It's an otherworldly image.
A critically endangered green sawfish emerges from the mist, flanked by a turtle, in a scene that could be from the dawn of time.
Ethereal Encounter, a drone photograph captured by Matt Deakin in the Pilbara, has earned the West Australian the title of 2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year (AGNPOTY).
The competition, in its 23rd year and owned and produced by the South Australian Museum, is Australia's most prestigious nature photographic contest, and this year attracted 2129 entries from 501 photographers in 17 countries.
Matt snapped the image with a Hasselblad L2D-20c aerial camera mounted on a DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone.
This was his first entry in the competition.
For his achievement, he received the overall winner's prize of $10,000 and a cruise with Coral Expeditions.
Winners in the competition's 10 open categories also received $1500 each, including the Junior winner Aaryan Dhakal from Victoria who won with a moody image of a pelican, taken at West Lakes in Adelaide (pictured).
The competition judges this year included specialist landscape and aerial photographer Mieke Boynton, the 2025 AGNPOTY winner Ross Gudgeon and multi award-winning nature photographer Jake Wilton.
An exhibition featuring the 100 shortlisted images opens at the South Australian Museum on 29 August and runs until 14 February 2027.
Matt said his drone was about 2.5km away, in fading light with a low battery, when "this sawfish came out of deep water and I just said 'wow'".
"It swam directly through four or five turtles – most quickly swam away but one stayed.
"I pushed the drone as long as I could to get the pictures.
"People keep asking me if it's AI. That's not an insult though, because it just doesn't seem real. I won a local photographic competition with the picture and people said I should really enter something bigger.
"The AGNPOTY is the biggest I knew of, so I entered and thought: 'I'll see how I go'. So, it's all a bit surreal at the moment."
The full gallery of photographs from this year's competition can be found on the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year website (external site) . Find out more about the exhibition at the South Australian Museum website (external site) .
