When nature photographer Konrad Wothe first encountered a dipper darting behind a waterfall, his film camera wasn’t able to focus quickly enough on the bird to capture the unusual occurrence. But after two decades, Wothe was lucky enough to spot another bird that had decided to nest behind a waterfall. The resulting shot of the dipper behind a mesmerizing pattern of water has earned the photographer and filmmaker the GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2025 title.
“It’s been over two decades since I first witnessed a dipper darting through a waterfall,” Wothe, a photographer and documentary filmmaker with a background in biology, explained. “The small passerine bird was flying back and forth to a nest tucked away safely behind a dense curtain of water. Of course, I attempted to capture the dipper on film, but my analogue camera gear did not allow me to freeze this split-second moment in sharp focus.”
But the next time Wothe encountered a bird nesting behind a waterfall, the technology in his camera bag was far different. As he watched the bird sometimes dart through the curtain of water and sometimes fly around it, he knew he had a better chance of capturing the image he envisioned with his digital gear, including a Canon EOS R7 and RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 IS USM.
“Even so, the challenge remained immense,” he said, “there was no predicting exactly when the dipper would leave its nest and dive through the waterfall, nor could I pinpoint the exact spot where it would emerge. Thanks to the new pre-burst mode on my camera, capturing the bird in frame wasn’t difficult. Still, getting the focus just right with the perfect composition took thousands of exposures. I have lost count of the number of trips I took to the dipper's nesting site before I was reasonably satisfied with the result."
Wothe’s background includes working as a cameraman for Heinz Sielmann and a career producing nature documentaries for ZDF. Wothe’s 40 years working as a freelance nature photographer have also taken him through rainforests on multiple continents.
Wothe’s overall winning image joins an impressive list of overall category winners for the 2025 contest that use techniques from golden bokeh to dizzying patterns to create art from nature. This year’s contest also includes a special category exploring peatlands. Andreas Volz took the top prize in that special category with a shot of dozens of spiderwebs dotting the peatland as the sun rises through morning fog.
In addition to the overall winner and special category, six additional artists took top prizes in the contest’s categories:
The GDT Nature Photographer of the Year is an annual contest exclusive to the members of the German Society for Nature Photography. Along with the Nature Photographer of the Year contest, the non-profit also hosts the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.
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