Something to Lighten the Mood

I LOVE photography, and always found many of the shots National Geographic captures to be through provoking, if not at times breaktaking. Here is something I hope you enjoy from the 14th Annual National Geographic photo contest. Please check out all the pictures by clicking on the link.

 

Merit Prize Canon EOS Rebel 2000 35mm Camera with 28-80mm Zoom lens and a copy of the National Geographic Photography Field Guide.

Thomas Cooper, of Waukee, Iowa, braved "balmy" -25 (°F) temperatures to photograph newborn polar bears in Manitoba's Wapusk National Park. "But don't get too close to them," he warns. "You're basically a walking Popsicle to a mother polar bear who hasn't eaten in five months."

 

 

First Prize 17-Day Chinese Cultural Journey, from Beijing to Hong Kong, for two. (Trip courtesy of National Geographic Expeditions and American Airlines.)

Devotion is the pose struck by these two novitiate monks at the Dhitsripaya Monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar. But when first approached by Dacho Buranabunpot, the boys were markedly less serene. "They were running around and playing—doing just about everything but praying," says Buranabunpot, who had been taking sunrise photos from Sagaing Hill, across the Irrawaddy River, when he spotted these spirited novices and asked them to pose for him carrying alms bowls. "My favorite places for taking pictures are Chiang Rai and Sukhothai, in Thailand, and Myanmar," explains Buranabunpot, who lives in Bangkok. "The people here are lovely, very photogenic, and happy." A third-prize winner in Traveler's 12th-Annual Photo Contest (and a merit winner in our tenth), Buranabunpot began taking pictures at age nine and dreams of shooting vast animal migrations across the Serengeti Plain in Tanzania and Kenya. "I love photographing action," he says.

 

 

 

Merit Prize Canon EOS Rebel 2000 35mm Camera with 28-80mm Zoom lens and a copy of the National Geographic Photography Field Guide.

Kieron Graham Nelson, of Sarnia, Ontario, has been shooting for nine years and is drawn to "vanishing cultures" of Africa and Southeast Asia. "This photo was taken in a Long-neck tribe village in Mae Hong Son, Thailand. I spent days interacting with the people, waiting for the perfect shot."

7:27:15 PM