/ 2025 / Nature / Trees

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Yukio Nodo, Japan

Bathed in the soft light of early morning, Lake Ruataniwha in New Zealand revealed a fleeting dreamscape. Autumn trees, half-submerged and wrapped in mist, stood like silent sentinels between water and land, presence and absence. The fog caught the golden hues of fall and softened them into pastels, as if time itself had paused to breathe. A solitary bird soared above, echoing the stillness below. This image captures the delicate moment where season, light, and silence meet—a brief yet eternal encounter woven into the fabric of nature.