Bruarfoss, often called Iceland’s bluest
waterfall, showing the flow of glacial water through the river.

Tacande, La Palma, Spain: Footage of a ravaged mountainside with a single tree withstanding the lava flow. The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma Island is the island’s longest-running volcano eruption. Huge rivers of lava and enormous amounts of continuously falling volcanic ash have transformed this Spanish holiday paradise. 7000 people have been evacuated; more than 1700 buildings were destroyed by the volcano. Strong earthquakes and permanent tremors were traumatizing the local population.