The winning images for National Geographic’s prestigious Travel Photographer of the Year have been announced. After a panel of experts chose from over 13,000 entries over 3 categories, an entry titled ’Mermaid’ triumphed above all else.
Entries were accepted for one of three categories; Nature, People, and Cities, with a winner chosen from each, and then a Grand Prize winner, as well as some People’s Choice Award winners.
The Grand Prize winner walked away with a cool £10,000, with the other category winners collecting £2,500 each.
Reigning victorious was Reiko Takahashi for her ‘Mermaid’ photo of the tail of Humpback whale calf that was captured during a chance snorkeling trip near Kumejima Island in Japan.
“Most of the time, the calf stayed close to her mom. At one point, the calf began jumping and tapping its tail on the water near us – it was very friendly and curious.”, said Takahashi.
“Finally, the mother, who was watching nearby, came to pick up the calf and swim away. I fell in love completely
with the calf and it’s very energetic, large and beautiful tail.”
With Mermaid snap coming from the nature category, the Cities winner was ‘Another Day In Nagasaki, Japan’ by Hiro Kurashina, and the People category winner being ‘Tea Culture’ by Alessandra Meniconzi.
Please head on over to Nat Geo’s official website here to view and learn more from the competition.
