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Sunday, December 19, 2010

National Geographic's Photography Contest 2010 (23 pics) Part 1

National Geographic is once again holding their annual Photo Contest,
with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30th. For the
past eight weeks, they have been gathering and presenting galleries of
submissions, encouraging readers to rate them as well. National Geographic was again kind enough to let me
choose some of their entries from 2010 for display here on The Big
Picture. Collected below are 46 images from the three categories of
People, Places and Nature. Captions were written by the individual
photographers. (46 photos total)
Kanana Camp, Botswana. Pulling over by the side of the road to watch a grazing giraffe, we spotted an amber head lurking behind a small mound. A hungry lioness. Watching, waiting, camera to my eye, she eventually chose her moment and pounced just as the giraffe sensed danger. The lioness gave chase, but failed. Hungry, she lay down, invisible, in the grass not ten feet from us and waited again. (Photo and caption by Alex Tan)
A supercell thunderstorm rolls across the Montana prairie at sunset. (Photo and caption by Sean Heavey) #
Salvation. Appreciate life to save the world. (Photo and caption by Hongsik Kim) #
The
Great Pyramids. The people of Ancient Egypt believed that death on
Earth was the start of a journey to the next world. The embalmed body of
the King was entombed underneath or within the pyramid to protect it
and allow his transformation and ascension to the afterlife. (Photo and
caption by Jesus Oranday) #
The
Music Of Love. This picture was taken in Tenganan Village, Bali (2010).
Tenganan is the most famous Bali Aga (original Balinese) village and is
located close to Candi Dasa in East Bali. A man was playing bamboo
music to entertain a disabled child which is not his son, but he loves
this child likes he loves his own son. (Photo and caption by Ario
Wibisono) #
Liquid
Planet. Another picture from the Liquid Vision Series, which shows a
different point of view of waves. An angle that people are not used to
seeing. (Photo and caption by Freddy Cerdeira) #
Brown
bear, Buskin River, Kodiak Alaska. This bear had been fishing in the
river on this morning. It climbed onto the bank and laid down in the
grass. This photo was taken about an hour after sunrise just as the sun
was starting to clear the trees. The temperature was near the dew point
and steam was rising off its body. It didn’t seem at all concerned by
the fishermen in the river or the photographer on the bank. (Photo and
caption by James Haskins) #
Praying
Mantis - Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii. This beautiful whalbergii evolved
through two of its nymph-stages on the Barberton Daisy at left,
surviving because of its bright color which blended so well with the
flower. Towards the end of its growth into an adult, it became a little
more adventurous (but not much more) as pictured here. Once it had shed
the layer in this picture, it became a fully-fledged adult, and departed
after about two weeks. Total stay in this tiny ecosystem was
approximately six weeks. (Photo and caption by Fred Turck) #
A Wrinkle in Time. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. (Photo and caption by Nikki Krecicki) #
Alone.
I was up in the air in an helicopter, taking images for the community
and suddenly I saw one tree surrounded by thousands of spruces and I got
only one shot in this perfect light. (Photo and caption by Mats Alml)
#
The
archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil is considered a wildlife
sanctuary, but today, even in this isolated archipelago dolphins are
victims of the bad habits of consumption. (Photo and caption by João
Vianna) #
Cosmic. Mother nature doing what she does best. (Photo and caption by Patrick John O'Doherty) #
The
child in us. Traveling from Zhangmu (Nepal-Tibet border) to the Tibetan
capital - Lhasa you can see road workers all along the Friendship
Highway. The Chinese industrialization has affected Tibet a great deal.
But despite the Chinese government's attempts to settle Chinese
population across the Tibetan Plateau, the Roof of the World still
remains a place where only the Tibetans can survive its harsh climate
conditions. A Tibetan boy holding the hand of his father who works on
the road construction, Tibet. (Photo and caption by Sergi Barisashvili) #
The
baboon in front was harassing one of the babies in the troop. This male
facing the camera attacked him. The whole fight was over in a few
seconds but it was loud and seemingly vicious. The rest of the troop was
scrambling around trying to get out of their way. There is, needless to
say, always a lot of drama going on in a baboon troop. (Photo and
caption by Sharon Raoli) #
Unsafe
Journey. A woman is riding between the railway carriages of a local
train heading north from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Her luggage
is tucked under the carriage in front of her. It is the month of
Ramadan, a fast which culminates in Eid-ul-Fitr, a three-day
celebration. Tens of thousands of people leave the city to go to their
home village and celebrate with their families. Trains are packed and
many who fail to get tickets before they sell out or can't afford buying
them at the black market ride on the roof of the train or, like this
woman, finds a quiet spot between the carriages. (Photo and caption by
Amy Helene Johansson) #
Lightning
Strike NY Harbor. This shot was captured during a major electrical
storm. There was little wind and no rain which allowed me to stay safely
inside and shoot from an open window. This was the 82nd exposure out of
150 made that night. The camera was mounted on a tripod, exposures made
with a cable release for 5 seconds at f10. Except for a some minor
level adjustments and a square crop this was what came out of the
camera. (Photo and caption by Jay Fine) #
Boise
Sunrise. With the fog and morning light this looks like a place I'd
love to be. If you look very closely, you can see a deer in a clearing
in the center left area of the picture (small dot, head poking above
bushes, see detail). (Photo and caption by Glen Hush) #
Yes it's spring. Fishing on the end of the bridge. (Photo and caption by Stan Bouman) #
The Look. There are only 400 of these birds in existence. (Photo and caption by Rolf Skrypzak) #
Against
the windstorm on Mont Blanc. My friend Laszlo Varkonyi is leading a
group on Mont Blanc, he died on Everest this April in a fatal accident: a
big serac fell down. (Photo and caption by Aniko Molnar) #
Mystery
Bug. This was on my clothesline. I have no idea what it is. I have used
a macro lens as the insect was only an inch or so long. We live in the
Northern Rivers district of New South Wales, Australia. The rainforest
around our house sometimes brings forth intriguing creatures like this. I
know it looks like a studio shot but it isn't. The photograph was was
taken in natural light. The background is a sheet that was
serendipitously drying on the clothesline at the time. I have rotated
the image to make the insect easier to examine. If anyone can tell me
what it is I would be grateful. (Photo and caption by Stephen Hocking) #
Pure
Elements. I drove my 4x4 over rivers to get a view of the Volcano
eruption at "Fimmvorduhals" in Iceland. It was a full moon and strong
winds gave me problems standing still outside the truck. I had my camera
with me and zoom lens but no tripod, suddenly there was a magical
moment, I was experiencing a display of nature rarely seen by man. I
found my camera with the zoom lens, rushed out of the truck, trying to
fight the strong wind. I pushed the camera on to the hood of the truck
trying to stand still, holding my breath, I shot 30 frames, and only one
shot was good. (Photo and caption by Olafur Ragnarsson) #
Bicycle
Crash. Zestful BMX (Bicycle Moto-Cross) rider crashes after a failed
attempt to grind the handrail. When in pain, even the ambitious, strong,
extreme sports loving man looks like a simple, tired, vulnerable
person. (Photo and caption by Karolis Milasevicius) #
The
Serra da Leba Road near Lubango (Huíla, Angola). This is Serra da Leba,
a landmark in Angola. A road built in the 70's, it's been in the
country's postcard images for decades, but all shots were taken by day. I
wanted something different and tried a night shot. But it seemed
impossible: pitch dark, foggy, altitude of 1,800m (5,000ft). I wanted no
more than 60sec of exposure, max, to avoid digital noise. But a car
takes a few minutes to climb or descend this section of the road. The
fog was dense and blocking the view! Suddenly the fog cleared, a few
cars went down, others went up, they met in the middle in under 60sec...
Painting done! (Photo and caption by Kostadin Luchansky) #

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