National Geographic's Found Tumblr Blog

This year, National Geographic Society is celebrating its 125th anniversary. Over its long history of exploration and education, the institution has collected thousands of images taken by their esteemed photographers. As part of its year-long celebration, National Geographic launched its Nat Geo Found, a Tumblr blog which features a collection of its visual treasures.
The Found blog is part of Nat Geo's 125th anniversary showcase, with black-and-white as well as color photographs that have never been published by the magazine. The blog is National Geographic's attempt to share more of its treasure trove of priceless photos to more audiences around the world. Most of the images on the blog have short descriptive captions, but Nat Geo welcomes viewers to share their own insights about the pictures.

More of National Geographic's amazing old photographs can be found on the Nat Geo's Found Tumblr Blog. For more entries about the National Geographic, take a look here.

The National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 Winners

With the new year comes the chance to recap the best entries of the previous year. National Geographic, one the leading publications in photojournalism, continues to encourage the tradition of excellence in professionals and amateur photographers alike with its photography competitions. Here are National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 winners.

This year saw the National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 accept some 22,000 entries from 150 countries, from beginners to professionals, all hoping to be recognized in at least one of these three categories: People, Places and Nature. Each of these categories had a winner, with honorable mentions included. A Grand Prize Winner was selected out of all of the categories and entries combined. A Viewers' Choice was also selected for each of category. Overall, there were 13 top photographs selected by the judges.

The winners of the Places category were Nenad Saljic, Indra Swari Wonowidjojo, and Adam Coish. The People category winners included Micah Albert, Wendell Phillips, Ulrich Lambert, Kwan Ka Shing, and Kai-Otto Melau. The Nature category winners were Ashley Vincent, Fransisca Harlijanto, Jason Ching, Eric Guth, Micheal Eastman, and Sanjeev Bhor, with the Grand Prize going to Ashley Vincent.

There was some controversy this year as one of the original winners, Harry Fisch, was disqualified shortly after he was informed of his winning entry. After mailing the contest organizers a copy of his original photograph, his entry was disqualified as it seemed he had edited the photo against the rules of the competition.

Fisch had edited out a small plastic bag in a scene he captured in Varanasi, India. Unfortunately, the competition rules state that "only minor burning, dodging and/or color correction is acceptable", and Fisch's edit was considered a major image edit. This just goes to show how even a small edit can affect even the best entries into a photo contest.

The full gallery of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 winners can be found here. For a very related photo contest, check out the winning entries to the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012.

The National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012 Winners

One of the most iconic organizations of photojournalism is National Geographic. The documentary institution has produced some of the best photographers of this generation, and continues to inspire newcomers to the medium. With the influx of new photography enthusiasts over the last few years thanks to more affordable camera equipment, National Geographic has opened up its website to amateur photojournalists with its Travelers Magazine and recognized the best of amateur photography. These images are the winners of the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012.

The 2012 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest saw over 12,000 photographs from 6,615 photographs from all around the world. These entries were individually screened before they were cut down to the final 11 winners: two from each category with one Viewer's Choice selection. The categories are Travel Portraits, Outdoor Scenes, Sense of Place and Spontaneous Moments.

The First Place Winner was "Butterfly" by Cedric Houin, which depicts a traditional nomadic Kyrgyz family living in juxtaposition with technology. Vo Anh Kiet won Second Place with "My Balloon" showing H'mong children play with their balloons on a foggy day. Third Place went to Andrea Guarneri with "Devotees" showing a Christian Passion scene in Trapani.

Other Merit Winners include "Looking into Another World" by Fred An, "Lost in Time - An Ancient Forest" by Ken Thorne, "Underwater Surf" by Lucia Griggi, "Bagan Bliss" by Peter DeMarco, "Old Men with Djellaba" by SauKhiang Chau, "The Village of Gásadalur" by Ken Bower and "Swimming in the Rain" by Camila Massu. The Viewers' Choice went to Michelle Schantz with "Huset".

The full gallery of winners and other entries can be seen on the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012 page. If you'd like to see more National Geographic goodness, check out National Geographic: The Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series), National Geographic Image Collection, and In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits.