National Geographic 2012 PHOTOS OF THE YEAR! |

National Geographic has just announced the winners of their coveted Photos of The Year Contest, the competition covers three topics–Nature, People and Places. Nat Geo trudged through 22,000 entries that spanned more than 150 countries,

These images were then judged on “creativity and photographic quality” by a panel of experts comprised of natural history photographer Christian Ziegler and documentary photographers Gerd Ludwig and Debbie Fleming Caffery.

The image above of the Indochinese Tigress was taken by Ashley Vincent, who was award the Grand Prize of $10,000 as well as a trip to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual National Geographic Photography Seminar in January 2013.

Take a look at winners below and see the honorable mentions here.

Photo: Nenad Saljic