Hilarious Winners of Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2023 Announced

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The funniest and most popular photography competition in the world – The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards has reached its conclusion and is proud to announce the overall winner of this year’s competition.

Jason Moore’s image of a kangaroo, aptly titled ‘Air Guitar’, was awarded as Overall Winer, and also won the Creatures of the Land category.

Up against 5300 incredible entries from 1842 entrants from 85 countries around the world, Jason’s image fought off fierce competition in the closest voting ever.

The photo of the female Western Grey kangaroo was taken in the outer suburbs of Perth, Australia when Jason visited a field abundant with wildflowers to snap some pictures of the many adult kangaroos and joeys playing there.

“I had been out with my camera photographing some waterfowl at a nearby lake. I had been up at sunrise to take advantage of the ‘golden hour’ light, but it turned out to be a disappointing morning on the water,” explained Jason.

“After leaving the lake, somewhat dejected, I decided to swing past an area of open bushland that I know of because there is often a ‘mob’ of kangaroos feeding and sunning themselves in a field close to the road (it’s on my way to and from work so I drive past it every day).

‘When I arrived, there were a number of kangaroos in the field. The morning light was still favourable so I grabbed my camera and headed off to a spot where I could get down to eye level with my subjects, amongst the biting ticks (the lengths we go to, just to get that perfect image.)

“I ended up shooting about 40 or 50 frames of the kangaroos with various content including Mum’s, Joey’s and also some action shots of them bouncing along through the yellow field.”

As the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Jason wins a once-in-a-lifetime safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya, with Alex Walker’s Serian plus a unique handmade trophy from the Wonder Workshop in Tanzania and a fantastic photography bag from the fabulous THINK TANK.

Commenting on that day back in August 2021, when he took the photo, Jason said:

“The shoot turned out to be a great session, and I am quite fond of several images that I captured. Not many people know that kangaroos are normally fairly docile and even a bit boring most of the time, if I’m honest.

“However, when I saw this Roo striking the air guitar pose, it immediately brought a smile to my face, and I knew that I had captured something really special.“

This was a very popular winner with all the judges, encapsulating a proper ‘happy vibe and feel-good factor’ – the very essence of what Comedy Wildlife is all about.

The competition was founded in 2015 by Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, both professional photographers and passionate conservationists.

Their goal was to create a fun and free-to-enter photography competition unlike any other, showcasing seriously funny images of the earth’s most amazing wildlife.

Comedy Photo 2023 winners — © Jacek Stankiewicz / Comedy Wildlife 2023

There were 6 Category Winners, including young photographer Jacek Stankiewicz with his image of two greenfinches called ‘Dispute’. Not only did Jacek win the Junior Award, he also triumphed in the Affinity Photo People’s Choice Award winning the public vote comprehensively.

This is the first time ever that the award has been won by a junior entry and a significant milestone for the competition.

Tom Sullam, the competition’s co-founder, said “One of the greatest pleasures we experience in this competition is seeing the incredible standard of photography, combined with humour, which consistently increases each year.

“This year’s People’s Choice Award winner is like the cherry on the cake. To have a junior entrant win this major prize is extremely rewarding for us.

“We want more juniors to enter, we want to take our conservation message and our love of photography to the younger generation and this result proves that young photographers have as much chance of winning as anybody else.

“The unique combination of humour and photography allows for a much broader range of winners, and we are so thrilled to award the PCA title to Jacek this year.”

Other Category Winners included Vittorio Ricci who won the Creatures of the Air Award for a photo of a striated heron, ironically falling out of the sky and into the water, called ‘Unexpected Plunge’ and Otter Kwek topped the Under Water Category with his charming Ballerina Otter taken in Singapore.

Timea Ambrus won the Portfolio Award with a collection of 4 images showing a ground squirrel, looking like he is trying to fly or taking a winning catch!

The Video Award went to Lily Bernau for her brilliant film about a penguin seemingly refusing to go into the sea called ‘Too Cold’.