15 Stunning Photographs For This Year's Nat Geo Nature Photo Contest

"This photo was made in my hometown, called Thiersee, a small village in the heart of the Alps (Tyrol, Austria). I had to wait till the Lake Thiersee, which is frozen all the wintertime, begins to melt in Spring. Just for a few days, you can see these natural patterns in the melting ice but not without a drone. So I told my daughter to [take] a boat trip with her red kayak. Till now, nobody in my hometown [has told] me how the patterns grow (because nobody know[s] that they exist)."