News from the Italian Parks

The winners of the 'Fotografare il Parco' international contest's 10th edition have been declared. The contest was organized by the Stelvio, Gran Paradiso, Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise and Vanoise national parks in collaboration with Swarovski Optik Italia.

Once again the contest registered a great participation of many amateur as well as professional photographers. Besides the 400 participants, about 3,200 works coming from Italy, France and other European countries have been presented too.

The panel of judges, composed of the representatives of the four protected areas, of professional people and nature photographers, noticed the images' high quality, both in terms of documentary value and of noteworthy technical as well as artistic quality.

Below you can find the list of the winning images.

With the picture entitled "Magia di luci" (Light Magic) Paolo Taranto from Bologna won the first prize. The judges rewarded his original way to describe nature by highlighting the evocative graphical aspects of the light trails left at nighttime by the fireflies.

The second prize was awarded to Pietro Ruffini from Tortona, with its picture entitled "Luce di scena" (Stage Lighting). The author realized an original portrait of an ibex by focusing on the particular light.

"Gran Nomenon" (Great Nomenon) by Daniele Passoni from Carugate ranked third: it is the image of a landscape covered with evanescent fogs.

The following people have been awarded a prize in the category called "I paesaggi del Parco" (The Park's Landscapes): Giacomo Meneghello with an amazing panorama of a winter sunset on the Zebrù Valley ("Tramonto invernale sulla Val Zebrù") (Stelvio National Park); again Pietro Ruffini with "Nubi", who showed the strange shapes of the high altitude clouds in Valsavarenche (Gran Paradiso National Park); Matteo Senesi with a black-and-white picture entitled "Il Solitario" which portrays a solitary tree in the snow expanse of Mount Godi (Abruzzi, Lazio and Molise National Park); Christian Simon, who caught the particular colors of the sky in his work entitled "Ciel d'orage en Maurienne" (Parc national de la Vanoise).

Alberto Bontacchio placed first in the category "Fauna selvatica" (Wild Fauna) with his photo entitled "Il fruttuoso volo del gipeto" (The fruitful flight of the bearded vulture). Alberto Olivero's "White on white", a portrait of a white hare surrounded by a white landscape, ranked second and Annamaria Pernstich won the third prize in the same category with her "Marmotta nella neve" (Marmot in the snow).

For the category "Micromondo" (Microworld) the works ranked as follows: "Rino", an image of the curious European rhinoceros beetle by Roberto Zuolo placed first. Lorenzo Shoubridge won the second prize with a picture of the caterpillars looking like "aliens" of the "Stauropus fagi" moth. Marco Bertolini's "Atmosfere d'Autunno" (Autumn Atmospheres) has been awarded the third prize for his picture of salamanders and mushrooms.

In the "Mondo Vegetale" (Plant World) category, Claudio Godena and the "Solitudine" (loneliness) of the last seed left in a flower placed first, while the second prize went to Giuseppe Bonali, who presented a dreamlike photo entitled "Muschio comune" (Common Moss). The fascinating light effects of Matteo Pegoretti's "Gli effetti della luce" have been awarded the third prize.

In the category called "Digiscoping del Parco" (Digiscoping of the Park) the first prize has been awarded to Andrea Roverselli and his work entitled "Il riposo del re" (The rest of the king), a picture of the majestic Eurasian eagle-owl.

Six pictures by the photographers Luigi Remonti, Marco Colombo, Stefano Sandrini, Claudio Montuori, Marco Barone and Matteo Berbenni have been mentioned too.

The winners of the different categories have been awarded the prizes supplied by Swarovski Optik Italia (leading producer of high-quality tools to observe and photograph nature, and exclusive supplier of the three Italian Parks), by Canon (world leader in the imaging field), by Photogem (professional photographic laboratory) and by Edinat (publisher of "Natura", the magazine regarding nature and environmental themes and partner of the event).

The award ceremony will take place in the late spring.

All the awarded and mentioned photographs have been published in the official website of the contest: www.fotografareilparco.it