Nature's Best Photography

Nature photographers travel the globe to document its beauty and diversity. They witness breath-taking landscapes, exciting wildlife behavior, and surprising glimpses of Earth's soaring peaks and mysterious ocean depths. The powerful photographs they bring home awaken our desire to explore, to understand, and to conserve the natural world.

The Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards program was created to celebrate these images and recognize the talented men and women behind them. Run in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, this annual worldwide competition is open to the public and juried by professionals in science, publishing, and conservation. More than 100 large-format prints along with HD videos.

This exhibition reveals some of nature's finest moments selected from more than 500,000 photographs submitted to the Awards program over the past 20 years. Submitted by photographers from around the globe, this collection brings dramatic landscapes, exciting wildlife behavior, and surprising glimpses of Earth's icy peaks to mysterious ocean depths.

Exhibition overview from museum website