After a fortnight of unprecedented activity on the Indigenus blog and our social media channels (Facebook and Twitter ), as well as endless rounds of discussion by the Nature India editorial and design teams, we are happy to announce the winners of our second photo contest.

The photographs have been judged for their novelty, creativity, quality and printability. They were also rated in part by the engagement each received from the online science-loving community.

And the winner of the Nature India photo contest is:

Kumar M P from Bengaluru, India with his remarkably minute composition ‘Life wrapped in legs’ aptly representing ‘patterns’, the theme of this year’s contest. 

The first runner-up is:

Kanika Bansal from New York, USA with her picture ‘Half filled with light’ that brings out an overwhelming melangé of patterns in a simple optical phenomenon.

The second runner-up is:

Hemant Dhamne from Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India for the brilliant narrative of ‘Pollution vs. population’ that he wove into an early morning shot using a silhouette of birds.

Congratulations to all the winners! These images stand the chance of gracing the cover of one of Nature India‘s forthcoming publications. All winners will receive a copy of the Nature India Special Annual Volume 2014 and a bag of goodies from the Nature Publishing Group.

Some other finalists — Shiva Shankar Talloju (special mention for the truly competitive online support he receieved), Ravi Hegde, Subrata Bal, Subas Chandra Bishwal and Shraddha Nayak offered tough competition to the winners with equally brilliant stories and stunning visuals (click on their names to see their images and the stories behind them). We thank them for participating and congratulate them on the fight they put up. There will be more photo contests soon and we hope to see their beautiful images again — perhaps on top next time!

Nature India’s first photo contest was conceived in 2014. The overwhelming response that captured the resurgence of science in the world’s largest democracy with the theme ‘Science & Technology in India’ was enough for us to make the contest an annual affair.

With 50 entries in 2014, the photo contest grew massively in size this year with several hundred entries pouring in from all corners of the world. The quality, quantity and novelty of these entries has been overwhelming. We were equally impressed with the way both amateur and professional photographers, scientists and non-scientists captured the theme ‘patterns’ with a variety of instruments — from cellphone cameras to high end DSLRs.

We will be back next year with another theme and hopefully equally stunning images. Till then, enjoy these winning images and the stories behind them!

Winner: Kumar M P. Picture caption: Life wrapped in legs.

“As I spent my childhood in the Western Ghats of India, crawling creatures piqued my interest. I spent time playing with them and would be amused to see them coil as if holding their body with their legs to protect themselves. This picture showing the intricate pattern on a crawly’s body was taken at the Indian Institute of Science campus in Bengaluru, India.”

— Kumar M P, Project Student, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.

Runner-up #1: Kanika Bansal. Photo caption: Half filled with light.

“2015 is the International Year of Light, designated by the United Nations to learn and appreciate optical phenomena. In this top shot of a glass of water, the structure of the glass container produces an interesting pattern when light is partly reflected and scattered by the walls and the liquid inside. Slight asymmetry in the picture reverses the effect of depth, giving the illusion of an elevated object”. 

— Kanika Bansal, New York City, New York, USA

Runner-up #2: Hemant Dhamne. Photo caption: Pollution vs. population

“These are cormorants perched on treetops that I captured against the morning smog. The picture shows how pollution from big cities is affecting us and our wildlife. I was fortunate to get this silhouette of so many birds forming a beautiful light and shade pattern.”

— Hemant Dhamne, Post Doc, Cancer Genomics Lab, Tata Memorial Centre-ACTREC, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra India.