Depicting everything from city streets to mountain scenery, the New York Photography Awards strives to honour, recognise and promote outstanding photographers, as well as budding talents from around the world. The competition is open to anyone aged over 18 and features a range of categories including Architecture, Nature and Wildlife. In the run-up to 2023's awards, we’ve selected some of our favourite travel images from the New York Photography Awards 2021 and 2022.

This perfectly timed shot by Tim Driman, which was a gold winner in 2021's Nature Photography – Wildlife category, shows a little bee-eater ready to capture its dinner in mid-air. The fast-moving bird typically catches insects such as bees and will often beat its prey to get rid of its stinger before swallowing it.

Captured on Penida Island just south of Bali, Kelingking Beach is famous for its breathtaking but also dangerous waves. Thrill-seekers often challenge themselves to race against the massive waves which can come out of nowhere, sometimes risking their lives for the adrenaline rush of beating the unpredictable waters, as captured in this winning shot from 2021's Seascape category.

Photographer Judith Kuhn won gold for this incredible image of Lómagnúpur in Iceland, in the Nature Photography – Seascape category in 2021. Formed over a million years ago, the spectacular rock rises around 2,516 feet (767m) high and is one of Iceland's most recognisable mountains. The striking red rock and green moss of Lómagnúpur's rocky cliff faces are beautifully mirrored in the waters below. 

A brief gap in the clouds and quick timing led to this stunning shot by Marc Le Cornu which earned him gold in 2021's Nature Photography – Aerial/Drone category. The mystical image depicts Eystrahorn, a little-known mountain in east Iceland. The light shines through the foggy clouds, illuminating the volcanic mountains and is a striking sight. 

Judith Kuhn won gold once again in 2021's Architecture Photography – Building category for this dreamy image of Steckborn in eastern Switzerland. A vibrant sunset paints the sky in a pretty palette of pink, purple, orange and yellow while the perfectly still reflection of the Museum at Turmhof and boats floating in the water looks more like a painting than a photograph.

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In autumn, Iceland's dark and clear skies are illuminated by a beautiful light phenomenon known as the Northern Lights (or aurora borealis). The dancing waves of light paint the inky blue night sky and tranquil waters in waves of vibrant green. Hsiaohsin Chen captured this stunning image as part of a series that won gold in 2021's Fine Art Photography – Night category.

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Autumn colours have transformed the pretty trees of the UNESCO-listed Foreste Casentinesi National Park in Italy in this image by Alberto Fornasari, a gold winner of the Nature Photography – Landscapes category in 2021. Maple, alder, chestnut, oak and beech have been given a fall makeover, carpeting the park in fiery reds, oranges and yellows while a pretty morning fog looms above the trees.

One of Europe’s most impressive waterfalls, Veliki Prštavac looks striking set against beautiful fall foliage in this image by Jaka Ivančič. A gold winner in 2021's Nature Photography – Seasons category, Ivančič took this perfectly timed shot in the Plitvice National Park in Croatia, best known for its equally as impressive namesake lakes.

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It's not easy to get the setting sun perfectly positioned behind the animals of Botswana, but photographer Tim Driman's patience paid off. Driman was lucky enough to get this incredible shot of an elephant throwing sand over itself, in front of a sunset near the Chobe River, winning gold in the Nature Photography – Wildlife category in 2021.

Another gold winner of the Nature Photography – Seascape category in 2021, Christina McBride captured this adorable image of a dolphin having the time of its life in the water, frolicking in the wake of nearby ships. The dolphin looks as if it’s flying through the air.

A hub for wealth, luxury and skyscrapers, the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai has an incredible roof terrace on the 42nd-floor that features spectacular views across the city skyline. A gold winner in 2021's Architecture Photography – Cityscapes category, Judith Kuhn captured Dubai at its best when the city lights start to sparkle and the dark blue sky is tinged with orange from the setting sun.

Sandwiched between Champfèr and Silvaplana in Switzerland, this dreamy image by Judith Kuhn depicts a pretty morning fog swirling over  Lake Champfèr in Engadin valley. A gold winner in the Nature Photography – Seascape category in 2021, the beautiful snowy mountains and trees reflected in the tranquil waters are simply breathtaking.

Olivier Jarry-Lacome snapped this incredible aerial image over Norway's Lofoten archipelago located in the Norwegian Sea. Around 95 miles (153km) north of the Arctic Circle, Lofoten is known as a great place to witness the Northern Lights, for its charming fishing towns, the midnight sun and its rugged, remote beauty. This awesome image won gold in 2021 in the Landscapes category.

Lighting illuminates the sky, painting it a vivid violet shade above the famous New York City skyline, striking the antenna of One World Trade Center in this well-timed image by Saso Domijan, winning him a gold award in 2021's Cityscapes category.

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Possibly one of the most enchanting places on Earth, some may recognise the Dark Hedges from the HBO epic series Game of Thrones. A silver winner in 2021's Nature Photography – Plants and Fungi category, Judith Kuhn has captured Northern Ireland’s famous tangled trees in the height of autumn, soaked in yellow, orange and brown hues.

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In this image by Giacomo Marchione, which won Gold in the Nature Photography – Underwater category in 2021, shoals of sardines swim along the reef off the coast of Cebu, an island in the Philippines. The swarms of fish can become so dense when disturbed that they can block out the sun, and move quickly creating these clouds of chaos.

Stuðlagil Canyon is a little-known natural wonder in the Jökuldalur glacier valley in east Iceland. Due to the Kárahnjúkar Power Plant causing water levels in the Jökulsá á Dal to decrease, the canyon has only recently emerged and has been regarded as one of the largest and most beautiful basalt column formations in Iceland. The eye-popping blue glacial waters stand out against the grey rocks, creating this striking shot by Judith Kuhn for the Nature Photography – Aerial/Drone category in 2021.

Tim Driman was dedicated when trying to snap this shot of an African darter on the Chobe River in south-central Africa. While floating on the river, Driman noticed the bird dive into the water and tracked the line of bubbles it left on the surface to see where it would emerge. As the bird's head popped up with a fish impaled on its beak, Driman waited until it expertly flipped the fish towards its throat and captured the perfectly timed image moments before the African darter swallowed its lunch, winning a gold award in 2021's Wildlife category.

Another enchanting image by photographer Alberto Fornasari as part of a series for 2021's Fine Art Photography – Landscape category, Val d'Orcia, a pretty valley region in Tuscany, is carpeted by thick fog at dawn. Fornasari wanted to capture the beauty of the magnificent landscape as the early morning light filters through the clouds, giving it a dreamy feel.

Taken in photographer Charlotte Piho’s backyard in the Cook Islands for the Nature Photography – Underwater category in 2021, a turtle takes a breath near the surface of the water. Piho found photographing the surface a lot more challenging than free diving but was lucky enough to capture this rare moment of stillness from the turtle.

Eerily beautiful, Kolmanskop is an abandoned town in the heart of the Namib desert in Namibia. It was one of the richest settlements in Africa thanks to its diamond rush in the early 20th century, however, the town was later deserted in the late 1920s after a bigger diamond deposit was discovered nearby. Now a ghost town swallowed by sand and nicknamed 'the forbidden zone', Kolmanskop has become a popular tourist attraction and photographer Romain Veillon managed to capture the beauty of the partially buried town, winning a silver award in 2021.

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Student Chai, Chun-Chuan travelled for hours and patiently waited at the beach in Tamsui in New Taipei City, Taiwan for this beautiful sunset shot, which won a Nature Photography – Sunsets award in 2021. The photographer had minutes to capture the perfect soothing sunset over the water, although the sun is slightly obscured by the clouds, its vivid orange hue is still the focus of the image.

Photographer Ranjan Ramchandani captured this stunning shot in the early morning and at the break of dawn in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Ramchandani spotted this male lion in the distance and waited until it moved into the frame, capturing the amazing predator basking in the light of the golden hour. It won a silver award in 2021's Wildlife category.

Photographer Avanka Fernando was out for an evening stroll in Sri Lanka when he spotted this green garden lizard in a nearby bush. Using an external light source, the colourful image captures the creature perfectly camouflaged against the yellowy-green leaves. The beautiful shot won a silver award in 2021's Wildlife category.

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Professional photographer Sarah AISharhan took this striking shot of a melanistic leopard, also known as a black panther, which won silver in 2021's Nature Photography – Wildlife category. AISharhan's image is a portrait of a leopard roaming in the jungle of the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in India. One of the rarest animals to see in the wild, according to naturalists at the reserve, the big black cat got the scar on his face from a fight with a male leopard, and is known to locals as 'Scarface'.

Amateur photographer Alex Pansier was Category Winner of the Year in 2021's Nature Photography – Macro category for this cool close-up captured in a forest in The Netherlands. With a little help from a flashlight, the well-timed shot shows a red ant mid-motion climbing on an autumn leaf.

A gold winner of the Special Category – Aerial Photography in 2021, this professional image is part of a series of wide-angle shots by Christiaan van Heijst taken from the cockpit of a 747 airplane suspended high above the Earth. The aurora borealis swirling over the starry night sky is just the icing on the cake of the incredible image.

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Another gold winner from 2021, this time in the Architecture Photography – Religious category, Judith Kuhn’s pretty image shows a lilac-hued winter scene in the village of Schwangau in southern Germany. The church of St. Coloman dominates the picture, with the beautiful mountains and trees in the background. 

Captured by nature photographer Alex Pansier in the south of The Netherlands, this abstract image, which was a runner-up in the Nature Photography – Macro category in 2021, shows a tree frog as he tentatively takes his next step.

Finland-based photographer Johanna Sjövall won silver in 2021 for this dramatic portrait taken as part of a series portraying horses as 'graceful and powerful'. The soft lighting beautifully highlights the horse and certainly showcases the beauty and elegance of the creature.

Christa Funk won gold in the Nature Photography – Adventure category in 2021 with this spectacular image of snorkeller Polly Ralda floating above a school of fish. Ralda stayed on the surface to observe the incredible underwater scene.

Professional photographer Christina McBride took this incredible image, which won gold in 2021's Fine Art Photography – Travel category, of the famous rock formation in Arizona’s Antelope Canyon. The beautiful rock gets its Lady in the Wind nickname due to its resemblance to a woman with her long hair flowing behind her as if it's blowing in the air.

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Observing chimpanzees in Uganda’s Kibale National Park proved to be a bit of a challenge for photographer Ingrid Vekemans. The chimpanzees were high up in the trees or moving fast across the forest floor, so Vekemans had to act quickly when the animals finally sat down for a moment. This chimpanzee looks remarkably human as it strikes a pose, perhaps wondering what to have for lunch. Vekemans won a silver award in 2021's Wildlife category.

Regarded as the deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal in Russia is shown here in all its glory in this winter image which earned photographer Hsiaohsin Chen gold in 2021's Nature Photography – Landscapes category. Chen took this beautiful shot as temperatures plummeted to -50°C (-58°F), causing the mammoth lake to freeze over and form the incredible icy bubbles and cracks pictured here, showcasing Mother Nature at its very best.

A combination of wind, fog and freezing temperatures created this winter scene of Javostnik hill in Slovenia, earning Jaka Ivančič a runner-up place in the Nature Photography – Seasons category in 2021. The ground remaining brown while the trees are covered in icy spikes is typical of this incredible weather phenomenon.

The Fine Art Photography – Pets category definitely produces the most adorable images. In this winning image from 2022, Slovakian photographer Lucia Drietomská papped her "best dog model", Tara, and a sheepish companion, stood side by side. Tara's collar perfectly matches the lavender blooms, while the direct gaze of both animals at the camera conveys their unique spirit: "shepherd and sheep are like best friends", said Drietomská. However, capturing the moment wasn't easy – it took 20 minutes to get both animals into exactly the right position.

The province of Ulgii in Western Mongolia hosts an annual Golden Eagle festival, which showcases the sport of hunting with eagles: integral to the culture of the region's ethnic Kazakhs. Photographer Peter Voss snapped this glorious image of a smiling child in traditional clothing as their hunting eagle flaps majestically atop a leather-gloved hand, winning a gold in 2022's People Photography – Children category.

The USA's desert landscapes offer some of the finest dark skies in the world: perfect for time-lapse shots of the stars. Pro photographer Craig Bill set up his camera at the foot of a jagged mountain and left it to capture thousands of long-exposure photographs in one night: this image is a composite of 700 separate images, showing off ancient star paths that have shone a light over the landscape since time immemorial. His efforts won him a gold award in 2022's Nature Photography – Time Lapse category.

While working on a shoot of the launch of a new tugboat service in the Channel Islands, photographer Marc Le Cornu had an idea. While flying a drone from a nearby pilot boat, he asked the captain of the ship in this stunning image to do a 'donut': i.e. a tight 360-degree turn. The boat's circular wake left a rose-shaped pattern in the water, and the image won Le Cornu a gold in 2022's Commercial Photography – Transportation category.

After three months in a lonely COVID-19 lockdown, photographer Nico Trinkhaus invited his friend over for dinner. They'd planned to step out onto Trinkhaus's balcony to capture the supermoon rising above the towers of Lisbon's iconic 25 de Abril bridge, but it almost didn't happen as the pair were enjoying each other's company so much. However, Trinkhaus's wife insisted the pair set up their cameras anyway and neither were disappointed with the resulting shot: Trinkhaus writes that "for a moment, it looked like the Lisbon Bridge just installed a huge lightbulb". Perhaps unsurprisingly, it won a gold award in 2022's Architecture Photography – Bridge category.

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