The competition, which has been running for 57 years, awards prizes in 19 categories of wildlife photography, including animal behavior, plants and fungi, and animal portraiture. The international panel of judges selected winning images from more than 50,000 entries from nearly 100 different counties. The 2021 award winners were revealed in an online ceremony held this week by the London’s Natural History Museum, which organizes the annual competition and hosts an exhibit of the winning images. The winning images from this year’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards capture an up-close encounter with an elusive spider, a magical undersea kept forest, and a glimpse from a hungry grizzly at mealtime. Laurent Ballesta/Wildlife Photographer of the Year This year's overall winner Laurent Ballesta spent more than 3,000 hours trying to capture his stunning undersea image of mating groupers.