Meet The Winner Of nationwide Geographic’s shuttle picture Contest

On Monday, national Geographic introduced the winners of their twenty seventh annual traveler’s photo Contest. Tehuacán, Mexico-based totally photographer Anuar Patjane Floriuk took the grand-prize for his photo titled “Whale Whisperer,” a shocking underwater shot taking pictures a humpback whale and her new child calf.

Floriuk shot the successful photograph whereas on a trip with friends to Roca Partida, a tiny island off the coast of Mexico identified among deep sea divers as a major vicinity to spot hammerheads, manta rays, dolphins and humpbacks. In a stroke of fine good fortune, their diving team encountered a whale along with her calf that did not shy away from them. equipped with handiest a Sony RX100—a small however highly effective compact digicam—and a Inon huge angle moist lens, Floriuk was able to capture the humpbacks from simply feet away.

“I was once placed very near the head of the whale mother,” Floriuk writes in an e-mail. “all the surprising she and her calf began to swim towards the rest of the diving crew. I knew there used to be going to be movement—the divers had to transfer away—so I ready for the shot. All my attention and center of attention was concentrated on the physique of the mummy, and when she moved her fin to the aspect the composition gave the impression proper and that i clicked.”

The image is shot from below taking a look up at the glassy sea floor lit up by way of sunlight. The scattered divers striking suspended in the water seem like miniature collectible figurines beside the enormous mother humpback. (adult humpbacks can vary in length from 39–52 ft. and weigh as much as 79,000 lbs.) With a stark contrast between the darkness of the deep sea and the daylight above, the photo takes on the traits of an outdated tintype picture.

Floriuk says he barely tampered with the picture all through post-production—just a minor contrast adjustment and a switch to black & white. “I left all of the defects of the photograph, nothing used to be added or eliminated, that you could even see the aberration and distortion created through the lens and the depth of the sunshine coming from the surface,” he says. “I imagine that even the defects add to the power and effectiveness of the picture.”

As his first situation prize, Anuar received an eight-day photograph day trip for two to Costa Rica and the Panama Canal with a nationwide Geographic photographer and a workforce of photograph instructors.

Of the more than 17,000 entries that have been submitted, nationwide Geographic photo editors selected a 2nd and 0.33 position winner along with Floriuk, and 7 more identified on benefit. that you may view all 10 profitable pictures, with captions written by using their photographers, in the gallery above.