Top fifteen photos from Wiki Loves Earth 2017

Wiki Love Earth’s overall winner: Ogoy Island in Russia’s Lake Baikal. Photo by Sergey PesterevCC BY-SA 4.0.

A jaguar gazed out from a bed of shrubs. A water buffalo took a bath. A capybara family gathered in line. These are just a few of the delightful sights captured in the winning photos in the international Wiki Loves Earth photography competition, announced today.

Coming in first place (at top) is a ghostly image of Ogoy Island. Photographer Sergey Pesterev ventured out onto the ice of Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, and was commended by the contest judges for using cracks in the ice and clouds in the sky to frame the rocky center of the image.

Wiki Loves Earth focuses on natural heritage in protected areas—unique and special places like nature reserves, landscape conservation areas, national parks, and more. It asks photographers to contribute their work to Wikimedia Commons, a media repository that holds many of the photos used on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia ecosystem. All of its content is freely licensed, meaning that they can be used by anyone, for any purpose, with few restrictions.[1]

The fourth annual contest, held earlier this year, saw a total of 131,984 uploads to Commons, a record. These were captured in at least 38 countries.[2] 15,299 different user accounts uploaded photos during the contest, nearly 14,000 of which were newly registered.

All of the entries were judged by national juries; winners there were forwarded to the international jury, composed of members from seven different nations (Germany, Serbia, Thailand, Nepal, Russia, Argentina, and Ukraine).

The contest’s second- through fifteenth-place images follow.

Continue reading “Top fifteen photos from Wiki Loves Earth 2017”

The top fifteen phenomenal winning photos from Wiki Loves Earth

Photo by Cedomir Zarkovic, CC BY-SA 4.0.

First place: The limestone of Stopića Cave, Serbia. Photo by Cedomir Zarkovic, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The tangy butterscotch glow of a limestone cave in Serbia soaking up the slanting sun. The emerald green of lush German forest and pond covered with lush weeds and trees. The stark white and blue of a Ukraine snowscape 2,028 meters above sea level, where snowy peaks meet cloud and sky.

The colors of nature burst from the 15 finalists of Wiki Loves Earth, the photo contest now in its third year of crowdsourcing gorgeous landscapes from more than 13,600 participants. The top 15 photos this year come from Serbia, Bulgaria, Nepal, Estonia, Ukraine, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Germany, and Thailand.

National judging in 26 regions sorted through 115,000 photos and sent the best to international judges from Ghana, Germany, South Africa, Kosovo, France, India, Estonia, Indonesia, and Bulgaria.

This year, the contest expanded to include a collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known by its acronym UNESCO. Contestants were invited to upload photos in a separate category for UNESCO biosphere reserves in 120 different countries.

You can see more about Wiki Loves Earth on its website, and this year’s jury report on Commons.

Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Second place: Pobiti Kamani, Bulgaria, the only desert in Eastern Europe. Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Patricia Sauer, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Third place: Tangye, Mustang, Nepal. Photo by Patricia Sauer, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Külli Kolina, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fourth place: Ahja River, Estonia. Photo by Külli Kolina, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Khoroshkov, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fifth place: Biały Słoń, the former Polish Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory, now located in Ukraine. Photo by Khoroshkov, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Tamara Kulikova, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sixth place: Northern Inland Fuerteventura, Spain. Photo by Tamara Kulikova, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Kristoffer Vaikla, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Seventh place: Vääna River, Estonia. Photo by Kristoffer Vaikla, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Eight place: Part of the Schladming Tauern. Photo by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Ryzhkov Sergey, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ninth place: Tokivske waterfall in Ukraine. Photo by Ryzhkov Sergey, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Joao lara mesquita, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tenth place: Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil. Photo by Joao lara mesquita, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Taras Dut., CC BY-SA 4.0.

Eleventh place: the same location as #5, but taken on a cold winter day. Photo by Taras Dut., CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Andreas Weith, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Twelfth place: Wettenberger Ried, a protected forest in Germany. Photo by Andreas Weith, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by KOSIN SUKHUM, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thirteenth place: Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park in Thailand. Photo by KOSIN SUKHUM, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Rafael Rodrigues Camargo, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fourteenth place: Terra Ronca State Park, Brazil. Photo by Rafael Rodrigues Camargo, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Vladimir Mijailović, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fifteenth place: Tara in Serbia. Photo by Vladimir Mijailović, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Jeff Elder, Digital Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation

Originally published on the Wikimedia blog at https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/25/wiki-loves-earth-2016-winners/.

Continue reading “The top fifteen phenomenal winning photos from Wiki Loves Earth”

The international round has begun

Mount Kanchenjunga seen from Goechala. Photo by Yoghya, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

A record number of over 110.000 pictures, taken by over 13.000 uploaders in 26 participating countries and in biosphere reserves of our partner UNESCO were uploaded during this year’s national round of Wiki Loves Earth! Each of the participating communities chose their best ten pictures which represent them in the international round of the competition. Now the nine-member jury has the hard task to choose the best pictures worldwide.

The jury consist of nine members, who live all around the globe – Dietmar Bartz, Katya Zareva-Simeonova, Besnik Hamiti, Chris Woodrich, Doris Anson-Yevu, Isla Haddow-Flood, Jeevan Jose, Janno Loide, and Qunli Han. They will choose the best pictures, which represent an identified natural monument, natural park, protected area, etc., including pictures of animals taken there. All of the pictures, uploaded during Wiki Loves Earth were published under a free licence.

Lake Ohrid. Photo by Fation Plaku, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Most pictures were uploaded in India – 31.317, followed by Germany with 18.161 and Ukraine with 11.475. The highest number of uploaders was found in India with 6.318, followed by Germany with 1.108 and Pakistan with 1.098. For India this year was the second time it participated and its results have been impressive. Among the newcomers, Australia had the best results with 3.509 pictures uploaded by 595 people. The other states which participated for the first time this year were Greece, Albania, Moldova, and Kosovo.

Wiki Loves Earth 2016 completed successfully in Moldova

The winning image of the Burlănești Defile; Alex Prodan, CC-BY-SA-4.0

This year Moldova had the Wiki Loves Earth organized for the first time. During a span of one month, amateur and professional photographers from Moldova had the chance to upload their photos of natural heritage monuments of the country, in the same time contributing to the scarce free media collection of Moldovan nature online.

Socola, Șoldănești, second placed; Balan Anton, CC-BY-SA-4.0

During a month of contest, the organizers received 600 images depicting 70 natural monuments and protected areas. These are small numbers on a global scale, but decent numbers for Moldova: prior to the contest, only 7 natural monuments had illustrations on Wikimedia Commons. The uploaded files were being added to the corresponding articles immediately, making Moldova the best participating country in terms of media usage (23% of files are used in articles).

A waterfall in Saharna landscape reserve, third placed; Botnari Stefan, CC-BY-SA-4.0

The promotion efforts gathered a small amount of actual uploaders. As much as 17 people had at least one valid upload. The jury, consisting of two local professional photographers and one Wikipedian, identified the ten best ten works and announced them at the end of July.

Awarding the first and second place; Visem, CC-BY-SA-4.0

The winners and participants were invited to attend the awarding ceremony on on July 24 at the Hasdeu municipal library of Chișinău. During the meetup, attendants had the opportunity to see a mini-exposition of winning photographies, chat with some of the participants, and also ask questions about Wikipedia, specifically Wikipedia activities connected to Wikipedia in Moldova. There were voices expressing interest for an eventual possible Wiki Loves Monuments in the country.

Awarding third place; Visem, CC-BY-SA-4.0
Awarding the X-style special prize; Gikü, CC-BY-SA-4.0

Wiki Loves Earth in Greece – tourists are welcome to participate!

Small waterfalls in Pelion, the mountain of Centaurs. Neoklis F., CC-BY-SA-4.0

Having begun in May 15th, Wiki Loves Earth in Greece is now at the halfway mark! The event is running in Greece for the first time, although parts of the required preparations started at least two years ago! For instance, an initial list of areas to be photographed was prepared in 2014.

Kastoria lake. Geosfot, CC-BY-SA-4.0

In order to run the Wiki Loves Earth contest, we needed a list of protected areas and natural reserves; national parks and forests, monuments of nature, RAMSAR sites, Natura 2000 sites etc. We found out that many of these areas overlapped with each other, or that smaller protected areas under the same definition were included in a wider protected area. In order to keep it simple, instead of merging these lists of protected areas into one big list, we chose to run the competition using the list of the Natura 2000 network, which includes most, if not all, of the areas of interest and is well documented. These sites constitute almost 30% of the land area of Greece and most of the population lives no more than 30 km away from anyone of them. Of course, although we are organising some photoexpeditions, we do not expect people to travel only for the competition. In Greece, excursions to the countryside are very frequent, during all seasons, and we expect that many contributions will be photos from previous such visits. Even people who are in areas around Greece just for tourism can contribute, as many of the islands and beaches are part of a protected natural area!

Skhinias and Marathon National Park, a step away from Athens. Oplats, CC-BY-SA-4.0

To this day we have seen great images from lakes, forests, beaches, habitats of birds, photos of many different species of flowers. This is great, as there was a lack of freely lincensed images for many locations in Greece. The images from Wiki Loves Earth will be useful for Wikipedia articles, but also for Wikidata items that we plan to create for each of these areas. What’s more, if the project is successful more people will know not only about Wikipedia, but also about Wikimedia Commons, and new users will be engaged in both projects. Until this day, participation is as expected, with more than 1100 new images from dozens of contributors throughout the country. There is also a lot of interest from the media, and it will bring in even more contributors. Running this photo contest in Greece is very important, as it is one of the limited number of ways to inform the public that they can contribute to Wikipedia not only by writing texts but also with their photos, cameras, or even smartphones. Although one would expect that Wiki Loves Monuments would be something very easy in a country whose culture and monuments span thousands of years, it is not. There is no Freedom of Panorama in Greece, and even taking photos of older monuments is a problem, because of the complex legislation regarding publishing rights for photos of monuments protected by the government. That is the reason we started photo contests by taking part in the European Science Photo Competition 2015, where we gained a lot of experience that we use for WLE. But Greece, except of being a country with long history, is also a land of sun, high mountains, deep forests, and long beaches. It is a habitat of a lot of unique spieces of birds, plants, and even sea turtles and seals in its archipelago. When we set our goal to 2500 images, it was commented that it is too high. We expect it to be fair. 🙂
Lilium chalcedonicum on Mount Olympus. EleKal, CC-BY-SA-4.0

Wiki Loves Earth will continue in Morocco until June 7 !

Initially planned until May 31, the organizing committee of photography contest Wiki Loves Earth in Morocco, namely Wikimedia Morocco, announced that he decided to extend the duration of the contest for another week, so he closed the June 7. Given the large number of participants continues to grow and multiplying in a processive way uploaded photos.

Continue to add your photos to this link !

Merzouga Oases by Hamza ZIDANE. 1 May 2016 (CC-BY-SA-4.0)

Prévue initialement jusqu’au 31 mai, le comité d’organisation du concours de photographie Wiki Loves Earth au Maroc, à savoir Wikimedia Morocco, a annoncé qu’il a décidé exceptionnellement de prolonger la durée du concours pour une autre semaine, ainsi il se clôtura le 7 juin prochain. Vu le grand nombre de participants qui ne cesse d’augmenter multipliant ainsi de manière processive les photos téléversées.

Continuez à ajouter vos photos via ce lien !

Lake in Ifrane by Mohammed-ali louanate. 12 May 2016 (CC-BY-SA-4.0)

مُقرر مبدئيا إلى غاية 31 مايو، أعلنت اللجنة المنظمة للمسابقة التصوير الفوتوغرافي ويكي تهوى الأرض في المغرب، ويكيميديا المغرب، أنها قررت استثنائيا تمديد فترة المسابقة لمدة أسبوع آخر، لتنتهي بذلك في 7 يونيو. نظرا للعدد الكبير من المشاركين الذي يتزايد مع الأيام، و الذي يرفع معه بشكل إضطرادي عدد الصور المشاركة

! واصلوا في إضافة صوركم على هذا الرابط

The lost land by Othmane.elam. 21 May 2016 (CC-BY-SA-4.0)

Wiki Loves Earth 2016 captures the nature!

On May 1, 2016 the Wikimedia community is starting an international photo contest with a natural heritage theme, Wiki Loves Earth 2016. Wiki Loves Earth is organized through numerous national contests, coordinated by local volunteers.

Panorama stitching of the pointe de Pen-Hir. Finalist of Wiki Loves Earth 2015 in France. Photo by Diwall, freely licenced under CC-BY-SA-3.0
Panorama stitching of the pointe de Pen-Hir. Finalist of Wiki Loves Earth 2015 in France. Photo by Diwall, freely licenced under CC-BY-SA-3.0

This is the fourth year of the competition. In 2015 there were 19 countries in the contest and this year it encompasses Algeria, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Moldova, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Tunisia and Ukraine — Wikimedians from these countries are willing to help sharing their natural monuments with the world!

Wiki Loves Earth belongs to the widest photo competitions, we are really happy that you like it. WLE becomes a movement, there are people who donate there time and photos into it year by year. Devoted participants — and also newcomers! — help decrease blind spots on map and highlight unknown places and sights in their countries.

This photo contest is not only a great opportunity to show the charms of nature, but also a chance to draw public attention to environmental problems. Together we can create word wide heritage base of natural objects. Together we will raise awareness about natural resources and zones and their protection.

Anyone can take part in the competition; however, registration on Wikimedia Commons is required. To enter the contest, find an item or place you are familiar with from the competition list, submit a picture you have taken (past or present), and upload it to Wikimedia Commons beginning May 1 through May 31, 2016.

If you would like to join international WLE with your local contest or have any other questions, please, write on wle-team@wikimedia.org.ua

Steinerne Rinnen – karst phenomena in Germany

Calcareous tufa gutter by Derzno, CC-BY-SA-3.0
Calcareous tufa gutter by Derzno, CC-BY-SA-3.0

Steinerne Rinnen” or calcareous tufa gutters are rare karst phenomena. The main occurrence of such kind of gutters is in the hilly areas of Franconia, in the northern part of Bavaria in Germany. It would be interesting to know if such geologic gutters can be found elsewhere as well as the local names for such formations. The formation of such karsts require a fountain rich with dissolved carbonate, a terrain steep enough for a fast-running stream, and some mosses or algae in or near the water. In this case, sedimented tufa slowly forms a certain kind of a wall-like structure with the water-stream on top of it. The longest gutter in Germany is approximately 150 m long. The tallest known gutter reaches a height of 5.4 m. The natural protection state of a “Steinerne Rinnen” can be different. Sometimes they are protected as a natural monument or registered by a so called geotope. Others are simply part of a larger protected area.

Vote for Wiki Loves Earth Morocco as an event of the year !

Wiki Loves Earth has an opportunity to become the web event of the year in Morocco. You can vote for it to support the project!

As a part of the 9th edition of Morocco Web Awards, our photography contest has been selected in the digital event category.

The votes of Internet users will continue until February 22, then the top 5 in each category will be individually rated by a jury will elect the winner later.

Vote for the Wiki Loves Earth, it is a message of recognition of the work of thousands of volunteers on Wikipedia and its sister projects!

And do not forget to spread these news around you 🙂

HOW TO VOTE:

1. Go to the following link: http://mwa.ma/1KKjIF2
2. Log in with a social network (Facebook or Twitter)
3. Click the vote button, a confirmation message will appear after.

Morocco Web Awards are an annual competition that rewards, thanks to online votes and jury, the best Moroccan web, and are considered the biggest competition on the web taking part in the organized of MENA (Middle East and North Africa). Its primary objective is to support content creators and to promote the opportunities offered by the Moroccan digital market while celebrating, inspiring and cultivating the spirit of innovation and creativity.

Deer of Sunset
Silhouettes of gazelles at sunset by Anass ERRIHANI // CC BY-SA 3.0
This image won the 1st prize in the national contest of Morocco in Wiki Loves Earth 2015

National part of the contest is officially closed

We are glad to inform that national part of the WLE 2015 has ended on 1 July. International team of Wiki Loves Earth wants to thank to all national organizers of the contest and to active participants and photographers. You rocked it.

Shgraan Valley – Pakistan| by DanialYaqub – CC-BY-SA-3.0

This year contest was international with 26 countries participating from four different continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Most of countries organised the contest from 1 May to 31 May 2015, while some countries extended the contest period till 30 June. Continue reading “National part of the contest is officially closed”