From erupting volcanoes and mountains at dawn, to vibrant colours of India's Holi Festival. Feast your eyes on the winning entries in this year's Wanderlust Travel Photo of the Year competition
Runner-up: Paddling along the turquoise Soca River in Slovenia (Rachael Tailford)
Location: Soca Valley, Triglav National Park, Slovenia
Photographed by: Rachael Tailford
Camera settings: Panasonic DMC-G10, 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 14mm, 1/200 sec @ f/5, ISO 100
Judges’ comments: “A lovely angle and clever perspective sums up the difficulty facing the subject, who is literally caught between a rock and a hard place. A great active shot.”
Winner: Two mountaineers meet the hospitality of a true Scottish winter (Alex Metcalfe)
Location: Cairngorms National Park, Scotland
Photographed by: Alexander Metcalfe
Camera settings: Olympus OM-D EM-5, Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 @ 30mm, 1/500 sec @ f/6.7
Judges’ comments: “Captures the full-on hardship of a white out – all bravery and zeal. And that’s just the photographer.”
Commended: The hot springs area at Myvatn in Iceland (Howard Angus)
Location: Namaskard, near Lake Myvatn, Iceland
Photographed by: Howard Angus
Camera settings: Canon D700, 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm, 1/8000 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 200
Judges’ comments: “Smoking stacks, boiling mud and frozen air are captured majestically, their raw grandeur emphasised in the lone silhouette dwarfed by the scene. A clever composition.”
Highly commended: Mount Bromo and Mount Semeru volcanoes spew ashes on the island of Java (Callie Chee)
Location: Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia
Photographed by: Callie Chee
Camera settings: Canon EOS 70D, 35mm, 1/15 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 100
Judges’ comments: “The highly active Mount Bromo and Mount Semeru have been shot many times, but this is just superb.”
Runner-up: Aerial view over the Ping River in Chiang Mai (Thomas Sweetman)
Location: Ping River, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Photographed by: Thomas Sweetman
Camera settings: DJI FC220, 26.3mm f/2.2 @ 4.73 mm, 1/320 sec @ f/2.2, ISO 100
Judges’ comments: “Pattern, composition and imagination. A clever idea that has been wonderously realised.”
Winner: The sunrise hours highlight the many peaks of Yellow Mountain in China (Callie Chee)
Location: Yellow Mountain, Anhui, China
Photographed by: Callie Chee
Camera settings: Canon EOS 70D, 11-16mm @ 12mm, 1/60 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 200
Judges’ comments: “The park where this shot is taken can be notoriously busy, so it’s all the more remarkable that this image appears as if the taker is the only person in the world. A worthy and magnificent winner.”
Joint highly commended: Rice workers in West Bengal, India (Sandipani Chattopadhyay)
Location: Habra, West Bengal, India
Photographed by: Sandipani Chattopadhyay
Camera settings: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4 @ 24mm, 1/4000 sec @ f/4, ISO 320
Judges’ comments: “As a composition, it is beyond compare. Utterly brilliant and marvellously conceived.”
Joint highly commended: Siesta in the shade, Cuba (Linda Wride)
Location: Australia, Matanzas Province, Cuba
Photographed by: Linda Wride
Camera settings: Nikon D750, 24-120mm f/4 @ 120mm, 1/800 sec @ f/4, ISO 500
Judges’ comments: “Gorgeous storytelling and a beautiful picture. I can practically hear his drums – and his snoring.”
Runner-up: Lost in travel in West Bengal, India (Indranil Sengupta)
Location: Sagar Island, West Bengal, India
Photographed by: Indranil Sengupta
Camera settings: Nikon D300, 10-20mm f/4-5.6 @ 14mm, 1/500 sec @ f/11, ISO 400
Judges’ comments: “What looks like a piece of flotsam – a lost sandal left behind during the sacred bath at Gangasagar Fair in West Bengal – is actually a really clever image, shot from a great low angle.”
Winner: Coloured powders of Holi Festival in Vrindavan, India (Sanghamitra Sarka)
Location: Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India
Photographed by: Sanghamitra Sarkar
Camera settings: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EF 24-105 f/4 @ 40mm, 1/2500 sec @ f/4, ISO 320
Judges’ comments: “Holi Festival is a popular subject for travel photographers, but therein lies the challenge – to stand out. This is just magnificent, and one of the best images of people this competition has ever seen.”
Commended: A kingfisher emerges from the river with a catch (Patrick O'Brien)
Location: Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland
Photographed by: Patrick O’Brien
Camera settings: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EF, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 153mm, 1/8000 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 10000
Judges’ comments: “Utterly brilliant – a flashing moment captured forever. A nano-second before or after and it is nothing."
Highly commended: Alpine frogs laying their eggs in springtime (Stefania Urbini)
Location: Aveto Regional Natural Park, Borzonasca, Liguria, Italy
Photographed by: Stefania Urbini
Camera settings: Nikon D300, 70-300mm, f/4.0-5.6 @ 260mm, 1/800 sec @ f/11, ISO 640
Judges’ comments: “This image of Alpine frogs laying their eggs in springtime is a beautiful use of a macro lens. The depth of field is spot on and the bokeh effect behind it is simply majestic.”
Runner-up: Two chinstrap penguins (Gunther Riehle)
Location: Half Moon Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica
Photographed by: Gunther Riehle
Camera settings: Nikon D300, 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 400mm, 1/800 sec @ f/11, ISO 200
Judges’ comments: “Patience is not a virtue but it is a must with an image like this. A simple, engaging and effective shot."
Winner: A pod of pilot whales (Viv Leese)
Location: Trincomalee, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
Photographed by: Viv Leese
Camera settings: GoPro HERO5, 1/180 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100
Judges’ comments: “You need to be fit and tough to get this magnificent shot of a pod of pilot whales – and you also need some luck. The degree of difficulty is high, as is the depth. Just superb all round.”
Highly commended: Mist shrouds the pontoon used for crossing while boatmen ferry passengers to where they can land (Ning Yu Pao)
Highly commended: It is part of Kumbh Mela that feeding the poor and homeless will bring good karma (Ning Yu Pao)
Highly commended: As the evening arrives, the multitude of Hindus waiting for a bath doesn’t cease (Ning Yu Pao)
Highly commended: Thirty million people will take a bath everyday for 55 days during Kumbh Mela (Ning Yu Pao)
Highly commended: Reading sacred Hindu scriptures as the sun sets over the horizon near a pontoon bridge that links both side of the Ganges in Allahabad (Ning Yu Pao)
Runner-up: Visitors at one of the 2017 Biennale Festival art exhibitions in Venice (Christopher Marsham)
Runner-up: Interactive visitor exhibition at the 2017 Biennale Festival in Venice (Christopher Marsham)
Runner-up: Visitors at one of the exhibitions in the 2017 Biennale Festival in Venice (Christopher Marsham)
Runner-up: It’s raining outside – art exhibition visitors at the Venice Biennale (Christopher Marsham)
Runner-up: Visitors interact with an Austrian art exhibition at the 2017 Biennale Festival in Venice (Christopher Marsham)
Winner: Children born in the Ramnami community are still required to be tattooed somewhere on their body (Sanghamitra Sarka)
Winner: Ramnamis wrote the Hindu god Ram’s name on their bodies as a message to higher caste that God is everywhere (Sanghamitra Sarka)
Winner: Ramnamis tattooed every inch of their body, right from their arms and legs to their eyelids and tongue (Sanghamitra Sarka)
Winner: Almost every Ramnami household owns a copy of the Ramayana epic poem (Sanghamitra Sarka)
Winner: Ramnamis first began tattooing their bodies and faces more than 100 years ago as an act of devotion and defiance (Sanghamitra Sarka)
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