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Travel Photographer of the Year: The winning pictures

Travel Photographer of the Year: The winning pictures

BBC News31-01-2025

The top pictures from the 2024 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY) have been revealed. The competition celebrates the beauty of different cultures and landscapes. More than 20,000 pictures were sent in from photographers from more than 150 countries. Now that's a lot of competition!Let's take a look at some of the wonderful winning pictures, from adults and young photographers too.
The overall Travel Photographer of the Year 2024 winner, Piper Mackay, takes her photos using infrared, which captures wavelengths not visible to the human eye. TPOTY founder Chris Coe said: "They are beautifully composed, celebrating both indigenous women and wildlife on the African savanna."Piper, who lives in Kenya, said: "This award completes my life's passion and work across Africa for more than two decades. There is no higher honour!"
Young photographers shine
The competition also celebrates the stars of the future through the Young TPOTY awards. This year the winners and placed photographers come from six different countries. The awards' first overall winner from China was 14-year-old Raymond Zhang.Raymond took the title of Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2024 for his portfolio of an old steam train and its drivers in the heart of the action.
The winner of the Young TPOTY 14 years and under category is Leonardo Murray from Australia. He shot his winning images of sand dunes on a trip around Namibia with his father, who is a professional photographer.
The winner of the Young TPOTY age 15-18 was Maksymilian Paczkowski. He captured this fantastic photo of a partridge - which he says can be quite rare to see in Poland. To get the picture he had to wait, camouflaged, for the bird to appear. He said: "Photographing it against the rising sun, I also captured steam rising from its beak."
The runner-up in the Young TPOTY age 15-18 was Vlad Paulet.He took this photograph at Cuejdel lake in Romania.Vlad said: "Trees reflected in the lake create a beautiful view and, if you are lucky enough, you can also have a little fog on the surface of the water."
The winner for best single image in Wildlife, Nature and Underwater portfolio was Joshua Holko from Australia. His picture shows a Pallas cat lying flat in the snow at first light.This is their method for camouflage after most likely being out hunting all night. The cat is covered in frost due to the freezing temperatures of the Mongolian winter.

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