Traveler Photo Contest Winners

Just out in Traveler's January/February issue: the results of the Traveler "World in Focus" photo contest. The Grand Prize winner, "Behold," was taken by Geoff Pingree of Oberlin, Ohio. Pingree, a professor of Cinema Studies and English at Oberlin College, took this photograph at Madrid's Prado Museum, which was staging theatrical performances inspired by masterworks by Spanish artists. "The photo shows performers playing Spanish King Philip IV and his second wife, Mariana of Austria," he said.

Pingree won a 15-day trip for two to Antarctica aboard the National Geographic Endeavor; our other prize winners snagged a 5-day trip for two to The Cliffs Preserve in Patagonia, Chile, a 7-day photo workshop in Oaxaca, and great photo equipment from Nikon. Again this year, Traveler partnered with Photo District News on the ultimate travel-photo contest. More than 4,000 amateur shutterbugs entered 14,647 images in our World in Focus competition.

If you want to improve your photo skills in time for next year's contest, check out the upcoming Traveler Photo Seminars with some of National Geographic's top photographers. For example, Ralph Lee Hopkins and Bob Krist will be divulging their secrets to making great portraits, landscapes and festival photos, as well as incorporating audio in your slide shows, in a seminar called "The Versatile Travel Photographer" in January and February taking place in DC, LA, Chicago and Kansas City. (Hint: getting the shutterbug in your life tickets to a session is a great holiday gift).

Even professional photographers who attend these seminars say they learn something new each time. Here's a short video excerpt from one of last year's seminars with NG photographers Jim Richardson and Catherine Karnow, who teach a seminar called "A Passion for Travel: Photos That Tell the Story."

Photo by Geoff Pingree, National Geographic Traveler World in Focus Photo Contest Winner