Golden Turtle wildlife photo exhibition

The Golden Turtle photo exhibition, which opened in Moscow on March 11, will be extended from March 27 to April 24, the Russian Geographical Society announced. Awards for the contest were handed out to 10 Russian photographers, one Hungarian and one Lithuanian. Almost 1,500 photographers from 37 countries submitted over 18,000 images for the contest in 2011, the fifth year for the event.
Photo: Konstantin Novikov’s photo Guarding Silence in the category Human and Nature.

Works by photographers from 13 countries made it to the finals and 12 photographers received awards. After Moscow, the exhibition will travel to St. Petersburg, Lipetsk, Pskov, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Photo: Faith, Hope and Love by Nikolai Zinovyev in the category Animals

Maxim Demenov won the special prize Image of the Year and topped the Animals category.Photo: Golden Turtle Image of the Year Guest from the Mist by Maxim Demenov also won in the Animals category

Kestutis Cepenas from Lithuania was named the best photographer in the Birds category.
Photo: Morning Idyll by Kestutis Cepenas in the Birds category

Hungary’s Istvan Kerekes won in the Flora Magic category.
Photo: Dwellers of the Woods by Istvan Kerekes, winner in the Flora Magic category

Sergei Mozgovoi took first prize in the Microcosm category.
Photo: On to Far Away Seas by Sergei Mozgovoi, winner in the Microcosm category

Dmitry Pavlov’s photo A Small Bug in the Forest of Giant Lanterns was also nominated in the Microcosm category

Alexander Safonov swept the Underwater World category.
Photo: Visiones de Galapagos by Alexander Safonov won in the Underwater World category

Gennady Fedorenko’s photo The Great Hunt also competed in Underwater World category

The top prize for the Animal Portrait category was given to Mikhail Shlemov…
Photo: Sleepyhead by Mikhail Shlemov, winner in the Animal Portrait category

…while Yelena Yemchuk won the top prize in the Landscape category.
Photo: The Moon by Yelena Yemchuk, winner in the Landscape category

Sergei Kokinsky’s photo Life’s Good! in the Animal Portrait category

Andrei Yermakov was the winner in the Artistic Photo category.
Photo: Andrei Yermakov’s photo “Don’t Let Go, Don’t Fall” in the Art of Nature, or Artistic Photo category.

Over 1 million rubles ($35,200) in prize money was awarded at the contest. The jury included prominent photographers and photo editors Jim Brandenburg, Sergei Gorshkov, Sergei Maximishin, Andrei Narchuk, Alevtina Sukhorukova, Daniel Ellinger and Vadim Shtrik. Vadim Gippenreiter and Vasily Peskov served as honorary curators of the contest.

Photos for the sixth Golden Turtle exhibition can be submitted from May 31 until October 31, 2011.