The funniest photo contest in the world, The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, has announced its 2023 winners. Drumroll, please! The overall winner of this year’s competition is Jason Moore for his amusing, heartwarming, and funny capture of a kangaroo playing air guitar. As always, there are category winners and highly commended images, too. So, there are plenty of photos to make your day at least a little better!

Overall winner of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2023

Jaosn’s photo, titled Air Guitar Roo, was competing against 5,300 entries from 1,842 photographers, coming from 85 countries around the world., Jason’s image fought off fierce competition in the closest voting ever. It brought him not only the overall victory, but his photo was also awarded as the winner of the Creatures of the Land category.

In the photo, you can see a female Western Grey Kangaroo. Jason snapped the winning image in the outer suburbs of Perth, Australia when he visited a field where many adult kangaroos and Joeys were playing. Apparently, this rocking girl had an audience.

Recalling the day he took the photo, Jason says:

“I had been out with my camera photographing some waterfowl at a nearby lake. I had been up at sunrise to take advantage of the “golden hour” light, but it turned out to be a disappointing morning on the water. After leaving the lake, somewhat dejected, I decided to swing past an area of open bushland that I know of, because there are often a “mob” of Kangaroos feeding and sunning themselves in a field close to the road (it’s on my way to and from work so I drive past it every day)

When I arrived, there were a number of Kangaroos in the field. The morning light was still favourable so I grabbed my camera and headed off to a spot where I could get down to eye level with my subjects, amongst the biting ticks (the lengths we go to, just to get that perfect image.) I ended up shooting about 40 or 50 frames of the Kangaroos with various content including Mum’s, Joey’s and also some action shots of them bouncing along through the yellow field.”

Interestingly enough, kangaroos are not usually this fun, according to Jason. They are normally “fairly docile and even a bit boring most of the time,” he says.  “However, when I saw this Roo striking the air guitar pose, it immediately brought a smile to my face, and I knew that I had captured something really special. “

As the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Jason has won a safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya, with Alex Walker’s Serian. There’s also a unique handmade trophy from the Wonder Workshop in Tanzania and a photography bag from THINK TANK.

Category winners

There were six category winners of the contest, including young photographer Jacek Stankiewicz. His image Dispute shows two adorable greenfinches “arguing,” and it seems like everybody loved this image. Not only did Jacek win the Junior Award, but this charming photo also won the Affinity Photo People’s Choice Award. This is the first time ever that a junior entry won this award, and a significant milestone for the competition.

Other Category Winners included Vittorio Ricci, who won the Creatures of the Air Award, and Otter Kwek, who topped the Under Water Category. Timea Ambrus won the Portfolio Award with a collection of four images, and the Video Award went to Lily Bernau.

Highly commended entries

In addition to the category winners, the contest also recognized ten entries as Highly Commended Winners. So we can laugh, smile, and giggle some more!

Make sure to visit the contest website for more information, and enjoy the rest of the images below.