Grand Prize winner and wildlife first place: Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan. A male orangutan peers from behind a tree while crossing a river in Borneo, IndonesiaJayaprakash Joghee Bojan/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017
The photo, titled "Face to face in a river in Borneo," was captured by Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan of Singapore, and was chosen by the judges from more than 11,000 entries. He wins $10,000 (£7,500) and will have his winning image published in an upcoming issue of National Geographic magazine and featured on the @NatGeo Instagram account.
Bojan took the winning photo while he was about five feet deep in water after waiting patiently in the Sekoyner River in Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo, Indonesia. He said: "Honestly, sometimes you just go blind when things like this happen. You're so caught up. You really don't know what's happening. You don't feel the pain, you don't feel the mosquito bites, you don't feel the cold, because your mind is completely lost in what's happening in front of you."
Contestants submitted photographs in four categories – Wildlife, Landscape, Aerials and Underwater – through National Geographic's photography community, Your Shot.
Karim Iliya of Haiku, Hawaii, won first place in the Landscapes category for a photo from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park; Jim Obester of Vancouver, Washington, won first place in the Underwater category for a photo of an anemone; and Todd Kennedy of New South Wales, Australia, won first place in the Aerials category for a photo of a rock pool in Sydney at high tide.
Aerials winner: Todd Kennedy. In Sydney, Australia, the Pacific Ocean at high tide breaks over a natural rock pool enlarged in the 1930s. Avoiding the crowds at the city’s many beaches, a local swims laps.Todd Kennedy/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Landscapes winner: Karim Iliya. Shortly before twilight in Kalapana, Hawaii, a fragment of the cooled lava tube broke away, leaving the molten rock to fan in a fiery spray for less than half an hour before returning to a steady flow.Karim Iliya/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Underwater winner: Jim Obester. Blue-filtered strobe lights stimulate fluorescent pigments in the clear tentacles of a tube-dwelling anemone in Hood Canal, WashingtonJim Obester/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Wildlife second place: Alejandro Prieto. An adult Caribbean pink flamingo feeds a chick in Yucatán, Mexico. Both parents alternate feeding chicks, at first with a liquid baby food called crop milk, and then with regurgitated foodAlejandro Prieto/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Aerials second place: Takahiro Bessho. Snow-covered metasequoia trees, also called dawn redwoods, interlace over a road in Takashima, Japan.Takahiro Bessho/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Landscapes second place: Yuhan Liao. Sunlight glances off mineral strata of different colours in Dushanzi Grand Canyon, China.Yuhan Liao/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Underwater second place: Shane Gross. Typically a shy species, a Caribbean reef shark investigates a remote-triggered camera in Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen marine protected areaShane Gross/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Wildlife third place: Bence Mate. Two grey herons spar as a white-tailed eagle looks on in HungaryBence Mate/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Aerials third place: Greg C. On the flanks of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, the world’s only lava ocean entry spills molten rock into the Pacific Ocean. After erupting in early 2016, the lava flow took about two months to reach the sea, six miles away.Greg C/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Landscapes third place: Mike Olbinski Photography. A summer thunderstorm unleashes lightning on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.Mike Olbinski Photography/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Underwater third place: Michael Patrick O'Neill. Buoyed by the Gulf Stream, a flying fish arcs through the night-dark water five miles off Palm Beach, FloridaMichael Patrick O'Neill/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Wildlife honourable mention: Lance McMillan. A Japanese macaque indulges in some grooming time on the shores of the famous hot springsLance McMillan/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Aerials honourable mention: Agathe Bernard. Migratory gulls take flight from a cedar tree being washed downstream by a glacial river in British Columbia, CanadaAgathe Bernard/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Landscapes honourable mention: Gheorghe Popa. Morning fog blurs the dead trees of Romania’s Lake Cuejdel, a natural reservoir created by landslides.Gheorghe Popa/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Underwater honourable mention: Jennifer O'Neil. Preparing to strike, tarpon cut through a ribbon-like school of scad off the coast of Bonaire in the Caribbean SeaJennifer O'Neill/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Wildlife people's choice: Harry Collins. A great grey owl swoops to kill in a New Hampshire fieldHarry Collins/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Aerials people's choice: David Swindler. Green vegetation blooms at the river’s edge, or riparian, zone of a meandering canyon in Utah.David Swindler/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Landscape people's choice: Wojciech Kruczyński,. Sunset illuminates a lighthouse and rainbow in the Faroe Islands.Wojciech Kruczyński/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017Underwater people's choice: Matthew Smith. A Portuguese man-of-war nears the beach on a summer morning. Thousands of these jellyfish wash up on Australia’s eastern coast every year.Matthew Smith/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017
All of the winning photos, along with the honourable mentions, may be viewed at natgeo.com/photocontest.
