Nature Photography

This year's overall winner Laurent Ballesta spent more than 3,000 hours trying to capture his stunning undersea image of mating groupers.

Ten Breathtaking Images From the 2021 Nature Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards

The annual awards tell the story of our planet's creatures and the threats they face

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Ode to an Orca

A photographer takes the plunge into forbidding waters off Norway for an extraordinary encounter with orcas

A green turtle surrounded by glassfish in Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. Green sea turtles, which are classified as endangered, migrate long distances between feeding grounds and the beaches from where they hatched.

See Stunning Undersea Images That Showcase Our Blue Planet

From reef sharks to bioluminescent squid, the Ocean Photography Award highlights the wonders and perils of life in the sea

The fuzz of the fingernail-sized rosy maple moth may remind you of a teddy bear.

These Moths Are So Gorgeous They 'Put Butterflies to Shame'

To celebrate National Moth Week, bask in the beautiful variety of these oft-overlooked insects

Ilse Bing, Selbstporträt mit Leica (Self-Portrait With Leica), 1931 gelatin silver print

Meet the Woman Photographers Who Cataloged the 20th Century

A major exhibition at the Met and the National Gallery of Art spotlights 120 international artists, from Homai Vyarawalla to Lee Miller

More than 200 bird species show anting behavior, which involves fanning their wings out on the ground and picking up insects, usually ants. But capturing a photo of the behavior is rare.

Photographer Captures Crow Taking an 'Ant Bath'

Over 200 bird species partake in 'anting,' but so far, the behavior is poorly understood

Presenting the winners of Smithsonian magazine's 18th annual photo contest

These Are the Winners of Smithsonian Magazine's 18th Annual Photo Contest

From India to Antarctica, these pictures capture the passion, solitude and surprise of a year unlike any other

A polar bear, dependent on sea ice for its hunting grounds, pauses near Churchill, Manitoba.

Polar Bears Live on the Edge of the Climate Change Crisis

On Hudson Bay's frigid shores, scientists track the animals to better understand how the environment is shaping their chances of survival

Onlookers identified the snowy owl as a young female because of its thick black stripes.

Snowy Owl Stops in Central Park for the First Time Since 1890

The bird attracted a crowd of about 100 birdwatchers, a territorial hawk and several crows

"Yellowknife Flurry," a photograph by Nathan Myhrvold, captures the intricate structure of snowflakes.

These Are the Highest-Resolution Photos Ever Taken of Snowflakes

Photographer and scientist Nathan Myhrvold has developed a camera that captures snowflakes at a microscopic level never seen before

Regina Valkenborgh's photograph features 2,953 arcs of light streaking across the sky, recording the sun’s rising and setting over eight years.

A Cider-Can 'Camera' Captured Eight Years in a Single Photograph

The ethereal snapshot, recorded by a drink can left in an observatory for almost a decade, may be the longest-exposure image ever taken

Kazumasa Ogawa, Chrysanthemum from Some Japanese Flowers. ca. 1894

How Has Photography's Relationship With Nature Evolved Over the Past 200 Years?

A new exhibition at London's Dulwich Picture Gallery features more than 100 works documenting the natural world

Papahānaumokuākea fosters reefs inhabited solely by species found nowhere else in the world, the only known marine area where all species are endemic.

Why National Marine Sanctuaries Are Another of America's Best Ideas

Chart the waters of America's 14 aquatic sanctuaries in this new offering from Smithsonian Books

One of the oldest living organisms on Earth is a colony of Neptune grass in this vast meadow of the plant in the Mediterranean Sea.

Why Seagrass Could Be the Ocean's Secret Weapon Against Climate Change

A vast, mostly invisible ecosystem crucial to our life on Earth is in trouble, but efforts to save the 'prairies of the sea' are finally coming into focus

Time-lapse of fruiting mushrooms

Watch an Amazing Time-Lapse of Growing Mushrooms

A mesmerizing 10,000-shot video captures the dramatic life cycles of several species

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Why The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel Is a Wildlife Adventurer's Dream Destination

Photographer, Carla Rhodes, documents wildlife in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, and more

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Best Spots to Explore Along the Great Calusa Blueway

Photographer, Ben Hicks, takes a journey along the stunning waters of Matlacha Pass and Bunche Beach Preserve

Marble Canyon, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Down on the mile-deep floor of the Grand Canyon, the stillness allows the subtlest natural sounds to emerge, from the call of a peregrine falcon overhead to the scamper of a scorpion underfoot. Rock layers tell their own story, revealing nearly two billion years of geology. But the serenity is no longer guaranteed. It is frequently broken by air tours. In 1999, Senator John McCain of Arizona introduced a law that helped cut down on this persistent source of human noise. But up to 400 flights still cross the canyon or fly below the rim each day.

Photographs From the Last Quiet Places on Earth

Little can compare to the healing power of silence

A double-crested cormorant dives into blue-green water.

See Birds Dive, Splash and Play in These Prize-Winning Photos

Stunning images by amateurs and professionals took center stage in the 2020 Audubon Photography Awards

A camera trap image of a Cross River gorilla with multiple babies, taken in the Mbe mountain region of Nigeria on June 22, 2020

Images Offer a Rare Glimpse of Cross River Gorillas With Their Babies

The photos show a group of the animals, which were once presumed extinct, with infants of varying ages—a promising sign for the subspecies

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