National Geographic has announced the winners of its travel photographer of the year 2017 competition.
Photo and caption by Sergio Tapiro Velasco/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. Grand Prize and 1st Place, Nature: The power of nature. Powerful eruption of Colima Volcano in Mexico on December 13th, 2015. That night, the weather was dry and cold, friction of ash particles generated a big lightning of about 600 meters that connected ash and volcano, and illuminated most of the dark scene. On last part of 2015, this volcano showed a lot of eruptive activity with ash explosions that raised 2-3 km above the crater. Most of night explosions produced incandescent rock falls and lightning not bigger than 100 meters in average.
The grand prize and 1st place in the Nature category was awarded to Mexican photographer Sergio Tapiro Velasco, whose stunning photograph of the erupting Colima Volcano in a lightning storm was crowned winner over 15,000 entries from photographers from more than 30 countries.
Velasco's prize is $2,500 and a ten-day trip for two to the Galápagos Archipelago with National Geographic Expeditions.
Photo and caption by Andy Yeung/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 2nd Place, Cities: Walled City #08 The Kowloon Walled City was the densest place on Earth. Hundreds of houses stacked on top of each other enclosed in the center of the structure. Many didn’t have access to open space.This notorious city was finally demolished in 1990s. However, if you look hard enough, you will notice that the city is not dead. Part of it still exists in many of current high density housing apartments. I hope this series can get people to think about claustrophobic living in Hong Kong from a new perspective.Photo and caption by Misha De-Stroyev/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 3rd Place, Cities: Henningsvær Football Field. This football field in Henningsvær in the Lofoten Islands is considered one of the most amazing fields in Europe, and maybe even in the world. The photo was taken during a 10-day sailing trip in Norway in June 2017. We arrived to Henningsvær after a week of sailing through the cold and rainy weather. Upon our arrival, the weather cleared up. I was really lucky that the conditions were suitable for flying my drone, and I managed to capture this shot from a height of 120 meters.Photo and caption by F. Dilek Uyar/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 1st Place, People: worship. This photo was taken in Konya. Willing Dervish in an historical place of Sille Konya Turkey. The 'dance' of the Whirling Dervishes is called Sema and is a symbol of the Mevlevi culture. According to Mevlana's teachings, human beings are born twice, once of their mothers and the second time of their own bodies.Photo and caption by Tarun Sinha/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 3rd Place, Nature: Crocodiles at Rio Tarcoles. This image was captured in Costa Rica when I was travelling from Monteverde to Playa Hermosa. As you cross over this river, you can stop and peer over the edge of the bridge. Below, reside over 35 gigantic crocodiles, relaxing on the muddy banks of the river. I wanted to capture the stark difference between the crocodiles on land and in the water. In the murky waters, the body contours of these beasts remain hidden, and one can only truly see their girth as they emerge from the river.Photo and caption by Hiromi Kano/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 2nd Place, Nature: To live. Swans who live vigorous even in mud.Photo and caption by Julius Y./National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 2nd Place, People: Interesting moment. Museum visitors curiously watching Rembrandt's painting " Syndics of the Drapers' Guild" where it gave the illusion that the people on the paintings too are curiously watching the visitors.Photo and caption by Norbet Fritz/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 1st Place, Cities: Levels of reading. The modern interior of the city library in Stuttgart. With its wide-open space in the central, where natural light comes from through the windows on the top, it has a very unique atmosphere, where you can broaden your knowledge.Photo and caption by Rodney Bursiel/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year. 3rd Place, People: Under The Wave. I recently traveled to Tavarua, Fiji to do some surf photography with pro surfer Donavon Frankenreiter at Cloudbreak. I'm always looking for new angles and perspectives. The usual surf shots have all been done so we decided to get a little creative. Makes you look twice.
