National Geographic magazine named the winners of the annual travel photo contest

National Geographic magazine has summed up the results of the Traveler Photo Contest. Within three months, the organizers looked through about 18,000 photos, and now three winning shots have been named.

Participants competed in four categories: Open Spaces, Sense of Place, Spontaneous Moments and Travel Portraits. We offer you to see the winning pictures and a number of photos that claimed the victory.

(Total 10 photos)

Whale Whispers, Anuar Patthane, 1st place, Open Space category. The picture shows divers and a female humpback whale with a calf off the coast of Mexico.

Quarry Workers, Faisal Azim, runner-up, Travel Portraits category. Photo taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

"Camel Dance", Ahmed Al Toki, third place, category "Open spaces". The shot was taken at a camel race in Oman.

"Sauna in the Sky" by Stefano Zardini. Sauna at an altitude of 2800 meters in the heart of the Dolomites, Italy.

"Romania, Fairyland", Eduard Gutescu. Frost on the trees near the village of Peshtera, Romania.

Night in Deadley, Beth McCarley. These trees in Namibia are about 900 years old, but they have not rotted because the Namib desert is very dry.

"White Rhinos", Stefan Berube. The photo was taken in Uganda.

"Indian Kushti Wrestling" by Alan Schroeder. After the fight is over, the wrestlers stay in the clay pit and give each other massages to relax their muscles and show mutual respect.

Duck Catching, Sarah Wouters. The photo was taken in Nong Khai Province, Thailand.

"Mountain dwellers", Bartolomej Yuretsky. Haymaking in Poland.