National Geographic Traveler 2013 Contest Winners

Photo © Wagner Araujo- All Rights Reserved

The venerable National Geographic Traveler has announced the winners of its 25th annual photo contest. The magazine received more than 15,500 entries from photographers from around the world, of photographs made in locations ranging from Brazil to Kenya.

The overall winner was Wagner Araujo, who was in Manaus during the Brazilian Aquathlon championship. He photographed it from the water and although his lens got completely wet, he didn't mind.

Following on my previous post, I am quizzical as to how judges comes to their decisions and via comments on my Facebook page, I learned that these are totally subjective and are sometimes based on the say-so of the more forceful judge on the panel.

As far as this particular wining photograph is concerned, this is what one of this year's judges says (partly):

“...Classic photographic rules of composition say that you should not have subjects moving out of the frame, but this shot shows that sometimes the most exciting photo can be made by breaking the rules...”

Whenever I post the results of a travel photograph contest, I like to pretend that I was one of the judges and pick my favorite....and this is the one I chose. It's a photograph of a child in a Zanzibar nursery.

Photo © Beniamino Pisati