Bio
The 2025 “Bird Photographer of the Year”, Liron Gertsman is an award-winning naturalist and professional wildlife photographer whose work has appeared in Canadian Geographic, Audubon, Sierra Magazine, The Smithsonian Institution, London’s Natural History Museum, and more. Liron combines his photographic artistry with his biology background from the University of British Columbia to create eye-catching images and unique photography workshops around his home in western Canada and worldwide.
“Inspired by so many great Canadian photographers that have been featured before me, I’m so thrilled and honoured to be joining WPC Team Canada this year! I’m excited to see the stories told through this year’s images, and to connect with my peers who share our strong photographic passion. Go Canada go!”
2027 – Nature/Wildlife
An elusive and stunning bird, the Northern Hawk Owl is found across the boreal forest of my home country of Canada. Wanting to spend more time observing and photograph them, I spent several days hiking in the interior of my home province of British Columbia in search of this beautiful bird. Despite wearing large snowshoes, I would regularly sink to my knees in the deep, powdery snow. After putting on tens of kilometres on snowshoes, my efforts were rewarded with several unforgettable encounters with a pair of Northern Hawk Owls. As they hunted and engaged in courtship throughout a large territory, I observed from a respectful distance in order to capture their natural behaviours. One morning, frost blanketing the trees made for a particularly stunning environment. I captured this image as an owl perched at the tip of a tree in the bright snowy conditions.
2027 – Nature/Landscape
Few natural events on planet earth can compare to the experience of witnessing a volcanic eruption. Looking to document this remarkable phenomenon, I travelled to Guatemala’s Volcan de Fuego in January 2026, where I spent about a week with observing and photographing the raw power of nature. On this occasion, the volcano was erupting about once every half hour. However, not all eruptions were equal; some where much more dramatic than others. I captured this moment in the early morning hours, as the volcano sent lava flying hundreds of metres into the air, before raining back down to the earth. Using a slow shutter speed of 1.3 seconds, I was able to capture the streaking of the “lava rain” as it descended.