When I saw the winners of the National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year had been announced, I knew there would be some outstanding images of the natural world around us. The categories were Natures, Cities and People. Below are eight of my favourites, sourced from The Daily Telegraph. You can find out more about the winners, prizes and the high calibre of other entries at The National Geographic website.
Sergio Tapiro Velasco of Mexico won the title with this dramatic shot of the Colima Volcano.
These astonishing marvel caves were taken by Clane Gessel in Patagonia, a place that covers Chile and Argentina.
Reynold Riksa Dewantara managed to show us a spectacular increase of seismic activity on Mount Bruno in India.
Taken in Konya, Turkey, this neatly framed shot by F. Dilek Uyar captures the dance of the Whirling Dirvishes. It is a symbol of Mevlevi culture, which teaches that human beings are born twice.
Rodney Bursiel took this perfectly judged image of professional surfer of Donovan Frankenreiter when in Tavarua, Fiji.
Moin Ahmed’s delightful photograph was taken at Tongi Railway Station in Bangladesh.
The city library in Stuttgart, Germany is one of the most modern, well-designed and well-lit book havens you’ll see. Norbert Fritz frames it neatly.
Tarun Sinha was in Costa Rica when she saw the possibilities available with colour and texture of crocodiles at Rio Tarcoles.
Alex Raphael 
Oh my gosh these are all brilliant!
The volcano photo is a deserving winner.
I don’t think you’ll find too many arguments. I love lightning too. Most of my desktops growing up. Even the odd poster too.
I follow various travel and earth photography pages on Twitter and Instagram, and I tend to like the lightning photos as they are brilliantly timed and fascinating.
It’s seen better days but this is the one I had on my wall for years. Never survived uni but liked the image too much to get rid of it.
Awe inspiring
Just makes you want to pick up a camera and go and travel the world.
Frankereiter is a terrific surfer! He and Jack Johnson are buds, and terrific musicians. That’s a really great shot!
Technically speaking and in terms of timing you could argue it’s the best one. I don’t think you can argue too much with the winner though. Best non-Beach Boys surfing song? The Drums’ ‘I wanna go surfing?’
No, that volcano shot is unreal!
Awesome to see the winners ~ I want to visit that library!! 🙂
You and me both! I hope you had a nice one growing up.
Those caves are unbelievable!
I know. An incredible sight. Can you imagine seeing that in person?
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