While a lot of us are stuck at home and locked away, some lucky bleeders have been able to get out there and photograph places, animals and life in general.
Instead of getting all jealous, we thought we would be more constructive by bringing you a gallery of some of those amazing award-winners to lift all of our spirits.
So here, for your visual pleasure, are some of our favourites from this year's Travel Photographer of the Year Awards.
Why not check out some of our other great galleries?
Winner - Travel Photographer of the Year - Vladimir Alekseev
Arctic Fox photographed in Svalbard. Photographer Vladimir Alekseev says 'Once on my expedition to Spitsbergen, there was a blizzard. Everything around was equally white. And suddenly I spotted this Arctic fox. He almost merged with the environment. Only his eyes and nose betrayed him...' - Vladimir Alekseev/TPOTY.com
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Winner - Travel Photographer of the Year - Vladimir Alekseev
Plosky Tolbachik Volcano, Kamchatka, Russia 'A volcanic eruption is best filmed at dusk. Then it is not too dark around, the sky has a beautiful colour, and the magma looks beautiful and glows. True, this can be very dangerous...' - Vladimir Alekseev/TPOTY.com
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Winner - Travel Photographer of the Year - Vladimir Alekseev
Snail by the water, photographed in Myanmar. 'Travel photography does not always capture a landscape or a reportage. Very often it captures a macro world. These are elements of what surrounds you. Little joys in life that we don't pay attention to at home.' - Vladimir Alekseev/TPOTY.com
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Highly Commended - Landscapes and Earth elements portfolio - Paddy Scott
Charakusa Valley, Karakorum range, Himalayas, Pakistan.Standing at 7,282m, K6 is smaller than most of the rest of its 'K' cousins; however, its almost 3,000m prominence from the valley floor means that it dominates the head of the Charakusa Valley. - Paddy Scott/TPOTY.com
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Winner - Best Single Image in Nature, Sealife & Wildlife - Pavlos Evangelidis
Bistro, Beqa Channel, Fiji. Photographer Pavlos Evangelidis says: 'Don’t worry, the fish are fine! They’re pilot fish – or, to be precise in this case, Golden Trevallies. They help the shark navigate and keep clean in exchange for scraps and protection.' - Pavlos Evangelidis/TPOTY 2020
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Runner-up - Landscapes and Earth elements portfolio - Scott Portelli
Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, South Australia.Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is Australia’s largest salt-lake yet it is only covered with water every eight years on average. The vast salt plain dominates the landscape with patterns left behind by the receding water. Natural bore springs emerge across the plains, creating enormous patterns of pastel-blues, yellows and reds as water pushed up through the salt crust creates visual anomalies. - Scott Portelli/TPOTY 2020
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Commended - Landscapes and Earth elements portfolio - Sergey Pesterev
Uzury, Olkhon island, Lake Baikal, Russia.Lake Baikal is known not only for its huge reserves of pure fresh water, but also for its perfectly transparent ice, sometimes reaching a thickness of more than a metre. New cracks are constantly forming due to temperature changes. The sound that occurs in this case could be used for voicing ‘Star Wars’ and it seems that the lake lives its own life. - Sergey Pesterev/TPOTY.com
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Winner - Nature, Sealife & Wildlife Portfolio - Marco Steiner
Kuramathi, Rasdhoo Atoll, Maldives. 'A Flying Gurnard in juvenile stage, taken during a blackwater dive; I used a very slow shutter to get the movement of this bird-like fish. We found three of them that day and some more over the next few days, which was really interesting for us as we had never ever seen one in the Maldives before!' - Marco Steiner/TPOTY.com
Poyang Lake, Jiangxi, China.Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve is located in the north of Jiangxi Province. Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China and provides a seasonal home for more than 100 species of migratory birds, including 11 endangered species. - Wenming Tang/TPOTY.com
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Highly Commended - Travel Portfolio - Nicolas Raspiengeas
Diamond Beach, Iceland. 'Set on the Breiðamerkursandur glacial plain, by Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, Diamond Beach is world-famous for the icebergs which wash up on its black sand. I wanted to highlight these deep blue and transparent blocks- a sign of their advanced age'. - Nicolas Raspiengeas/TPOTY.com
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Winner - Landscapes and Earth elements single Images - James Smart
Simla, Colorado, USA.This ‘drill bit’ type of tornado is a rare anti-cyclonic tornado, which happens in around 2 per cent of tornadoes. It touched down in open farmland, narrowly missing a home near Simla, Colorado as it tore up the ground, gathering the soil giving it is brown colour. - James Smart/TPOTY.com
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Special Mention -Landscapes and Earth elements single Images - David Swindler
Mount Rainier, Washington State,USA. 'During our visit to Mount Rainierwe found this snow cave carvedout by the rushing flow. Goinginside a snow cave can bedangerous and you should havethe proper safety equipment'. - David Swindler/TPOTY.com
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Runner-Up - Travel Portfolio - Richard Li
Bence Mate's photography hide, Pusztaszer, Hungary. 'I was in a hide waiting for the birds fly to the pond to drink when I spotted this snail, and its perfect reflection amazed me.' - Richard Li/TPOTY.com
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Commended - Travel Portfolio - Alessio Mesiano
Vestmanna, Streymoy, Faroe Islands. 'The Northern Lights are not easy to see in the Faroe Islands. During winter bad weather is very common and the skies are too often cloudy. I parked the car, turned the radio on, lowered the seat, covered myself with a blanket and waited for some hours. I took this photo at around midnight but I stayed there until 4 am.' - Alessio Mesiano/TPOTY.com
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Commended - One Shot Colours of Life - Enrico Pescantini
The Peruvian Andes.Nature is always showing us that is is the greatest painter of all time. In the Peruvian Andes, a unique mineral composition and millions of years of wind and rain created the Rainbow Mountains, a true wonder of nature. It is indeed a ‘sad’ discovery made only recently, due to the melting of snow and ice that once covered them. - Enrico Pescantini/TPOTY.com
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Runner-Up - One Shot Islands - Dana Allen
Taha’a Island, Tahiti.A school of Pacific Double-saddle Butterfly Fish (Chaetodon ulietensis) along with many other aquatic species rush by in a flurry of activity in Le Taha'a's amazing lagoon. - Dana Allen/TPOTY.com
For more amazing images from this year's awards, take a peek here.
James Cutmore is the picture editor of BBC Science Focus Magazine. He has worked on the magazine and website for over a decade, telling compelling science stories through the use of striking imagery. He holds a degree in Fine Art, and has been nominated for the British Society of Magazine Editors Talent Awards, being highly commended in 2020. His main areas of interest include photography that highlights positive technology and the natural world. For many years he was a judge for the Wellcome Trust's image competition, as well as judging for the Royal Photographic Society.
