2012 National Geographic Traveller Photo Contest winners

(Source: BBC)

From exotic Burma and the northern lights in Norway to Fiji and a remote lake in Chile, National Geographic has revealed the winning entries of its 2012 photo contest and they certainly provide some travel inspiration. These dramatic pictures have been chosen from more than 12,000 entries, from 6,615 photographers in 152 countries around the globe.
 

Cedric Houin of Brooklyn, New York, has won the 2012 National Geographic traveller photo contest with a photograph of a Kyrgyz woman and her daughter sewing with an old-fashioned-looking machine in a remote region of Afghanistan.
 

Vo Anh Kiet of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, won second place with his image of H'Mong minority children playing with balloons on a foggy day in Moc Chau, Ha Giang province.
 
Ken Thorne was awarded a merit for his photo of child walking through an ancient forest of Baobab trees near the city of Morondava, on the west coast of Madagascar.
 
SauKhiang Chau was also awarded a merit for this engaging image of old men wearing djellabas (loose-fitting robes), sitting talking each other in Chefchaouen, north-west Morocco.
 
Ken Bower's shot shows village of G Sadalur with the island of Mykines in the background. "It was a rare sunny day in the Faroe Islands and I had to wait until the clouds rolled in to provide some softer light. I decided to go with a long exposure (1 minute 10 seconds) to illustrate the force of the wind and a serene sea among the isolated islands."
 
This photograph of the Japanese maple tree in the Portland Japanese Gardens in Oregon, US, was submitted by Fred An. "I tried to bring a different perspective of this frequently photographed tree."
 
"More than 2,000 Buddhist temples and pagodas fill the plains of Bagan. Once the capital of the Pagan Empire, farmers now raise their livestock within the centuries old complex," explains photographer Peter DeMarco, of his image taken in Burma.
 

Lucia Griggi also received a merit award for this photographer of a surfer duck-diving his board at Cloud Break, an outer reef in Fiji.
 

The winner of the viewers' choice - a picture of a cabin illuminated by the Northern Lights in Finmmark, Norway - was taken by Michelle Schantz.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: