Glanzlichter 2026: My lynx photo wins the “The World of Mammals” category

A November evening at Großer Arber

November 2025, Bavarian Forest. Twilight creeps through the beeches, the last light falls in a narrow strip onto the rock. Autumn leaves cover the ground like a copper-coloured carpet, and in between the moss glows a rich green. And then he is there—a male lynx, right in the middle of his territory, captured for a fraction of a second in the warm glow of my flashes.

This very image won the Glanzlichter der Naturfotografie 2026 category “The World of Mammals”. I am the category winner—and still overwhelmed.

Glanzlichter der Naturfotografie

Glanzlichter is one of the most prestigious nature photography competitions in the world. Since 1999, images have been honoured here year after year that show nature not only with technical brilliance, but also with storytelling power and respect for the subject. Around 1,000 photographers from more than 30 countries regularly submit tens of thousands of images. Since 2024, the competition has been run by Florian and Lisa Marie Smit, who continue to develop it with fresh impulses without abandoning its original ambition: appreciation for authentic nature photography. That my lynx image took first place in the mammal category in this field means an incredible amount to me.

Months of preparation

This photo was not taken in a single evening. It is the result of months of preparation, countless failed attempts, and an intensive engagement with the territory of a male lynx near Großer Arber in the Bavarian Forest. Important: the location is outside the national park—in an area that is at least as important for the lynx as the core zone of the protected area.

My setup consisted of a Nikon D7200 with a 12–24 mm wide-angle lens at f/8, triggered via a motion sensor and lit with two external flashes. Camera-trap photography is a discipline that has little to do with the classic image of the nature photographer waiting for hours in a hide. Here, it is about reading a place: Where does the animal regularly pass through? How does the light fall? How do I position the camera and flashes so that the image does not merely document, but tells a story?

I did not want to show the lynx as a portrait, but in its habitat—tiny between rock and trunks, embedded in the autumn landscape of the Bavarian Forest. The wide-angle lens was a deliberate choice for that. It shows the lynx’s world, not just the lynx itself.

Why this image is more than a photo

Every lynx image from the Bavarian Forest also tells a story about nature conservation. According to current estimates, the Bohemian–Bavarian–Austrian lynx population comprises only around 120 to 140 animals—too few for a population that can survive in the long term. In the 2024/2025 monitoring year, 27 individual lynx were confirmed in the Bavarian Forest and Šumava national parks, including, fortunately, 22 juveniles. The figures initially sound positive, but the national park alone is far too small to sustain a stable population.

That is precisely what makes the location of my image so significant. The vast majority of lynx live outside the national park boundaries, on land that does not enjoy any special protection status. That is where the greatest dangers lie: road mortality, habitat fragmentation—and above all illegal killings. Studies by WWF and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research show that around one in five lynx in Bavaria falls victim to poaching. Lynx that leave the national park in search of their own territories disappear in a veritable “Bermuda Triangle” beyond the protected-area boundaries.

If my image is given a stage at Glanzlichter, then it should also tell this story. For me, nature photography is never just aesthetics—it is a tool to draw attention to the fragile state of our wildlife.

Camera traps as a bridge between photography and research

Camera traps are the key tool in lynx monitoring. Each lynx has an individual coat pattern, similar to a fingerprint, and can be identified via camera-trap images. This method provides the data on which population estimates, territory analyses, and conservation concepts are based. What I do as a nature photographer with my camera traps is essentially the same technique—only with the aim of creating, alongside the scientific evidence, an image that moves people emotionally.

I am convinced that nature conservation needs both. The sober monitoring data that show how threatened a species is. And the images that prompt people to stand up for that species. A chart with population figures makes you think. A lynx roaming through the autumn forest at dusk leaves you speechless. Together, the two can make a difference.

Thank you

My thanks go to the Glanzlichter team, to Florian and Lisa Marie Smit, and to the jury that selected this image. I hope it brings a little more attention to the lynx in the Bavarian Forest—because this magnificent cat deserves it.

The winning images of Glanzlichter 2026 will be exhibited as part of the International Nature Photography Days in Fürstenfeldbruck. You can find all information about the competition at glanzlichter-competition.com.