Nature’s best through the lens at Museum of Great Southern

A stunning collection of the 2018 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year finalists will be on display at the Museum of the Great Southern from Thursday.

The exhibition celebrates the world’s natural beauty through some incredible moments captured through the lenses of talented photographers.

WA photographer Dylan Fox won the Landscape category with a shot of Bluff Knoll at sunrise.

“On arrival at Bluff Knoll there was a clear sky, so my expectations were low,” he said.

“Within minutes, the peaks created their own clouds — as they are known to do — and just in time for sunrise, created this stunning scene.”

A photo titled Sundew, taken by Georgina Steytler in Albany, was a finalist in the Botanical category.

The exhibition will run through August. The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition is a partnership between the South Australian Museum and Australian Geographic.

In this year’s competition, Broome’s Mat Beetson has put Albany in the spotlight with an image of a washed up fin whale at Cheynes Beach.

His entry, Fin Whale’s Demise, has been named among 75 finalists.

The 23m whale, which is listed as a vulnerable species, was hauled onto the sand, cut into pieces and taken to landfill in May last year.

Two great white sharks were tagged and released at the beach.

“It was really quite surreal seeing this beautiful coastal town and pristine beach and a whale right there not 5m from shore,” he said.

“We had seen some thrashing about near the carcass and I thought it might be some sharks so I quickly grabbed the drone and launched to see the view from the above. I thought this might be something a bit different so decided to enter it into the Animal Behaviour category.

“With so many amazing images that have such a high level of technical ability and some never-been-captured-before images, I am really thrilled to be a finalist in this category.”

This year the competition received 2219 incredible nature and wildlife photographs taken from the bioregion of Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea.

Mr Beetson’s photo will be displayed along with the other finalists at the South Australian Museum next month.