We received an overwhelming response to our Best Travel Photos of 2010 contest. With more than 2,000 photos submitted, including images of everything from wildlife to winter wonderlands, it wasn’t easy picking a Grand Prize winner. But in the end, the SmarterTravel editorial team voted, and there was one clear favorite. Congratulations to Robert_Arrington, who will receive a Nikon Coolpix L110 12.1 MP Digital Camera for his photo of Venice, Italy.
We also want to congratulate the nine honorable mentions, which appear in the gallery in no particular order. Each will receive a TSA-compliant travel kit. A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of you who entered. It was a joy to see the world of travel presented from so many different perspectives. If you didn’t win this time, there’s good news. We’ll be running brand new photo contests throughout 2011, starting with Your Best Caribbean Photos in January.
Now, without further ado, here are some details about the winning photo you see above. In photographer, Robert_Arrington’s words:
“On a recent visit to the magical city of Venice, Italy, I reunited with an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in 10 years. The city was suffocated with tourists by day but we had the city to ourselves late at night. Just after midnight my friend and I strolled to the famous Rialto Bridge which straddles the Venice Grand Canal. I set up my tripod on the Rialto Bridge and adjusted my camera for a 25 second time exposure. While the camera was exposing the shot, a water taxi, the “Vaporetto” sped across the water rushing excited tourists to their Venetian adventure. The long exposure revealed the Vaporetto as streaks of red and white lights across the water. It was a rare shot and one I will always treasure because of the magical location, the reunion with a dear old friend and now this photo contest!”
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Image Gallery
Small town in Croatia by blondieshome:
âFamily friends generously invited my wife and me to join them on a sailboat cruise of the Croatian coastline. We met them on [the] island town of Korcula and, on the following day, traveled to another island village of Lopud, just north of the large city of Dubrovnik. After securing the boat in the harbor, we rowed ashore to explore.
We ate ice cream sandwiches as we strolled through the village and eventually hiked into the surrounding hills to find remnants of ancient lookout towers and the remains of an equally antiquated place of worship. On the way back to the boat I snapped this picture. That evening we swam in the bay in water that was 29 degrees, then ate dinner watching the sun set over the village. In the morning, our captain rowed ashore and secured freshly baked bread for our breakfast. Ah, life is good.â
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Small town in Croatia by blondieshome:
âFamily friends generously invited my wife and me to join them on a sailboat cruise of the Croatian coastline. We met them on [the] island town of Korcula and, on the following day, traveled to another island village of Lopud, just north of the large city of Dubrovnik. After securing the boat in the harbor, we rowed ashore to explore.
We ate ice cream sandwiches as we strolled through the village and eventually hiked into the surrounding hills to find remnants of ancient lookout towers and the remains of an equally antiquated place of worship. On the way back to the boat I snapped this picture. That evening we swam in the bay in water that was 29 degrees, then ate dinner watching the sun set over the village. In the morning, our captain rowed ashore and secured freshly baked bread for our breakfast. Ah, life is good.â
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Katmai National Park, Alaska, by mdshd1957:
âKatmai National Park in Alaska contains the largest protected population of Brown (Grizzly) Bears in the world. It is only accessible by sea plane. There is an observation platform overlooking the Brooks Falls, where the bears congregate in the summer to feast on the salmon that are swimming up the Brooks River to their final spawning destinations.
What was memorable about the experience and really captured in this photo is the focused attention of the bears as they prepare to capture their prey. While each bear seems to have a favorite and individual technique for capturing salmon, they all seem to 'study' the salmon as they leap from the water in their attempts to traverse the waterfall and continue upstream. One really gets a sense of the rapt and focused attention of this particular male Grizzly bear just before he struck and caught his prey.â
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Patagonian Lake District, Argentina, by kylethevagabond:
"This photo was snapped in late November while on my honeymoon in the Patagonian Lake District of Argentina. We spent the day biking the Circuito Chico around Lago Nahuel Huapi, and while we were admiring the view from a bridge over the lake this kayaker came darting from beneath us, striding effortlessly towards the snowcapped horizon. It was all we could do to get the camera out fast enough to record the moment."
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South Dakota by bstreier:
âThis photo really spoke to me with its simplicity. Stark silence, and a feeling of being the only living soul left on this earth.â
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Big Sur by sol658:
âThough no photo can truly evoke the gorgeous, wild scenery of Big Sur, fortuitous timing at dusk helped to highlight the amazing textures and hues along the coastline. I like how this photo contrasts the warm colors of the angular cliffs against the cold, billowing waves below.â
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Grand Canyon by pne2970t:
"It's difficult to take a bad picture of the Grand Canyon, and sometimes something special happens that can attributed to simple 'luck.' After a leisurely drive up from Sedona, we checked into our hotel just before sunset. I was eager to show my wife the views of the Canyon which were just steps away from the lobby. Surprise, there, silhouetted against that magnificent backdrop was this mountain ram. I was able to snap this picture with my Nikon D80 moments before he disappeared down the rim."
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Arches National Park by shanchett:
âThis photo is special to me because of the beautiful location in Arches National Park where it was taken. The challenge of finding the perfect spot, lining up the rock formations and waiting for the perfect morning light to provide the wonderful orange glow is what I love about photography. The distant clouds help to add a sense of depth to the photo. I also love the way the foreground arch frames the distant arch formation and draws the eye to it.â
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Masai Mara Reserve by serena.nadina:
âThis photo was taken while I was volunteering in Africa and myself and some friends went on a four day Safari, a life long dream of mine. The baby in this photo was only weeks old and did not leave her mother's side. We watched them for several minutes and I felt this photo really captures the natural mother instinct. â
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Key West by nancydav:
âMy husband and I were on a short vacation in Key West for the first time. We are now both retired and are fulfilling our own 'bucket list.' We had always heard about the sunsets and naturally had to experience it for ourselves. We were sitting at the bar at the Ocean Key restaurant watching the sunset. This was one of our favorite pictures with the sun peeking out from behind the sail and the seagull along for the ride. We use it as our wallpaper on our computer to remind us of our great vacation.â
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