The 18 Best Travel Photos Of 2017, According To NatGeo

"Powerful eruption of Colima Volcano in Mexico on December 13th, 2015. That night, the weather was dry and cold, friction of ash particles generated a big lightning of about 600 meters that connected ash and volcano, and illuminated most of the dark scene. On [the] last part of 2015, this volcano showed a lot of eruptive activity with ash explosions that raised 2 to 3 kilometers above the crater. Most of night explosions produced incandescent rock falls and lightning." ― Sergio Tapiro Velasco (Grand prize winner)

"My dad and I traveled to Patagonia this year, and we wanted to see something off the beaten path. After a 10-hour drive and traversing a long, dirt trail, we finally came upon the marble caves in General Carrera Lake. We chartered a boat to take us closer, and I waited for the perfect light to capture these intricate blue swirls. The extra effort it took to reach the caves was worth it." ― Clane Gessel (Honorable mention, Nature)

"This football field in Henningsvær in the Lofoten Islands is considered one of the most amazing fields in Europe, and maybe even in the world. The photo was taken during a 10-day sailing trip in Norway in June 2017. We arrived to Henningsvær after a week of sailing through the cold and rainy weather. Upon our arrival, the weather cleared up. I was really lucky that the conditions were suitable for flying my drone, and I managed to capture this shot from a height of 120 meters." ― Misha De-Stroyev (Third place winner, Cities)

"I recently traveled to Tavarua, Fiji to do some surf photography with pro surfer Donavon Frankenreiter at Cloudbreak. I'm always looking for new angles and perspectives. The usual surf shots have all been done, so we decided to get a little creative. Makes you look twice." ― Rodney Bursiel (Third place winner, People)

"Mount Bromo volcano is a small but active volcanic cinder cone on Java, Indonesia. Early [in] 2016, I happened to be in Mount Bromo during the increase of seismic activity [which] triggered the alert status to the second highest." ― Reynold Riksa Dewantara (Honorable mention, Nature)

"A beautiful photo of a father and son sitting in white traditional attire with beautiful blue sky on the day of Eid al-Fitr in a mosque in New Delhi, India. The photo shows the beautiful bond which these two generations have been building up in a very simple and lovable manner." ― Jobit George (Honorable mention, People)

"New buildings rise from the desert floor near Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates." ― Andrzej Bochenski (Honorable mention, Cities)

"Swans glide over the water in Kabukurinuma, Osaki, Japan, a protected wetland. Since many of Japan’s wetlands have been lost, this area has become a rare wintering place for birds and may be a last paradise for them. I was particularly impressed by the swans, and careful not to disturb them when taking pictures. I took into account wind direction and shutter speed to capture the strength and elegance of their flapping wings." ― Hiromi Kano (Second place winner, Nature)

"The photo was taken on 23rd of July 2016 at Tongi Railway Station, Gazipur, Bangladesh. I was there taking photos and waiting for a moment. A train from Dhaka toward another district had reached and stopped at the platform for 5 minutes for lifting passengers. It was raining. Suddenly I found a pair of curious eyes looking at me through the window, and on his left an umbrella had been put to protect from the rain. I got the moment." ― Moin Ahmed (Honorable mention, People)

"This image was captured in Costa Rica when I was traveling from Monteverde to Playa Hermosa. As you cross over this river, you can stop and peer over the edge of the bridge. Below reside over 35 gigantic crocodiles, relaxing on the muddy banks of the river. I wanted to capture the stark difference between the crocodiles on land and in the water. In the murky waters, the body contours of these beasts remain hidden, and one can only truly see their girth as they emerge from the river." ― Tarun Sinha (Third place winner, Nature)

"The Kowloon Walled City was the densest place on Earth. Hundreds of houses stacked on top of each other enclosed in the center of the structure. Many didn’t have access to open space.This notorious city was finally demolished in 1990's. However, if you look hard enough, you will notice that the city is not dead. Part of it still exists in many of the current high-density housing apartments. I hope this series can get people to think about claustrophobic living in Hong Kong from a new perspective." ― Andy Yeung (Second place winner, Cities)

"This photograph was taken in the evening hours of a humid early summer day in the forest of a small remote village in the Tamba area of Japan. It beautifully captures the magical atmosphere of princess fireflies carpeting a stairway leading to a small shrine revered by the local people." ― Yutaka Takafuji (Honorable mention, Nature)

"Museum visitors curiously watch Rembrandt's painting 'Syndics of the Drapers' Guild' [which gives] the illusion that the people on the paintings too are curiously watching the visitors." ― Julius Y. (Second place winner, People)

"The modern interior of the city library in Stuttgart. With its wide-open space in the center, where natural light comes from through the windows on the top, it has a very unique atmosphere where you can broaden your knowledge." ― Norbet Fritz (First place winner, Cities)

"Gardens of the Queen is a remote marine area south of Cuba. Caribbean reef sharks are usually shy, so I placed my camera on a rock where I know they frequent and used a remote trigger to click away as they came in and bumped my camera around." ― Shane Gross (Honorable mention, Nature)

"Willing Dervish in an historical place of Sille Konya, Turkey. The 'dance' of the whirling dervishes is called sema and is a symbol of the Mevlevi culture. According to Mevlana's teachings, human beings are born twice: once of their mothers and the second time of their own bodies." ― F. Dilek Uyar (First place winner, People)

"This building is a 20-minute drive from my office -- it's a functioning apartment complex in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, where people live. The modern style of the building is a strange contrast to my sleepy country town, and for a long time I couldn’t quite capture its character. The woman dressed in red was perfectly consonant with the mood of this image. Without her, I couldn’t have made this image." ― Tetsuya Hashimoto (Honorable mention, Cities)

"Besakih Temple has been known as Bali's 'mother temple' for over 1,000 years and is perched 1000 meters high on the southwestern slopes of Mount Agung. Here, Balinese often come to offer up prayer and take blessing from the temple priests, or 'pemangku,' who reside there." ― Michael Dean Morgan (Honorable mention, People)

Greg Lecoeur: "During the sardine migration along the Wild Coast of South Africa, millions of sardines are preyed upon by marine predators such as dolphins, marine birds, sharks, whales, penguins, sailfishes, and sea lions. The hunt begins with common dolphins that have developed special hunting techniques to create and drive bait balls to the surface. In recent years, probably due to overfishing and climate change, the annual sardine run has become more and more unpredictable. It took me two weeks to have the opportunity to witness and capture this marine predation."

Tori Shea-Ostberg: "An EF2 tornado bears down on a home in Wray, Colorado, on May 7, 2016. As soon as we were safe, as the tornado roared off into the distance through a field before roping out, we scrambled up the hill to check on the residents. Thankfully, everyone was all right, and we were grateful for that. As I was checking in with a young woman coming out of the basement, we became very aware of a strong new circulation right above our heads. We needed to run for cover and did so before saying a proper goodbye."

Zsolt Kudich: "A remarkable conservation success story, the graceful great egret was saved from the brink of disappearance in Hungary, where in 1921 there were only 31 mating pairs remaining. Less than a century later, international conservation efforts have triumphed. We can now count over 3,000 mating pairs in Hungary alone. Today, although their numbers are continuing to climb, the great egret remains the Hungarian Nature Conservation [Society]’s symbol, and they are still considered an endangered species that must be carefully protected. The birds are most active at dawn and dusk, and here they’re squabbling over food and jostling for space in the crowded swamp."

Scott Portelli: "I came across this jellyfish on a dive in Byron Bay, Australia. At the time there was a single turtle eating various parts of the jellyfish. Soon, two more turtles arrived in full force and started a tug-of-war to keep the best bits of the jellyfish. I moved in closer to position myself in between the action as the turtles snapped at each other and continued to eat, oblivious to my presence. Soon there was little left of this giant jellyfish, and a small group of fish were evicted from their shelter within the stinging tentacles."

Varun Aditya: "I shot this at Amboli, Maharashtra, India, on July 24, 2016, during a morning stroll into the blissful rain forest. Ceaseless drizzles dampened the woods for 10 hours a day; the serene gloom kept me guessing if it was night or day. The heavy fog, chilling breeze, and perennial silence could calm roaring sprits. And there I saw this beauty. I wondered if I needed more reasons to capture the habitat, for I was blessed to see this at the place I was at. I immediately switched from the macro to the wide-angle lens and composed this frame."

Michael O'Neill: "A female peacock bass guards her brood in a Miami, Florida, freshwater lake. She will protect her young fry from a variety of predatory fish until they are large enough to fend for themselves. This tropical freshwater species, also known as the peacock cichlid, was introduced in Florida in the mid-1980s from South America to control the tilapia population, another invasive species. Throughout its native range (and in Florida) it’s a prized sportfish known for its fighting spirit."

Jose Pesquero Gomez: "Two bodies of Empusa pennata in the same plant was the rare scene I found when I visited one of my favorite locations for macro shots. This area is located near a village called Las Rozas in Madrid, Spain. There’s a small stream about one kilometer long where you can find a varied ecosystem with many different types of insects and arachnids. From May to September, I had seen up to four different Empusas alone on their plants, but on this day I was extremely lucky when I found two individuals on the same plant. I took advantage of such a discovery and mounted my macro set and took several photos of this magical scene, where the Empusas seem to play or dance, sharing the same plant like good friends."

Mario Suarez Porras: "This image was taken during the summer of 2015 on Skomer Island, Wales. This island is well known for its wildlife and the puffin colony is one of the largest in the U.K. The photo shows a detail or study of an Atlantic puffin resting peacefully under the rain. As Skomer is not inhabited, puffins do not feel afraid of humans, and people can get really close to puffins. That morning, the conditions were perfect. Both fine rain and a soft light, so much appreciated by photographers, helped to take this picture. In order to get this angle from above the bird, I couldn’t make use of the tripod, as it could disturb the puffin. The photo had to be taken handheld, which added an extra challenge."

Lawrence Chia Boon Oo: "The Crow saw the Puffy Owl resting and decided to chase away the Owl from its territory."

Jacob Kaptein: "Last year I participated in the Marius van der Sandt Beurs. This scholarship stimulates photography by young photographers. For a whole year I was guided by some excellent nature photographers to realize a project I wanted to accomplish. I chose a natural stream restoration project of a nature organization in the Netherlands. The first time I entered this patch of forest, I immediately saw this little beech. I came back several times to photograph it. One evening, just after sunset, all the light conditions were perfect. I stood in the cold water for more than an hour making many photos while I experimented with different shutter speeds."

Alessandro Gruzza: "The first cold days of winter have frozen the surface of a pond, and the first snowfall has revealed its delicate beauty. In low-pressure conditions, southwest winds push the clouds against the vertical peaks of the Pale di San Martino. At dusk, a long shutter speed enhances the movement of the clouds around Cimon della Pala, one of the highest peaks in the Dolomites."

Santiago Borja: "An isolated cumulonimbus storm developed over the Pacific Ocean a few miles south of the coast of Panama City. It sat atop a temperature inversion that created a thick overcast layer of clouds. The strong updrafts of the storm quickly reached the tropopause and spread out, creating the characteristic anvil. The strongest updrafts pierced the tropopause and turned into what scientists call the overshooting tops. The entire frame was lit by a single lightning from within the storm in a moonless night on June 16, 2016."

Prasenjeet Yadav: "Anand Varma was visiting me and I was showing him around a mountain range in South India called the Western Ghats. We camped on the side of a road and I set up my Nikon D600 and a 24-70mm lens to take 15-second exposures. I set the camera to take 999 images. I slept next to the camera and it continued taking pictures until dawn. It wasn't until the next afternoon that I reviewed my images and noticed something unusually bright and green. I showed it to Anand, and we realized that I had captured an extremely rare event. After checking with a few experts, I learned that it was a green meteorite, and getting it on camera is very rare. This is an example of being at the right place at the right time to capture something totally unexpected. For those 15 seconds, I was the luckiest photographer on the planet."

Vadim Balakin: "These polar bear remains have been discovered at one of the islands of northern Svalbard, Norway. We do not know whether the bear died from starving or aging, but more likely if we see the good teeth status, it was from starving. They say nowadays that such remains are found very often, as global warming and the ice situation influence the polar bear population."

Chris McCann: "Eighty percent of the San Francisco Bay Area wetlands -- 16,500 acres -- has been developed for salt mining. Water is channeled into these large ponds, leaves through evaporation, and the salt is then collected. The tint of each pond is an indication of its salinity. Microorganisms inside the pond change color according to the salinity of its environment. This high-salinity salt pond is located right next to Facebook headquarters, where about 4,000 people work every day."

Eleanor Ryder: "This image is a magnification of plastic particles in eyeliner, exploring just one facet of the synthetic swarm suspended in our oceans. The particles, lash-lengthening fibers, illuminating powders, and glitters these products contain are in fact tiny pieces of plastic. Every time we wash these products from our bodies or ingest them as we lick the glosses from our lips, we unknowingly add to the trillions of microplastic particles currently infesting every level of the ocean. This photograph was taken at Falmouth University in Cornwall, United Kingdom, in May 2016 using a reflective photographic microscope with a stacking panoramic process to create the final image."

Sergej Chursyn: "A young woman in a bikini looks at an approaching forest fire near the beach. A firefighting plane drops water to extinguish the wildfire. This image was taken at the beach of Son Serra, on the island of Mallorca, on August 18, 2016."

Ken Bower: "In East Greenland's landscape lies Bluie East Two, a remote U.S. Air Force base from World War II. The base was abandoned in 1947 and everything was left behind: military vehicles, structures, 800-plus cases of dynamite and munitions, and over 10,000 aviation fuel barrels. The Inuits who live in the region call these rusted remains American Flowers. I made it to the base in 2014, but I had to return to photograph it again in 2015. I wanted to get there early in the season when there would still be snow on the ground to provide contrast."

Patty Waymire: "A solitary bear sits on the edge of Barter Island, Alaska. There is no snow when, at this time of year, there should be. The locals in Kaktovik noted that it's been an unseasonably warm winter, and that the ice will be late in forming this year. This will have an impact on the local polar bear population when it comes time to hunt seals for their food in the winter months."

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Colima Volcano, Mexico

General Carrera Lake, Patagonia

Lofoten Islands, Norway

Tavarua, Fiji

Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia

New Delhi, India

Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Kabukurinuma, Osaki, Japan

Tongi Railway Station, Gazipur, Bangladesh

Rio Tarcoles, Costa Rica

Whampoa Garden, Hong Kong

Tamba, Japan

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Stuttgart, Germany

Gardens of the Queen

Konya, Turkey

Gifu Prefecture, Japan

Besakih Temple, Bali

Grand Prize/First Place: Action

Second Place: Action

Third Place: Action

Honorable Mention: Action

First Place: Animal Portraits

Second Place: Animal Portraits

Third Place (A): Animal Portraits

Third Place (B): Animal Portraits

Honorable Mention: Animal Portraits

First Place: Landscape

Second Place: Landscape

Third Place: Landscape

Honorable Mention: Landscape

First Place: Environmental Issues

Second Place: Environmental Issues

Third Place: Environmental Issues

Honorable Mention: Environmental Issues

Honorable Mention: Environmental Issues

Honorable Mention: Environmental Issues

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