We at Bored Panda were particularly fascinated with, might I say, the cutest photo of this whole list - an emperor penguin chick by Stefan Christmann.

To learn more about Stefan and his photo, we reached out to the photographer. Stefan shared more about himself.

“I am a German photographer and filmmaker who has wintered twice in Antarctica and hence specialized in photographing the emperor penguins of Atka Bay. I have had film assignments for the BBC and Netflix and also lived in Antarctica as a scientist since I have a physics background.”

We were wondering what initially drew Stefan to the world of photography.

He wrote: “When I was still in high school, I joined a student exchange with a high school in Billings, Montana, USA. We visited Yellowstone NP and I only had a small digital point-and-shoot camera with me. I was not able to capture the raw beauty of this wilderness, so I decided to dive deeper into photography. My father gave me his old Minolta SLR and I learned to photograph and have been photographing ever since. A little more than 20 years now.”

Obviously, we just had to know more about the main guy, the emperor penguin chick. We asked Stefan to share how he managed to capture this shot.

Stefan shared: “It was quite easy, actually. It was a warm spring day in Atka Bay and it was snowing (which is rare in Antarctica, funnily). This little fellow was just standing around, likely waiting for his/her parents and I was simply laying flat on my stomach observing. Taking the shot with a tele lens was straightforward. No tripod or any special equipment is needed. Just some patience and slow movements, not to disturb his slumber.”

Though Stefan’s picture was not selected among the winners of this year’s competition, he still was recognized and Highly Honored in the category Polar Passion. Stefan wrote how it felt to be seen and acknowledged by NBP.

“It is always a big honor to be recognized by a big photo competition. But I am not in it for fame. I know that these competitions have a large reach and I myself was inspired by Nature's Best when I was starting out in nature photography. I want to inspire others as well, and best case, help to create more advocates for our planet, our flora and fauna, and especially the emperor penguins,” wrote Stefan.

Stefan added: “The polar regions are beautiful, but fragile at the same time. Just like a soft emperor penguin chick.”

Lastly, Stefan shared: “Emperor penguins are the coolest birds on the planet, and we can learn so much from them. They are the ultimate team workers, and they achieve the impossible with it: living in an uninhabitable surrounding. If teamwork can help them to achieve this, imagine what humankind could achieve if we all worked together. We could make the world a better place - for humans AND for animals and nature. This thought keeps me hopeful for the future. I hope that our species will one day fully comprehend the strength that lies in collaboration.”