National Geographic is currently holding its annual photo contest, with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30. For the  past nine weeks, the society has been gathering and presenting galleries  of submissions, encouraging readers to vote for them as well. National  Geographic was kind enough to let me choose among its entries from 2011  for display here on In Focus. Gathered below are 45 images from the  three categories of People, Places, and Nature, with captions written by  the individual photographers. 
1. Many people pilgrimage to Uluru, but what is seen there often depends on where you've come from. (© Robert Spanring)  
   
5. This image captures almost 6 hours of climbing parties on Rainier going  for the summit under starry skies. Wind shifts during the night would  cause bands of smoke from fires 100 miles away on Mt Hood to pass over  Rainier. This intermittent low-level haze caused the red glow seen in  the sky and a Rainier that looks like it was almost painted on. Lights  from Sunrise can be seen in the lower right of the frame. (© Chris Morin)   
   
6. Russia, polar region of West Siberia, Tazovsky Peninsula. Reindeer  breeding is one of the basic means of employment for the indigenous  population of this region. All pieces of land suitable for pasture are  assigned to families of reindeer breeders, or Sovkhoz brigades. Reindeer  grazing freely in search of reindeer lichen overnight can disperse  across few kilometers. Here, the foreman of the shepherds examines a  herd with the aid of binoculars. (© Dmitriy Nikonov)   
   
7. An adult male gelada rests in the early morning light after ascending  the steep sleeping cliffs of the Simien Mountains, Ethiopia. This male  won his right to mate by successfully deposing the old leader. Now he  must defend his harem by tending to his females' needs and fighting off  anxious bachelors waiting for their chance to become harem leader. (© Clay Wilton)   
   
8. An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh,  Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to  escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and  the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became  cocooned in spiders webs. People in the area had never seen this  phenomenon before, but they also reported that there were less mosquitos  than they would have expected, given the amount of standing water that  was left. Not being bitten by mosquitoes was one small blessing for  people that had lost everything in the floods. (© Russell Watkins)   
   
10. This place is very special to me. The fèllensee is placed at the bottom  of the hundstei (dog stone). I know this might sound silly, but since  my dog and I grew up just around the corner and the naming of the  mountain, I chose this very calm lake as a final resting place for Spock  (my dog) so he would have the biggest gravestone of all dogs out there.  That morning we had a farewell ceremony for Spock. I took this picture  and we summited the hundstei to his honor (which was a very emotional  challenge).  This picture of his resting place is now hanging in our  kitchen to remember him. (© Nino Benninger)   
   
13. Spark trails from cannon blast captured at the Moorpark Civil War  reenactment, sponsored by the Moorpark Rotary Club. Soldiers manning the  cannon were silhouetted due to a large light behind them shining down  on the battlefield. The large flood light made it possible to also see  the smoke from the cannon blasts. (© Robert Jensen)   
   
18. This a portrait that I took of my Grandfather. He was a photographer  and I wanted to show all his wonderful old cameras and his life in an  editorial styled portrait. He just turned 95 years old and still  remembers how all his old camera's work. I shot this with my cannon 7d  body,and Tamron 17-55mm zoom lens. The lighting is with a 1200w Pro  photo 2 head kit with 2 medium soft boxes. As well I used a 580 ex2  canon speed lite and diffused it with a paper lantern that I made into a  diffusion for my speed lite. I really love this picture and hope you  like it as well. (© Christopher Bellezza)   
   
19. Death valley averages just 1.58 inches of rainfall a year. Yet somehow,  in my first trip there in four years, we catch a storm. Not just a  storm, an electrical storm. At sunset, of all times. This was the reward  for years of trips gone awry, blank skies, drenching downpours, and for  every other cause of failed photography endeavors. To me, this is an  example of the best thing that can happen to a photographer. To be in  the right place, at the right time - and to not mess it up too badly. (© Jeff Engelhardt)   
   
20. Within an ultra modern society Japan still maintains to hold traditions  passed down from generation to generation making it one of the most  beautiful and intriguing places in the world. The city of Gion in Kyoto  is one of those places that you will walk into and forget about all the  flashing lights the rest of Japan has to offer. Its brick paved streets  holds some buildings that have been maintained like the old traditional  Japan. If you're lucky you will catch a glimpse of a beautiful geisha  passing through the streets scurrying to her next appointment, make sure  you have your camera ready. (© Clancy Lethbridge)   
   
25. This image was taken in wintertime in an arid area of the Canadian  Rockies. Temperatures were below 30 degrees Celsius, yet because there  was no snow fall the surface of the lake was uncovered allowing me to  see and capture the bubbles (gas release from lake bed) that were  trapped in the frozen waters. (© Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris )   
   
28. One morning while on the Big Island of Hawaii, I was exploring my  surroundings to see if I could find something to photograph. I almost  went back inside when something on this huge palm tree leaf caught my  eye. I stayed around and it was this little gecko, startled by my  presence he was hidden between the ridges of the leaf. He would pop his  head up periodically to check his surroundings; as soon as he saw I was  still there he would hide again. We played this game for a while until I  got the shot. (© Lorenzo Menendez)   
   
35. Pinki Kundu,a 13 yrs old girl is suffering from a chronic disease &  is being treated in Mother Teresa TB Hospital in Kolkata. She is under  CAT 1 drug therapy & is doing well.The day I photographed her she  was very hopeful mood that she would be returning back to her parents  soon. (© Saibal Gupta)   
   
38. The Himba Women of northern Namibia perfome daily rituals where by they  annoint themselves with a mixture of ochre, oil and ash to protect  themselves from the harsh desert climate. They never take a shower, but  rather burn aromatic herbs in a pot each morning with which they smoke  themselves as if applying perfume. (© Dominique Brand)   
   
45. I have been trying to follow a leopard with cubs for the last year, and  spend a lot of nights with them. She has no tracking device, so when I  find her I try to stay with her as long as possible. On this particular  evening a brown hyena stole her kill (a springbok ) and was sitting on a  rock ledge with the moon rising behind her. I lit her eyes up with a  torch to make it a bit more mysterious. (© Hannes Lochner)   
   

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