Nature's Best Photography: Best of the Best (John Reiter)

© John Reiter / Nature's Best Photography Awards. Courtesy of Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
October 27, 2015
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© John Reiter / Nature's Best Photography Awards. Courtesy of Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History opened “Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards Presents: The Best of the Best” Saturday, Oct. 24. The temporary exhibition features more than 100 large-format prints selected from nearly 500,000 images submitted over 20 years by photographers from around the globe for the annual Nature’s Best Photography: Windland Smith Rice International Awards. Photos in the exhibition include dramatic landscapes, exciting wildlife and surprising glimpses of Earth’s icy peaks to mysterious ocean depths. The exhibition will remain on display through October 2016.

Mountain Gorilla, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

By John Reiter, Mahwah, New Jersey, USA

My guide and I had climbed for hours up a 10,000-foot-high volcanic mountain through bamboo rainforest until we found ourselves within about 20 feet of a family of endangered gorillas in their natural habitat. Observing this nearly 500-pound, chest-beating silverback was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.

© John Reiter / Nature's Best Photography Awards. Courtesy of Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE TO EDITORS: This photo can only be used in all media if in conjunction with the promotion of the exhibition and the appropriate credit information is used in its entirety for the corresponding image. Higher resolution .tiff files can be accessed via the following Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x1cachtm1ntuxz8/AACW_nQxzfnJMF75qcAREr0Ua?dl=0