Wildlife Photographer of the Year - Animals in their Environment
Audio description
Transcript
This is ‘Frontier of the Lynx’ by Igor Metelskiy from Russia. This photograph was taken in Lazovsky District, Primorsky Krai, Russia and is the 2024 category winner of ‘Animals in their Environment’. There's a lynx just left of the centre that's doing a big cat stretch. I like how it's stretching, and it's got its bottom in the air with its tail flopping over at the end. It's a bit like a yoga pose and it's looking straight towards you with its front legs stretched out to the front of its body. While it is having this big stretch, its claws have also come out of its front paws as well. The outstretched front paws seem to be in a slight bowl in the snow. The back paws, under where it has its bottom in the air, seemed to be standing on a rock. So it's lower at the front than it is at the back. It's at two different levels. The lynx seems to be standing on a rocky mound that's covered with snow. The rocky mound takes up maybe one third of the image at the bottom. Surrounding the lynx, there appears to be a number of different footprints in the snow. It is not clear what time of day it was taken, but it could possibly be in the morning because the shadows are quite long. It's not the kind of light you'd see at midday, with bright sun coming from directly above. The lynx itself is a light bright colour. There are dark brown spots running all the way from the bottom of the leg up to its shoulder. There are also a few on the side of its body and then running back down the back legs. I'm immediately drawn to the cat's eyes. It really looks like the lynx is staring directly at you. The eyes are a yellowy orange colour with coal eyeliner around the eye. It's beautiful, especially in the bottom of the eyes. The tip of its nose is the same colour as the eye. It's a bit yellowy as well. The mouth is a black brown colour and you can just make out the whiskers. Around the lower part of its face on its cheeks and chin, it looks like it has a white fur beard. It also has quite short ears. It might have some black fur on the inside of the ears and there is some at the tip of the tail as well. Half of its body is in the shade, so it's darker on the left-hand side of the photograph because light is coming from the right-hand side, there are some shadows cast on its body, especially on the shoulder. Behind the lynx you’ve got this wonderful undulating landscape. There are lots of different shapes. It seems that this is a valley. The lynx’s body is diagonally oriented. Low point in the left and rising to the right. It looks like it is in line with the valley bottom and where the bottom of the mountains meet. The background landscape to the right looks like it is in the shadow of a bigger mountain that we can't see in the photograph. There might be some forests in this darker part of the photograph. The left side of the background landscape looks like it's lit by the sun. It looks like icing sugar has been dusted on the landscape, but maybe with the exception of a few trees which have a dark green or brown tinge to them. The mountain range behind the links looks quite lunar with craters. As the mountain range approaches the horizon, you've got this blue sky at the top of the photograph. It is a thin silver at the top of the photograph. The mountain range is very far in the background. It seems such a beautiful day and so clear. There are no clouds. There are lots of different textures and shapes and patterns as well in the photograph. I imagine the snow where the lynx is to be crunchy under foot. The fur of the lynx might be quite soft to touch, although I don't think it would be too keen to be touched.