Wildlife / Animals nominee

As we move into winters in Minnesota, most of the lakes start to freeze up. In this series, you can see those mallards staying active in the water which in return delays it from freezing. This is due to the continuous movement in the water. As it gets colder and colder, the ducks leave the lakes and the water heals up into ice.

Roaming the streets of Beirut-Lebanon, Omar Ghrayeb, a passionate Photographer and Engineer seeking to freeze moments and transfer them into pieces of art. Omar grew with a camera along his side documenting the highlights of his years and always keeping an eye out on beauty to capture. For the past 3 years, Omar has been exploring Aerial photography after he was gifted his first drone.

With his passionate towards aviation, the drone opened an adventurous journey of viewing things from above. Since then, this new dimension of photography started to take over his work. He also got his part 107 license through the FAA to improve his knowledge about flying drones safely. Omar was able to step through the Aerial Photography with beautiful scenes of the cities he visited in the USA and the sharpy subjects in his abstracts which made his Aerial photos recognized and appreciated.

Omar’s moved from Miami to Minneapolis in September 2020. Since then, he has been exploring the city and capturing the beauty it has to offer throughout the four seasons. His winter abstracts and landscapes have won multiple national and international photography awards and were displayed in a few juried exhibitions in USA.