2012 Nat Geo Photography Contest Winners

Much the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words” actually loses meaning in the face of the winning photographs in the 2012 National Geographic Photography Contest. The prize-worthy photographs are breathtaking in their representations of the natural and constructed environments of this Earth. The Grand Prize went to a work titled “The Explosion” but destruction had no place in this photograph; instead, the magical capture of Busaba, an Indonesian tigress, shaking off water from her damp fur warranted the recognition. Mystical landscapes, man dwarfed by nature’s grandeur, and subjects from land, air, and sea populate the photographs to remind of the chance miracles just a camera shutter away.