The 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year contest drew more than 13,000 entries from photographers around the world, judged in three categories: Nature, Cities and People. The grand prize, worth $10,000, went to Reiko Takahashi of Japan for "Mermaid", an underwater portrait of a humpback whale calf. The judging panel included Whitney Johnson, National Geographic's vice president of visual experiences, and polar photographer Camille Seaman.
Below are ten standout images from that year: category winners, People's Choice picks and an honorable mention. For each one we explain where it was taken, what is happening in the frame and why it works. Together they show what the judges were rewarding: patience, an unusual viewpoint, and the ability to turn a place into a feeling.
Nature: whales, sand towers and flamingos
1. "Mermaid" by Reiko Takahashi (Grand Prize, Nature)
Takahashi was snorkelling off Kumejima Island in Okinawa, Japan, on her first day there when she met a humpback whale and her calf. The curious calf swam close, lifting and slapping its tail near her, before its mother moved it away. The frame captures the tail fluke hovering in blue water like the fin of a mythical creature, which gave the picture its name. Humpbacks gather in the warm waters around Okinawa in winter to give birth and nurse their young.
2. "Mars" by Marco Grassi (Third Place, Nature)
These are not on another planet but in South Tyrol, northern Italy: the Earth Pyramids of Platten. The tall clay columns form where a boulder shields the soft glacial sediment beneath it from rain, while everything around erodes away. Storms, landslides and alternating wet and dry seasons keep reshaping them, so old pinnacles collapse as new ones rise. Grassi's warm light and tight crop give the scene its Martian look.
3. "Flamingos Take Off" by hao j. (Second Place, Nature)
Shot from a helicopter over Lake Natron in Tanzania, this image shows a flock of flamingos running across the shallow water before lifting off. Their legs leave patterns of ripples behind them. Lake Natron is a highly alkaline soda lake and one of the most important breeding grounds for lesser flamingos in the world.
4. "Formation" by Niklas Weber (People's Choice, Nature)
Weber launched his drone over the Río Grande de Tárcoles in Costa Rica after spotting what he called a fantastic formation of crocodiles. From above, the reptiles line up in the brown water like a squadron. The Tárcoles River is famous for its large population of American crocodiles, which tourists often watch from a road bridge nearby.
Cities: rain, fog and crowds
5. "Another Rainy Day in Nagasaki" by Hiro Kurashina (First Place, Cities)
Kurashina took this from inside one of Nagasaki's vintage trams, which had been fitted with modern ticketing so that only a driver was needed. Through the rain-streaked window, a quiet main street stretches ahead. The lone driver, the soft colours and the empty seats give the picture a gentle, melancholy mood that the judges rewarded with first place in the category.
6. "Reflection" by Gaanesh Prasad (Third Place, Cities)
Prasad wanted to photograph Dubai's morning fog from a rooftop, but was refused access. He shot through a window on a lower floor instead, and the glass reflected the road and towers back into the scene. The result layers the real skyline, the fog and its mirror image, a good example of a constraint becoming the idea.
7. "Alone in the Crowds" by Gary Cummins (Honorable Mention, Cities)
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places on Earth, and Cummins contrasts its stacked housing with an empty shared space below. As a solo traveller, he said the image reflected his own feeling of being alone among millions. The repetition of windows makes the single empty area feel even quieter.
8. "Traveling to Heaven" by Trikansh Sharma (People's Choice, Cities)
A lone cyclist crosses a long suspension bridge that disappears into thick fog, so the far end seems to dissolve into white. The black-and-white treatment reduces the scene to cables, lines and one small human figure. It is easy to see why voters responded to the title: the bridge appears to lead nowhere but up.
People: twins and a red dress
9. "Leida and Laella: I Will Lift You Up" by Tati Itat (Second Place, People)
In Estrela, in southern Brazil, Itat befriended several Haitian immigrant families. Here, twin sisters Leïda and Laëlle pose against a pale blue wall in white dresses, playing a game of make-believe in which one gently lifts the other's chin. The picture is warm and theatrical at once, and it gives a face to a migrant community rarely seen in travel photography.
10. "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" by Daniel Cheung (People's Choice, People)
A small girl in a red dress runs through an immersive light installation, surrounded by thousands of coloured points reflected in a mirrored floor. The bright red against the cool lights makes her the focus at once. The title borrows the name of a well-known Japanese story, later a 2006 anime film by Mamoru Hosoda, about a girl who discovers she can jump back in time.
What made these photos stand out
Look across the ten images and a few patterns emerge. Several were taken from above, by drone or helicopter, a viewpoint that had become far more common in contests by 2018. Others turn a limitation into a strength: Prasad's locked rooftop, Kurashina's rainy window, Cummins's feeling of loneliness. And the strongest of them, like Takahashi's whale, depend on patience and luck in equal measure.
If you want to improve your own travel photos, these are useful lessons. Shoot in weather other people avoid. Look for one human figure to give scale to a big scene. Learn the story of a place, such as why the Platten pyramids stand or why flamingos gather on Lake Natron, so you know what you are looking at before you press the shutter.
These images are a record of one particular edition of the contest, and all rights remain with the photographers named above.
Sources: PetaPixel: The winning photos of Nat Geo's Travel Photographer of the Year 2018; My Modern Met: 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners; Design You Trust: 2018 winners and People's Choice selections. Photos © the individual photographers / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year 2018.
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