The following stunning photographs beat out the rest of the competition from the thousands of entries to be named finalists of the Nature Photographer of the Year. The photos, which show some of the most stunning scenes in nature from across Europe, were all finalists in the competition, organized by the Society of German Nature Photographers. There were more than 200 members of the society, from seven different countries that submitted 3,252 photos to the contest.

After a pre-jury had picked their choices from the 3252 submitted photos, the final ten photos were selected from each of the seven categories: Birds, Mammals, Other Animals, Plants & Fungi, Landscapes and Nature's Studio. There was also a special category this year called 'Marine Habitats in Germany'.

The overall competition winner was Klaus Tamm from Wuppertal, with his image 'Toad Migration'. Klaus said: "One evening in early April I was out to save common toads crossing the road from being run over by approaching cars. I had wanted to photograph this situation for quite some time, so I parked the car on a quiet road to compose some images of a migrating toad. The animal moved very slowly due to the cool evening temperatures and I managed to create a photograph in the vehicle's beam of light. The wet surface of the road with its reflections added to the successful composition of the image."

The exhibition of awarded photographs will be showcased at different venues throughout Germany. In addition to this a selection of the images will also be shown at the GDT International Nature Photography Festival which runs from October 26 to 28.