Nature—Winners Gallery
Browse our editors' favorite submissions to the photo contest.
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- Grand-Prize Winner and Nature Winner
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- Grand-Prize Winner and Nature Winner
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- Arrows of rain seem to pelt a dragonfly in Indonesia's Riau Islands in "Splashing,” the winning image of the 2011 National Geographic Photography Contest. To capture the photo, photographer Shikhei Goh took advantage of “superb lighting” and a friend spraying water on the dragonfly to simulate rain. The result is a "very striking macrophotography image that rose to the top of the nature category for me because of its originality, beautiful light, rare action in a close-up image, as well as its technical perfection," said Tim Laman, one of three National Geographic magazine photographers who judged the contest. "You can almost feel the dragonfly's experience of bracing itself against the water," said judge Amy Toensing. "When I look at it, I want to say, Hold on tight little buddy!" The insect's plight also appealed to judge Peter Essick, who said the photograph gives the dragonfly a "character us humans can relate to." "It's rare indeed to see a photograph that causes the viewer to feel a bond with a member of the animal world seemingly," Essick said, "but maybe not, so unlike our own." Editors’ Note, January 12, 2012: This caption has been edited to accurately reflect how Goh took the picture. The original caption said that Goh had taken the picture in a sudden rainstorm, which he has done in previous occasions—but not for the winning photograph.
Photo and caption by Shikhei Goh
Category: Nature
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- "The blue pond" of the famous tourist resort. This is a place where many tourists gather in spring, summer, and autumn. However, since this pond freezes in winter, nobody is during that period. This photograph is the moment first snow of the season is falling in that blue pond. We can see first snow of the season from the end of October. Why is blue? This is because the underground hot spring ingredient is gushing. This blue pond changes a color every day. I think that mystical blue and pure white snow are beautiful. All are nature's tints.
Photo and caption by Kent Shiraishi
Category: Nature
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- Honorable Mention
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- Jellyfish Cotylorhiza tuberculata drifting just beneath the surface looking for capturing the first sunrays to trigger their symbiotic algae to produce energy for it.
Photo and caption by Angel Fitor
Category: Nature
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- Honorable Mention
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- I was leading a photographic safari in Tanzania's, Serengeti National Park. It was midday and we came across a dazzle of zebra approaching a waterhole the quench their thirst. Every few minutes the zebras will enter the water to drink, just to panic and scatter out of the water again.
Photo and caption by Marius Coetzee
Category: Nature
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- I personally believe that, beyond the formal representation of reality, mediated by the technical instruments necessary to fix an image in time, photography is made of insights. The shot is the last act of image capturing and in many ways the easiest part of the whole process. This panning effect, even in its imperfection, with the chromatic harmony of the background, with all the needless information eliminated and the luck of having the big cat’s lifted tail in symmetry with the impala horns, brings the observer inside the hunting without distractions.
Photo and caption by Stefano Pesarelli
Category: Nature
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