Meet Carlos Naval: The 9 Year Old Prodigy Recently Crowned Wildlife Photographer Of The Year
Nov 3, 2014
Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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A nine year old boy from Spain took the top honors in the youth division of the 2014 Natural History Museum and BBC’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, which celebrated it’s 50th anniversary this year. Carlos Perez Naval, stole the show when his exceptional photo, “Stinger In The Sun” not only earned the young photographer a 1st place finish in the 10 and under division, but also garnered him the prestigious title of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year, for which he handily edged out photographers nearly twice his age.
Some of Carlos’ photos are taken during his extensive travels with his parents, Eva Navel & Rodrigo Pérez and it’s apparent that his love of photography is with him wherever he goes. When he isn’t in search of tigers in India or black bears in western parts of the United States, Carlos is able to find plenty of inspiration right in his own backyard.
Carlos also appears to have one of the key ingredients it takes to be a wildlife photographer: fearlessness. Browsing through the images on his website, we’re treated to behind the scenes shots of Carlos diligently snapping photos of bears, tigers, snakes, and a plethora of other wildlife which are sometimes just meters away.
Take a look at a sample of his work below, then be sure to head over to his website to learn more about the gifted young man.
And in case you wondering what kind of gear was used in the winning image, Carlos, who has been photographing since he was 5 years old, called on his Nikon D300 with an 28–300mm lens at 105 mm. His exposure settings were 1/320 second at f10 with an ISO of 320.
More from Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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- Extraordinary underwater scene wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021
- Magical frozen landscape is the people’s choice for 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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[Carlos Perez Naval via BoredPanda]
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Tiffany Mueller
Tiffany Mueller is a photographer and content strategist based in Hawi, Hawaii. Her work has been shared by top publications like The New York Times, Adobe, and others.
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26 responses to “Meet Carlos Naval: The 9 Year Old Prodigy Recently Crowned Wildlife Photographer Of The Year”
Pretty awesome he’s using a D300
So, no fancy gear and only 9 yo….
Damn!
The gear isn’t exactly the cheapest one can get. It certainly helped.
Very promising future :)
Bright, indeed!
So very talented so very inspirational. Well done!
fantastico
Case in point – gear is secondary… Bravo kid!
Clearly camera specs and age mean nothing. Thumbs up.
It’s not the equipment you use. It is how you use it. Amazing love the pictures.
It’s partly the equipment you use. The kid can have a great eye, but if he was using a point-and-shoot the finished product would be quite different.
True
Fuck this kid
Someone should steal his Dads camera and take a picture of the kid crying.
It’s always great to see young kids getting interested in photography.
Bailey Worthington
How does a 9 year old swing $2800 in photo equipment? Am I jealous? Hell yeah, wish I could get my hands on that level gear.
Wow
P for Professional…
The equipment sure makes a difference!
Who does his retouching
Kerrin Medenyak Look at this kid
What a magnificent vision and sense of perspective this 9 year old has, as at 20 yrs finally the brain has grown in its full potential as far as cognitive functioning is concerned. I hope he will nurture his extraordinary talent.
One of the reasons I enjoy working with people is so much is dependent on me and my expertise. Not only often controlling lights, but position, posing, expression and action. Nature photography seems to be about patience and location. Basically just a spectator snapping an image. It does not surprise me that a 9yr old wins in this genre.
LMAO. Are you done with your pissing contest between yourself and a nine year-old yet?
very wonderful to see this young photographer making amazing images