This isn’t an article dedicated to words though, so we’ll skip straight to this year's winner and some of the best images picked from the four categories they divide entries into—Travel Portraits, Outdoor Scenes, Sense Of Place, and Spontaneous Moments—as released by National geographic themselves. First prize went to Anuar Patjane Floriuk of Tehuacán, Mexico, who will now receive an eight-day photo expedition for two to Costa Rica and the Panama Canal for a photograph of divers swimming near a humpback whale off the western coast of Mexico. The rest are also truly spectacular testaments to the art of image-making, in our opinion. Keep scrolling to see for yourself.
1. First Place - Diving with a humpback whale and her new born calf while they cruise around Roca Partida Island, in Revillagigedo, Mexico.
2. Second Place - A gravel crushing workplace remains full of dust and sand. Three gravel workmen are looking through the window glass.
3. Third Place - Camel Ardah, as it called in Oman, is one of the traditional styles of camel racing between two camels controlled by expert riders. The faster camel is the loser, so they must be running at the same speed level in the same track.
4. A sauna at 2,800 meters high, in the heart of Dolomites. Monte Lagazuoi, Cortina, eastern Italian Alps.
5. Two boys are trying to catch a duck near a waterfall.
6. Traditional haymaking in Poland. Many people continue to use the scythe and pitchfork to cut and sort the hay.
7. The night before this photo, we tried all day to get a good photo of the endangered white rhino. Skulking through the grass carefully trying to stay 30 feet away to be safe, didn't provide me the photo I was hoping for. In the morning however, I woke up to all three rhinos grazing in front of me.
8. Kushti is the traditional form of Indian wrestling. Wearing only a well-adjusted loincloth (´langotª), wrestlers or “Pelwhansª enter a pit made of clay, often mixed with salt, lemon and ghee (clarified butter). At the end of a workout, wrestlers rest against the walls of the arena covering their heads and bodies with earth to soak up any perspiration and avoid catching cold. This relaxation ceremony is completed with massages to soothe tired muscles and demonstrate mutual respect.
9. White frost over Pestera village in Romania.
10. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli in Namibia. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means 'dead marsh'. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry.