National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

Photo © Tsolmon Naidandorj-All Rights Reseved

Despite my antipathy for photography contests, I always keep an eye on two; TPOTY (The Travel Photographer Of The Year) and The National Geographic.

The winners of The National Geographic Photo Contest were announced this week, with the grand prize awarded to Shikhei Goh for his capture of a dragonfly riding out a rainstorm in Indonesia. As usual, National Geographic has featured winning photos from this year's contest on its website. The contest judges this year were National Geographic magazine photographers Tim Laman, Amy Toensing, and Peter Essick.

I had a look at the submissions and the results, and (although not a nature photographer) agree that the photograph of the dragonfly is worthy of a recognition, but I do not agree with judges' choices for the finalists of the People category.

Had I been a judge, I would have chosen the Kazakh Hunter by Tsolomon Naidandorj as one of the finalists in the People category.  It's exotic, it's dynamic and it's powerful and well composed.

Winners of the National Geographic Photo Contest are also featured on In Focus, the photo blog of The Atlantic.