With autumn already advanced and winter rearing its head (we are talking about the northern hemisphere, of course) it seems a good time to know the results of the Weather Photographer of the Year 2021, a contest specialized in photography of meteorological phenomena such as storms, fog, rain, lightning or snow.
Last year we already showed you the results of this contest that is organized by The Royal Meteorological Society in collaboration with the AccuWeather portal, and that in its sixth edition received 8,900 photos competition (compared to 7,700 in 2020) carried out by more than 3,300 photographers from 114 countries.
All the participating photos show meteorological phenomena that are sometimes extremely striking, becoming the protagonists of the photo by themselves. However, the jury considers that although “It can often be easy to be drawn to extreme weather photos […] there is also a photographic beauty in the calm and serene weatherThey refer, of course, to the one that the Italian Giulio Montini has captured in the photo that you have seen on the cover and that has taken the title “Weather Photographer of the Year 2021“.
Its titled ‘Morning fog‘and it was done “On a dull fall day from a little hilltop church“and, according to the author,”under the mist passes the river Adda. In the autumn months, on some days, it is possible to see this show with the first lights of dawn. After 20 minutes, everything is over“. In addition, he comments that the award him”reward for the cold hours I endured, waiting for the perfect light for that photo“.
Gulio’s was the absolute winner but the panel of judges chose up to 21 images to distribute the prizes, which discriminated against older and underage photographers. Therefore, we also have a “Young Weather Photographer of the Year 2021“, in this case the American Phoenix blue 17-year-old with his photo ‘Kansas storm‘performed with a smartphone.
In fact, this year the main novelty was the inclusion of the new category dedicated to photos taken with mobile phones and in which the winner was the Emirati Christopher de Castro Comeso with a picture called ‘Foggy morning‘. This photo shows the fog at Qasr al-Hosn (one of the oldest buildings in Abu Dabhi) and according to the jury, “sums up exactly why the smartphone has become such a popular camera; it was within reach of Christopher the moment the fog appeared and allowed him to capture this beautiful scene“.
Finally, the audience award what was it for the french Serge Zaka for a photo showing a lightning storm over the bay of Cannes. This image was third in the general competition and won the popular award thanks to obtaining “an overwhelming response among the 12,392 votes cast for the 21 finalists“.
Unfortunately this time there is no spanish among the winners and / or finalists, so we encourage you to participate in next year’s edition if you are interested in this discipline. And as always, we say goodbye congratulating the winners and attaching some of the featured photos so that you can delight your eyes:
Overall Winner Weather Photographer of the Year 2020
Giulio Montini (Italy) with ‘Morning Fog’:
Second place: Evgeny Borisov (Russia) with ‘Self Portrait in a Boat’:
Winner Young Weather Photographer of the Year 2021
Phoenix Blue (USA) with ‘Kansas Storm’:
Second place: Fynn Gardner (Australia) with ‘Thunderstorm vs Beauty’:
Audience Award Winner
Serge Zaka (France) with ‘Lightning from an isolated storm over Cannes’ bay’:
Mobile category winners
Christopher de Castro Comeso (United Arab Emirates) with ‘Foggy Morning’:
Second place: Susan Kyne Andrews (Ireland) with ‘Between Showers’:
Contest finalists:
Melvin Nicholson (UK) with ‘Fogbow’:
Muhammad Amdad Hossain (Bangladesh) with ‘Joy of Childhood’:
Sachin Jagtap (USA) with ‘Ring of Fire’:
Itay Kaplan (UK) with ‘Foggy Bridge’:
Stavros Kesedakis (Greece) with ‘Pancake Lenticulars’:
Michelle Cowbourne (UK) with ‘Mists of Avalon’:
More information | Weather Photographer of the Year 2021
Cover photo | ‘Morning fog’ by Giulio Montini / Royal Meteorological Society Weather Photographer of the Year 2021