Smithsonian.com

The Last Prayer, by Charles Littlewood (Photographed June 2009, Micanopy, Florida)

Creatures eat other creatures all the time, but it’s not something that is often captured on film, at least not in such an attractive way that it makes the finals of a photo contest. Charles Littlewood of Silver Springs, Florida spotted this rat snake stalking a frog amid the cattails one day in June 2009. “I watched as it approached and marveled that the frog did nothing,” he says. Littlewood then took 185 shots with his camera and entered this one in Smithsonian magazine’s 8th Annual Photo Contest, where it’s one of the top entries in the Natural World category. “The photo demonstrates the persistence required to obtain the views of nature and the lessons to be learned from the participants,” Littlewood says.

There’s only a few days left to enter your vote for the Readers’ Choice Award in this year’s contest; voting closes on March 31. The Grand Prize, Readers’ Choice and category winners will be announced on July 1. And if you’ve captured your own amazing image, consider entering it into the 9th annual photo contest, which is open for submissions until December 1, 2011.

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