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Our featured image – A long penguin standing in the surf on South Georgia Island – is by Max Seigal / National Geographic Photo Contest. This and the other images on this page are submissions to the 2013 National Geographic Photography Contest which is running until November 30 (11:59 pm Eastern Time to be precise).

More than 1,000 pictures have already been submitted by photographers from the four corners of the world. There are three categories in the competition – people, places and nature.

The grand prize winner will receive $10,000 (£6,217) and a trip to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington DC. And the winning photographs in each of the three categories will be published in National Geographic magazine. Here’s the page where you can submit your photographs: on.natgeo.com.

See 10 more beautiful images from the competition.

 

 

The picture is captured using special hide placed to the primeval forest in Finland. High trees offer protection to the brown bear cubs being vitally important to survive from all dangers around them.

Bear cubs are threatened especially by the other male bears, who might attack and take their lives without any doubt. Thus fast climbing on tree is one of the most important skills for bear cubs in order to survive and they are always ready for it.

 

 

In Lenin Park, set against the backdrop of the Hanoi Flag Tower which forms part of the Hanoi Citadel, Vietnamese children sparring in a game of badminton.

 

 

The name of the nun is Suor Rosalba, which literally could mean Pink Sunrise.

The hot sulphur waters of this lake made for an ideal early morning natural spa. I met Suor Rosalba as she was standing in the spa waters in the dark well before sunrise, we talked for a while and then the picture shows her leaving to go the first Mass of the day.

Taken in Sirmione, Lake Garda, Italy.

 

 

This little plant was struggling to survive in an extremely uninhabitable place, an abandoned train yard depot.

It’s surrounded by 30 years of rust, decay and toxins, no direct sunlight, very little water and no soil. All the things we are told plants need to survive. Yet this little plant has still risen up and even seems to glow!

 

 

A trabocco is an old fishing machine built from wood jutting out into the sea, from where two (or more) long arms called antenna stretch out suspended some feet above the water and supporting a huge net.

 

 

Autumn sun pours into Punch Bowl Falls to create some stunning atmospherics. I didn’t have long to capture the moving light beams so I frantically started shooting as soon as I arrived on the scene.

 

 

Russia, Baikal Lake, cape Pokoyniki. The cape is one of the most interesting places at the shore of Baikal Lake. “Pokoyniki” in Russian means “dead men”, the legend tells about Buryat settlement, suddenly died of unknown disease.

Another name of this cape – Pokoyniy, means “quiet”, because of the very quiet bay behind the cape. March, evening twilight, -20C.

 

 

Taken at Mishima town in Fukushima pref. The first train goes across the railway bridge through in morning mist. The train moves forward little by little slowly.

 

 

The Saidai-ji Eyo festival, considered one of the three strangest festivals of Japan, is a Buddhist ritual in which 9000 men compete to grab just a pair of sacred wooden batons to decide who will be the “Blessed man” for the year.

The over 500-year-old tradition of Eyo is based on an underlying understanding of the state of human life, greater than the ideals and trends of a single generation, and this idea has been cherished and passed down through the centuries.

About the author

Oonagh ShielContent Manager at Cheapflights whose travel life can be best summed up as BC (before children) and PC (post children). We only travel during the school holidays so short-haul trips and staycations are our specialities!

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