Winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2019

File:Gebänderte Prachtlibelle auf Pusteblume am NSG Gülper See.jpgPhoto by Sven Damerow, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Warm rays of sunlight that pour through clouds on a snowy mountain. Kayak passing by an enormously still glacier. Two owls staring at you carefully and suspiciously.

These are just a few of the breathtaking photographs winners from the international Wiki Loves Earth competition, whose results were announced today.

The overall winner, seen above, shows a banded demoiselle hovering near a dandelion’s seedhead at Gülper See lake in Brandenburg, Germany. The selection committee praised it for its composition, sharpness, and colors; it “would look great in a book about insects,” one member said, while another called out the extraordinary detail visible on the damselfly’s wings.

Organized since 2013, this year’s rendition of Wiki Loves Earth inspired over 95,000 photo uploads from thirty-seven countries, including at least one from every continent in the world (except Antarctica). All of the entries were judged by juries organized on the national level. The winners from these were forwarded to an international jury of experts, which selected the images that you see above and below.

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

File:-تيناكاشاكير- الحضيرة الوطنية لطاسيلي الهقار - تامنراست - الجزائر.jpgSecond placePhoto by Aboubakrhadnine, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A group of people walking through Hoggar National Park, Assekrem, Tamanrasset, Algeria. The members of the contest’s international journey called out this photo’s “magnificent color,” adding that capturing “the line of people versus the line of rock” was “very powerful.” This location was also featured in the fourth-place winners in Wiki Loves Earth 2018.

File:Рододендронний світанок на Вухатому Камені.jpg

Third placePhoto by Mykhailo Remeniuk, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A hillside full of flowers in Ukraine’s Carpathian National Park. One jury member stated that this was a “classical” image, while another pointed out that the positioning of the flowers leads a viewer’s eyes straight into the mountains behind.

File:Crimea, Ai-Petri, low clouds.jpg

Fourth placePhoto by Dmytro Balkhovitin, CC BY-SA 4.0.

According to Wikipedia, the mountain Ai-Petri is “is one of the windiest places in Crimea.” On this day, though, the wind could not blow away a swath of low-lying clouds, which gave photographer Dmytro Balkhovitin the perfect opportunity to capture this dawn-lit image. The jury was effusive in their praise for this image, with one calling it “magical,” and another marveling at the difficulty involved in getting to this particular location.

File:Ha gorge.jpg

Fifth placePhoto by Andreas Loukakis, CC BY-SA 4.0.

This is the formidable exit from Ha Gorge, a fissure that reaches a depth of about a thousand meters, or over three thousand feet, making it one of the largest in the world. It’s located on Crete, an island off the south coast of Greece. 

File:Blue Water Cave.jpg

Sixth placePhoto by Glenn Palacio, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Pulangi River is the fifth-largest river in the Philippines (and drains into the second largest). Here, though, you can barely see its size in this dimly lit underground cavern, named “Blue Water Cave” for reasons that this photo makes crystal clear. 

File:Ratargul 0276.jpg

Seventh place. Photo by Abdul Momin (Abdulmominbd), CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Ratargul Swamp Forest is the only flooded forest in Bangladesh, and these boats are likely used to bring tourists in to view it.

File:Kayakistas en Glaciar Grey.jpg

Eighth placePhoto by Pablo A. Cumillaf, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Grey Glacier is located in southern Chile. In 1996, it could boast of being about 270 square kilometers in size (approximately 100 miles), but it has shrunk in the years since then, including one major split in 2017. One jury member praised how this photographer utilized the large “empty spaces.” 

File:Morning fog in Kemeri.jpg

Ninth place. Photo by Volodya Voronin (VolodyaVoronin), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Looking like something out of Star Wars, this foggy morning at Ķemeri National Park in Latvia helps showcase the area’s bogs and forests, as well as the man-made infrastructure that allows tourists to access it. One jury member commented that this photograph featured “a lovely mix of misty subdued colours with natural and man-made objects—making this a thought-provoking piece of art and not just a picture.”

File:Серпантин в Гоначхирском ущелье.jpg

Tenth place. Photo by Andrey Belavin (Ted.ns), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Two features dominate this drone-captured photo of Russia’s Teberda Nature Reserve: a furious river in the upper third, and the road’s switchbacks in the bottom two-thirds. One teasing comment from the jury suggested that this image could have benefited from a passing car—”perhaps a red Ferrari or a cattle truck on the first curve?”, they asked with an accompanying smile. 

File:Можжевеловая роща в Новом Свете мыс Капчик.jpg

Eleventh placePhoto by Vladimir Voychuk, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ostensibly, the subject of this photo is the gnarled old juniper tree located in the Zakaznik Novyi Svit nature reserve in Crimea. What brings this photo over the top, however, was the inclusion of the Milky Way in the background, complete with a shooting star or satellite in the upper central portion. 

File:Mah ya waterfall intranon.jpg

Twelfth placePhoto by Janepop Atirattanachai (BerryJ), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Doi Inthanon National Park is named for Thailand’s largest mountain, and the scene captured here shows water flowing down that mountain. This is not this photographer’s first winning photos in a contest like this; Atirattanachai previously won first and ninth place in the 2017 Wiki Loves Monuments photo competition. This time around, the jury commended Atirattanachai for this “well thought out and executed piece of art.”

 

File:Дві сови на гілці.jpg

Thirteenth placePhoto by Volodymyr Burdiak (Byrdyak), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Surprise! Two long-eared owls are staring at the photographer who may have just disturbed them but managed to snap this spontaneous capture nonetheless. “Slightly comical,” said one jury member.

File:Female Toque macaque with her child at Katagamuwa Sanctuary - (Don't let them fade away).jpg

Fourteenth placePhoto by Senthi Aathavan Senthilverl, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The toque macaque baby seen here is very aware of the photograph and their camera. However, according to the photographer, this adorable scene has a dark side. “Nature always belongs to those who nurture, care and protect it,” Senthilverl said. “But the humans have forcefully claimed it theirs and are on a path of destruction: destroying jungles, waterways and evicting the rightful owners, the wild animals. The Toque macaque (Macaca sinica) loves to traverse on trees and to be as one with the nature. But this click depicts their current plight. It was heartbreaking to see the mother with her child foraging on the hard ground at Katagamuwa Sanctuary – Sri Lanka.”

File:In Val d'Orcia.jpg

Fifteenth-sixteenth place.  Photo by JP Vets, CC BY-SA 4.0.

This solitary straw bale was captured in Val d’Orcia, Tuscany, Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which has been the frequent subject of art ranging from Renaissance paintings to the film Gladiator. The jury praised the image for its “great juxtaposition of textures, colours and hues”.

File:天雨洞.jpg

Fifteenth-sixteenth placePhoto by 陳李銜 (Wargash107), CC BY-SA 4.0.

These stalactite caves in Taiwan’s Shoushan National Park are beautifully backlit by the sun peeking in through the opening at the top. One jury member wrote that they particularly enjoyed that the sunlight fell upon the young plant growing in the center of the image.

If you want to find out more about the jury’s evaluation and commentary, please see this year’s jury report in low and high resolution.

This post uses text from the WMF blog; the original text is attributed under a a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license..

Results of the biggest local contest: Winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in Germany

This year, Wiki Loves Earth in Germany became the largest local contest among 37 participating countries. Throughout the month of May, participants from Germany uploaded 26,695 photos of German nature heritage; that’s almost a third of all photos generated by Wiki Loves Earth this year.

In this post, we present a translation of a jury member’s article on the results of German Wiki Loves Earth 2019. Running such a large contest is no easy task, and the experience of the German team might be useful for those teams who would like to scale their photo contests; besides, top German photos are just stunning and worth taking look at.

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Kurier/Edit#Wiki_Loves_Earth_2019_(Deutschland)_–_das_sind_die_Sieger; author of the original text — Nicola (CC BY-SA 3.0).

In the middle of July, the jury of Wiki Loves Earth in Germany met in Fulda, Hesse, to select the 100 best photos of the “Wiki loves Earth” photo contest. The jury consisted of six jury members and one technical assistant.

Throughout May 2019, the contestants had the opportunity to submit their photographs. Using the jury tool, 76 members of the community conducted a pre-check of 12,730 images by 30 June. After this pre-jury round, 710 pictures were left for final evaluation by the selected jury; these pictures have been rated at least 3.2 stars. These photos were then subjected to final checks to determine whether they met the eligibility criteria, had been placed in the correct categories or contained mistakes. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in this time-consuming preparatory work.

The winning picture “Gorge in the Hessigheimer Felsengärten” by Aristeas shows a gorge in the “Swabian Dolomites”. In the opinion of the jury, the mood, the motive and the quality of this photograph are convincingly harmonized. Congratulations! Other photographs are also of high quality and show the diversity of protected German nature from north to south, from stony to marshy and from up to down. 

The best 100 photos were submitted by 57 photographers, representing scenes from 13 German states. The special prize for the highest number of images in the Top 100 list goes to photographer Sven Damerow with his 13 photos. Congratulations! His numerous pictures of butterflies and dragonflies are of particular importance because of the extinction of insects. Most of his photos were of such good quality that it was quite difficult to make a final selection. 

Gorge in the Hessigheimer Felsengärten, a nature reserve near Hessigheim, Germany; winning photo of Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in Germany.
Author: Roman Eisele, free license CC BY-SA 4.0

Like every year, there was a great variety of themes: from wetlands and moorlands, as well as heaths and karst lakes in high alpine terrains to close-ups of animals and plants, everything was well represented. A total of 33 animal photos made it into the Top 100. In addition to the insects already mentioned, other species such as bee-eaters, grey seals and mountain newts were included in the Top 100 this year. Several plants were mostly associated with insects, apart from a photo of a mushroom that got into the Top 100.

Some pictures with very nice motifs, which the jury appreciated on the first look, had to be devalued on closer examination, for they had technical defects like sensor spots, chromatic aberrations or picture noise.

This year’s jury meeting proved to be extremely pleasant and cooperative. That was also due to the fact that there are now work schedules which have been based on years of experience and which make the work much easier. Even more important is the excellent voting software from Wiegels, which has been further developed over the years. The technical assistant GPSLeo handled it in an efficient and confident way.

As always, the Top 10 selection will be passed on to the international competition. The jury wishes the photographers all the success! 

Check out top 10 winning photos of Wiki Loves Earth in Germany.

Best pictures of Wiki Loves Earth 2018 announced

Our 2018 winner comes from Cape Stolbchaty, the cape at east shore of Kunashir Island1 in Sakhalin OblastRussia which is famous for its columnar basalt formationsPhoto by Ekaterina Vasyagina (www.PhotoJourneys.ru), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0“As the sky is all filled with soft amethyst glow, the sunset waves goodbye to stupendously beauteous and resplendent basalt formation of Cape Stolbchaty leaving Vermilion orange sunset”

From the captivatingly craggy and enthrallingly crafted islands to impeccable reflections, from the dazzling rolling hills to scenic seascapes and from whatever it takes to describe the wizardry mother Earth’s artistry to the mesmerized and romanticized brain, encompasses the photographs that grabbed the positions as Top 10 photographs of Wiki Loves Earth 2018 organized by Wikimedia Affiliates, groups and local Wikipedia volunteers.

Wiki Loves Earth is organized annually with the aim to keep widest variety of protected natural sites possible in the spotlight which will eventually bring people closer to the nature through photography and meaningful captures, and also carries the objective to contribute for environmental protection by raising public awareness.

Thousands of photographs numbered 89,835 in total, uploaded from 32 different countries all over the world comprised Wiki Loves Earth 2018, a photography contest organized worldwide since the year 2014, leaving a remarkable statistic that shows 83% of the total 7,659 uploaders being the new ones.

As in 2016 and 2017, there was a special nomination in collaboration with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This year participants were invited to upload photos in a separate category for UNESCO biosphere reserves and UNESCO Global Geoparks across the globe, this year the total uploads reached 3,971 photographs under this category.

Just like the varied range of captures submitted to Wiki Loves Earth every year, the international jury of Wiki Loves Earth 2018 betoken geographic diversity and variety of backgrounds fastened together with their enthusiasm to select the best photographs of natural heritage sites. A perfect mix of personalities from varied professional backgrounds, fond of hobbies that relates to photography, nature or Wikipedia, composes the jury of Wiki Loves Earth 2018: Ananya Mondal (India)Ayokanmi Oyeyemi (Nigeria)Brendan Kenneth Duprey (United States/Eastern Europe)Dietmar Bartz (Germany)Fayçal Rezkallah (Algeria)Fiona Ayerst (South Africa) and Renato Martins (Brazil).

After the thorough assessment are the top 15 prodigious captures that left the jury of Wiki Loves Earth 2018 flabbergasted:

Second place: Bell Island of Franz Josef Land and Eira Lodge of Benjamin Leigh Smith expedition, Russian Arctic National Park. The picture was taken as part of the expedition In the footsteps of two captainsby Maritime Heritage Associations.Photo by Ilya Timin, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Third place: Satchari National Park, Bangladesh. Photo by Abdul Momin, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Fourth place: Hoggar National Park, Assekrem, Tamanrasset, Algeria. Photo by Mohammed Amri, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Fifth place: Autumn at its boom in the valley of Hunza, Gojal Conservancy, Pakistan. Photo by Nasr Rahman, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Sixth place: Swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum) near Sukko, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Photo by Aleksandr Horoshilov, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Seventh place: Sunset in Baixa Grande, an oasis in the middle of National Park Lençóis Maranhenses. Photo by Brunonogaki, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Eighth place: The wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola) is a small wader at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park. Photo by Abdul Momin, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Ninth place: Walruses lying on Northbrook IslandRussian Arctic National Park. The picture was taken as part of the expedition In the footsteps of two captains by Maritime Heritage AssociationsPhoto by Ilya Timin, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Tenth place: The shore of Elton Salt Lake, Volgograd Oblast, Russia. Photo by Medvedevphoto (Владимир Медведев), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Eleventh place: Gypaetus barbatus in flight. Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy. Photo by Luca Casale, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Twelveth place: Chestnut-tailed starlingSatchari National Park, Bangladesh. Photo by Md shahanshah bappy, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Thirteenth place: Phoenicopterus roseus at the lake of Tunis, Tunisia. Photo by El Golli Mohamed, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Fourteenth place: Tassili n’Ajjer National Park, Algeria. Photo by Nabil Chettouh, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Fifteenth place: Meteora rock formation with monasteries on top of them, Greece. Photo by Stathis Floros, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The full report of the international jury, explaining the work of the jury, selection process and presenting the results together with comments of the jury, is available here.

Nabin K. Sapkota,
Wiki Loves Earth 2018 International Team


  1. Disputed by Japan↩

The Winning Photos from WLE Spain 2018

Our fourth edition of Wiki Loves Earth, the photo contest for those who love natural spaces, was held between May 1 and 31, 2018. Thanks to Wiki Loves Earth and the people who participate in it, those natural spaces, classified as Sites of Community Importance, are documented and valued. The contest aims to collect images with free license in Wikimedia Commons, which are then used to illustrate Wikipedia content, reused in other platforms and enhance the global and free presence of natural heritage on the Internet.

In this 2018 edition, a total of 230 users have participated in the contest; 171 did so for the first time and the rest had already participated in previous editions. Thanks to their contributions, about 2700 photographs were released that allow us to better understand the biodiversity, landscapes and natural spaces of the Spain. Now these images can be disseminated, modified and reused in different supports and platforms. A hundred of them are already being used to illustrate Wikipedia articles in Spanish, English, Catalan, French, Swedish, Basque, Galician, Portuguese or Polish.

Continue reading “The Winning Photos from WLE Spain 2018”

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”

Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 2

 1st prize in the national contest of Latvia

Kolkas rags
Cape Kolka. By Edgars Šulcs, CC BY-SA 4.0

 2st prize in the national contest of Libya

Milky Way libya (cropped)
South of Libya unbari. By Seragz, CC BY-SA 4.0

 1st prize in the national contest of Moldova

Complexul geologic și paleontologic din bazinul râului Lopatnic. În apropierea satului Caracușenii Vechi
Geological and paleonthological complex of Lopatnic, near Caracușenii Vechi village, Briceni district. By: Balan Anton, CC BY-SA 4.0
Continue reading “Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 2”

Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 1

A record number of over 131.000 pictures were submitted as part of Wiki Loves Earth this year. Photos were crowdsourced from more than  15.000 uploaders in 35 participating countries! Each of the participating communities chose their best ten pictures which represent them in the international round of the competition. Now the seven-member jury has the hard task to choose the best pictures worldwide.

This year, the contest again included 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.

Now, when international judges are sorting the best from the best,  let`s have a look at the selection of winning photos – one from each country.

Choose your winners and follow our publications!

 One of the finalists in the national contest of Algeria

Wonderful rocks 1
Parc culturel de l’Ahaggar. By Abderrezzak koriche , CC BY-SA 4.0
Continue reading “Winning Photos in National Сategories. Part 1”

Best competition images are among the Picture of the year winners and finalists

Earlier in May, Wikimedia Commons picture of the year has been announced. It was the eleventh edition of the annual Wikimedia Commons image competition, which recognizes exceptional contributions by users on Wikimedia Commons.

All images promoted to featured picture status in 2016 were eligible for participation which means images from photographers and illustrators that the Wikimedia Commons community has chosen as some of the highest quality on the site.

There were 4765 people who voted in total and 1475 candidate images.

The winning image of Jubilee and Munin, Ravens of the Tower of London, got 615 votes.

Wiki Loves Earth 2015 and 2016 finalists came with second, eleventh, and four more places among 58 finalists. Congratulations!

PODY 2nd barnstar.svg

Khaoyai 06
Second place: Wild elephants walking up a road in the area of Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. Photo by Khunkay, CC BY-SA 3.0. The image won the 5th prize in the national contest of Thailand in Wiki Loves Earth 2015.
Continue reading “Best competition images are among the Picture of the year winners and finalists”

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”

Wiki Loves Earth 2016 in Serbia

By Ivana Guslarević, Wikimedia Serbia

This year’s Wiki Loves Earth contest in Serbia broke all records since the beginning of its organization in 2014. Over the course of May, 142 participants uploaded 1801 photos of 116 protected areas in Serbia. 115 of the contestants were new participants.

Unfortunately, 196 photos had to be disqualified because they were not marked with a proper template and ID, or images didn’t show natural heritage. Also, many participants had a problem with uploading images to Wikimedia Commons, so many of them were discovered after the end of the competition.

The competition was organized by Wikimedia Serbia in cooperation with the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia and Tourist Organization of Serbia. The Institute provided us with the list of natural protected areas. The jury was comprised of experts: a biologist, a geologist and a photographer. It is interesting that the jury in the semifinals selected as many as 94 photos.

The media were very interested in reporting about the competition – over 100 announcements were recorded, and Radio Television of Vojvodina donated the commercial broadcast in prime time slot for 14 days. The commercial was created by WMRS volunteers.

On June 22nd, we held the award ceremony and the opening of the seven days exhibition at the Tourist organization of Serbia in front of numerous reporters. The participants were addressed by representatives of Wikimedia Serbia, Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia and the Tourist Organization of Serbia.
Izložba Viki voli Zemlju na Nišvil džez festivalu 2016 35

The president of Wikimedia Serbia Filip Maljković awarded the winners with a laptop (1st prize), a tablet (2nd prize) and an external hard disk (3rd prize). Also, five more photos received commendations from the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, while Wikimedia Serbia commended four other participants for outstanding contribution to the competition.
Prize giving event WLE Serbia 2016 39

After Belgrade, the next exhibition was organized during the International jazz festival Nisville in Niš from August 11th to 14th. The third exhibition was held in the winner’s hometown – Požega, from October 12th to November 15th.
WLE exhibition in Požega 13

We are pleased to present the 10 best photos of protected natural resources in Serbia.