The 26th annual National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest is underway with some incredible shots as photographers around the world enter their work for a chance of winning a trip of a lifetime. The contest ends on June 30, but the editors have already been inundated with hopeful entries featuring underwater scenes, landscapes and a variety of animals caught in spontaneous poses.
The four categories of this year’s contest are Travel Portraits, Outdoor Scenes, Sense of Place and Spontaneous Moments.
The grand-prize winner will receive an eight-day National Geographic Expedition to Alaska for two aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion or National Geographic Sea Bird.
Alaska’s Inside Passage Expedition is a unique trip to explore the remote wilderness and remarkable wildlife of southeastern Alaska with a team of expert naturalists.
Throughout the contest, which ends on June 30, National Geographic Traveler magazine photo editors will showcase their favorite entries every week on the site.Visitors to the website can view all the entries and share them with family and friends through their social network accounts as well as download wallpapers and complete jigsaw puzzles.
1. Swimming with the sharks in French Polynesia
2. A festival dedicated to the divinities of Northern India
3. An indiscreet giraffe munches on a light snack at the hotel kitchen of Giraffe Manor in Nairobi
4. Sunset is unique at Guangxi
5. A kangaroo hops around in Adelaide, Australia, like a drunken sailor
6. Swimming with a school of stingrays
7. Camping in Southern Iceland in the Fall of 2013
8. A gentoo penguin surfs on the waters of the Falkands
9. The liquid emerald waterfall in Niagara, Ontario, Canada
10. The Golden Gate Bridge covered in mist
11. A misty alien place in the largest cave in the world, Hang Son Doong, that was discovered in 2009 in Central Vietnam