National Geographic’s Nature Photographer of the Year

The winners of National Geographic’s 2017 Nature Photographer of the Year have been announced. This year, Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan comes away with the grand prize for his wildlife photo, “Face to Face in a River in Borneo.”

Bojan’s winning photo was selected ahead of over 11,000 total entries for the coveted award. His image features a male orangutan peering from behind a tree as it is about to cross the Soyoner River in Borneo, Indonesia. To capture the image, Bojan waded out into the water to a depth of about five feet when he discovered the orangutan. He had an interesting take on the irregularity of the situation:

While looking for wild orangutans in Tanjung National Park, Indonesia, we witnessed this amazing sight of this huge male crossing a river despite the fact there were crocodiles in the river. Rapid palm oil farming has depleted their habitat, and when pushed to the edge these intelligent creatures have learned to adapt to the changing landscape. This is proof considering orangutans hate water and never venture into a river. I got into the five-foot deep river to get this perspective.

Bojan's photo not only captured the grand prize but also won first place in the wildlife category. The other categories in this competition were landscape, aerial, and underwater. The photos were judged on creativity, quality, and composition and were required to have been taken within the past two years. Minor editing was allowed, such as color correction, dodging, burning, and cropping. However, anything beyond basic adjustments to the image would disqualify it from the competition. 

For winning, Bojan will receive $10,000 and a feature in National Geographic’s magazine and Instagram page. The other category winners will each receive $2,500. Below are some of the other winning images of this year’s competition.