Dramatic moments come to life in many of the photos honored by this year's Nature Conservancy photo contest, but our favorite is a quieter scene of a bull elk sipping from a river in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Continue to the end to see the grand prize winner.
The Nature Conservancy Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Bruce Hogle/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Christian Passeri/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Mike Krehbiel/TNC Photo Contest
Photography: Benjamin Salb/TNC Photo Contest 2023
@creidt Photography: Alan Taylor/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Narayan Malu/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Roberto Valdez/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Grzegorz Długosz/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Agnieszka Wieczorek/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Irina Petrova Adamatzky/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Russell Laman/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: HJ Yang/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Siddhartha Ghosh/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Luisa Pericoli/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Estebane Rezkallah/TNC Photo Contest 2023
Photography: Luisa Lynch Harris/TNC Photo Contest 2023
This supernatural-looking creature is a newt. The camera points up at it from underwater on a starry night.
Photography: Tibor Litauszki/TNC Photo Contest 2023