See the stunning photos: National Geographic's travel photo contest winners revealed
National Geographic has revealed the winners of its annual Travel Photo Contest — and the photos are stunning.
The grand prize, which was chosen out of thousands of entries, went to Weimin Chu for his photo "Winter in Greenland." It shows a snowy, scenic view of the fishing village of Upernavik in western Greenland. He won $7,500 as well as an Instagram post on the National Geographic Travel account, which has 31 million followers.
"It felt so harmonious. The whole land was covered by white, cold snow, and the blue tint at dusk made it even cooler. But the light from the windows, street lights and the family of three made the world warm again," Chu said in a statement. "I love the contrast and mood of this scene. I was busy taking continuous pictures at that time, trying to capture the best moment."
People submitted photos across the categories of nature, cities and people and were judged by both National Geographic staff as well as an expert photographer panel. Chu won first prize in "cities" and also the overall grand prize. National Geographic awarded first, second and third place winners in each category and also gave out honorable mentions.
In the "people" category, Huaifeng Li won for a photo of actors getting ready before an opera performance in Licheng County, China. In "nature," Tamara Blazquez Haik won for a photo of a mid-flight griffon vulture in Monfragüe National Park in Spain. "How can anyone say vultures bring bad omens when looking at such tenderness in this griffon vulture's eyes?" the caption reads.
A complete look at the contest winners is available here.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: See the stunning photos: National Geographic's travel photo contest winners revealed
