National Geographic has announced the winners of the magazine’s annual Travel Photographer of the Year contest, and the images are haunting, yet breath-taking.
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An image of an erupting volcano being struck by lightning earned Mexican photographer Sergio Tapiro Velasco the title of National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year.
Velasco captured the incredible image of Mexico’s Colima Volcano, one of Latin America’s most active volcanos, on Dec. 13, 2015. The photographer was set up about 12 kilometres away from the crater, which is often referred to as the “Volcano of Fire,” when he witnessed the volcanic lightning.
“When I looked on the camera display, all I could do was stare,” Velasco told the magazine. “What I was watching was impossible to conceive, the image showed those amazing forces of nature interacting on a volcano, while the lightning brightened the whole scene. It’s an impossible photograph and my once in a lifetime shot that shows the power of nature.”
Velasco’s winning image was selected from over 15,000 entries from photographers in more than 30 countries.
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Here’s a look at some of the other winning images from this year’s contest.
Second place winner, nature: Swans glide over the water in Kabukurinuma, Osaki, Japan, a protected wetland.
Hiromi Kano/National Geographic
Third place winner, nature: American crocodiles gather along the bank of the Tarcoles River in Costa Rica.
Tarun Sinha/National Geographic
Honourable Mention, Nature: The Marble Caves of Patagonia.
Clane Gessel/National Geographic
Honourable Mention, Nature: In a remote village in the Tamba region of Japan, twinkling fireflies light up the Forest of the Gods on a summer evening.
Y. Takafuji/National Geographic
Honourable Mention, Nature: Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia.
Reynold Dewantara/National Geographic
People’s Choice Winner, Nature: A buff-tailed coronet feeds on flower nectar in the Ecuadorian forest, a paradise for hummingbirds.
Hymakar Valluri/ National Geographic
First place winner, People: Beams of light filter through a historic building in Konya, Turkey, where a whirling dervish performs an ecstatic dance.
F. Dilek Uyar/National Geographic
Second place winner, People: A crowd of spectators stands in front of Rembrandt’s masterpiece, Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild, at Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Julius Y./National Geographic
Third place winner, People: Professional surfer Donavon Frankenreiter captured in Tavarua, Fiji.
Rodney Bursiel/National Geographic
Honourable mention, People: A father and son dressed in traditional white clothing sit at a mosque in New Delhi, India.
Jobit George/National Geographic
Honourable mention, People: A train coming from Dhaka pauses at Tongi Railway Station in Gazipur, Bangladesh, on a rainy morning.
Moin Ahmed/National Geographic