National Geographic contest winners

The winners of the 2009 National Geographic International Photography Contest have been selected by a panel of judges from over 200,000 submissions.

There were three competition categories, with one winner and two honorable mentions each for the subjects of People, Places, and Nature. The final selection contained entries by photographers from the Americas, Europe, the Indian sub-continent and Asia.

Debra Jansen won the People category with her shot of a serene 97-year-old woman waiting patiently for a bus outside a petrol station in Georgia, USA, resplendent as she was in a peacock-colored shawl and coat, with a bright silk scarf offsetting her drab surroundings.

Hugo Machado of Portugal rose to the top of the Places category with his intriguing shot of the Licancabur volcano, straddling the border of Chile and Bolivia, touched by a flattened streak of cloud at its peak.

William Goodwin was awarded first place in Nature with a piece of technical and compositional brilliance, a delicate upside-down underwater close-up of a shrimp exploring a sponge.

Winners and weekly selections are available to view at http://www.ngphotocontest.com