Editors, USA TODAY
Published 4:30 p.m. ET Dec. 15, 2017 | Updated 4:37 p.m. ET Dec. 15, 2017
A flying fish swims at night in the Gulf Stream current off of Palm Beach, Fla. (Photo: Michael O'Neill, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
A photo of an orangutan crossing a river in Indonesia’s Tanjung Puting National Park is the top image from National Geographic's 2017 Nature Photographer of the Year contest .
The photo, titled “Face to face in a river in Borneo,” was captured by Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan of Singapore. He won $10,000, and his image will be published in National Geographic magazine and featured on the @NatGeo Instagram account.
Bojan took the winning photo while he was 5 feet deep in water after waiting patiently in the Sekoyner River. He said: "While looking for wild orangutans ... 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 learnt to adapt to the changing landscape. This is proof, considering orangutans hate water and never venture into a river."
"Sometimes you just go blind when things like this happen," Bojan said. "You’re so caught up. You really don’t know what’s happening. You don’t feel the pain, you don’t feel the mosquito bites, you don’t feel the cold, because your mind is completely lost in what’s happening in front of you.”
Judges selected winners for four categories: wildlife, aerials, landscapes and underwater. First-place winners in each of the categories received $2,500.
Wildlife First place/grand prize:
"While looking for wild orangutans in Tanjung Putting 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 learnt to adapt to the changing landscape. This is proof considering orangutans hate water and never venture into a river. I got into the 5-foot-deep river to get this perspective."(Photo: Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
A male orangutan peers from behind a tree while crossing a river in Borneo, Indonesia. Photo by Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Second place:
Pink flamingos feeding their young at a nesting area in RÌo Lagartos, Mexico.(Photo: Alejandro Prieto, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
An adult Caribbean pink flamingo feeds a chick in Yucatán, Mexico. Both parents alternate feeding chicks, at first with a liquid baby food called crop milk, and then with regurgitated food. Photo by Alejandro Prieto, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Third place:
In winter, water birds gather around the holes on the frozen lake. Some catch fish, while the rest are determined to steal fish from the others or even catch water birds. White-tailed eagles are always looking for an opportunity to steal, and they manage to confront and fight with everyone.(Photo: Bence Mate, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Two grey herons spar as a white-tailed eagle looks on in Hungary. Photo by Bence Mate, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Honorable mention:
A macaque being groomed at the Jigokudani snow monkey park in Japan. The park has become a major tourist hot spot, attracting visitors from all over the world hoping to get a glimpse of these amazing creatures huddled together in hot springs. But because of the warmer than usual weather during this time, the macaques were frequently found lazing about on some nearby rocks.(Photo: Lance McMillan, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
A Japanese macaque indulges in some grooming time on the shores of a famous hot springs. Photo by Lance McMillan, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
People's choice:
A great gray owl hunting rodents in a field in New Hampshire. This bird was a rare visitor to this area and was worth the 7 1/2 hour drive to see it. The owl was not baited or called, and this photo was taken during a natural hunt.(Photo: Harry Collins, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
A great gray owl swoops to kill in a New Hampshire field. Photo by Harry Collins, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Aerials First place:
A rock pool in Sydney, Australia, at high tide. Waves crash over the edge. A long swimmer is undeterred.(Photo: Todd Kennedy, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
In Sydney, Australia, the Pacific Ocean at high tide breaks over a natural rock pool enlarged in the 1930s. Avoiding the crowds at the city’s many beaches, a local swims laps. Photo by Todd Kennedy, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Second place:
An aerial shot of metasequoia trees.(Photo: Takahiro Bessho, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Snow-covered metasequoia trees, also called dawn redwoods, interlace over a road in Takashima, Japan. Photo by Takahiro Bessho, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Third place:
Molten Earth meets the ocean on the flanks of Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. A perspective not seen until the advent of drones, this interaction between lava, water, and time contributes to the buildup of an island chain.(Photo: Greg C., 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
On the flanks of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, the world’s only lava ocean entry spills molten rock into the Pacific Ocean. After erupting in early 2016, the lava flow took about two months to reach the sea, 6 miles away. Photo by Greg C., 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Honorable mention:
"As I was en route for a scientific survey, I saw this majestic cedar that had been washed out by a glacial river into the ocean. I asked the pilot to get closer and tilt the helicopter so I could take a photo looking straight down. As we flew over, a flock of white birds passed by."(Photo: Agathe Bernard, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Migratory gulls take flight from a cedar tree being washed downstream by a glacial river in British Columbia, Canada. Photograph by Agathe Bernard, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
People's choice:
Utah's canyons are quite impressive as you're walking through the bottom. But they are equally extraordinary when viewed from above. On this image, you can see the many twists and turns this canyon has cut through the sandstone. The bottom of the canyon is full of riparian vegetation and is a whole different world from that above it.(Photo: David Swindler, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Green vegetation blooms at the river’s edge, or riparian, zone of a meandering canyon in Utah. Photograph by David Swindler, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Landscapes First place:
"This is nature in its most raw form: Hot liquid rock from the belly of our planet spilled over the side of these sea cliffs, exposed to the air for a brief moment before plummeting through a lava tube under the ocean. There were hissing sounds and explosions as it hit the water. This is how the Hawaiian islands are made."(Photo: Karim Iliya, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Shortly before twilight in Kalapana, Hawaii, a fragment of a cooled lava tube broke away, leaving the molten rock to fan in a fiery spray for less than half an hour before returning to a steady flow. Photo by Karim Iliya, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Second place:
"Different types of metallic minerals make the canyon so splendid."(Photo: Yuhan Liao, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Sunlight glances off mineral strata of different colors in Dushanzi Grand Canyon, China. Photo by Yuhan Liao, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Third place:
I "have tried and failed so many times trying to get lightning after dark at the Grand Canyon. ... It's a 3.5-hour trip one way to just sit in a spot and wait and wait and wait and not only hope for a storm to pop up, but for it to be out over the canyon and also to not rain on you. So many things have to come together for it to work out. And on this night, it did."(Photo: Mike Olbinski, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
A summer thunderstorm unleashes lightning on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Photo by Mike Olbinski Photography, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Honorable mention:
Dead trees in a natural dam, from an enchanted forest.(Photo: Gheorghe Popa, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Morning fog blurs the dead trees of Romania’s Lake Cuejdel, a natural reservoir created by landslides. Photo by Gheorghe Popa, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
People's choice:
Kalsoy Island and Kallur lighthouse in sunset light, Faroe Islands.(Photo: Wojciech Kruczynski, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Sunset illuminates a lighthouse and rainbow in the Faroe Islands. Photo by Wojciech Kruczyński, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Underwater First place:
Tube dwelling anemone that fluoresces when stimulated with blue light.(Photo: Jim Obester, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Blue-filtered strobe lights stimulate fluorescent pigments in the clear tentacles of a tube-dwelling anemone in Hood Canal, Wash. Photo by Jim Obester, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Second place:
Typically a shy species, a Caribbean reef shark investigates a remote-triggered camera in Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen marine protected area.(Photo: Shane Gross, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Typically a shy species, a Caribbean reef shark investigates a remote-triggered camera in Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen marine-protected area. Photo by Shane Gross, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Third place:
A flying fish swims at night in the gulf stream current far offshore.(Photo: Michael O'Neill, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Buoyed by the Gulf Stream, a flying fish arcs through the night-dark water 5 miles off Palm Beach, Fla. Photo by Michael Patrick O'Neill, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Honorable mention:
"Shot in Bonaire, this photo of tarpon hunting on a school of scad does not show the real predator lurking outside the shot. That's the fishermen who were allowed to net this beautiful bait ball. The netting practices need to be revised by the marine park and there needs to be more education for locals, or pristine moments in the sea like this will not be here in another generation."(Photo: Jennifer ONeil, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
Preparing to strike, tarpon cut through a ribbon-like school of scad off the coast of Bonaire in the Caribbean Sea. Photo by Jennifer O'Neil, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
People's choice:
"A Pacific man of war navigates close to the beach on a summer's morning breeze. Thousands of these nautical sailors end up washed up on Australia's east coast every summer. They are my favourite shade of blue."(Photo: Matthew Smith, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)
A Portuguese man-of-war nears the beach on a summer morning; thousands of these jellyfish wash up on Australia’s eastern coast every year. Photo by Matthew Smith, 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
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