Congratulations to the all the winners of the Defenders of Wildlife second annual photography contest. And thank you to all our supporters for taking the time to vote for your favorites.

Jim Chagares, the winner of this year’s Grand Prize, won first prize in the wildlife competition last year (also with a photograph of bears). As I’ve said previously, we had many photographs that were excellent and the internal judging was exhausting. Check out the slideshow of prize-winning photos, with some of my thoughts about what makes each one so good. I would love to hear your thoughts about them as well, so please add your comments below.

[portfolio_slideshow]

Get Updates and Alerts