Grand Prize Winner of Smithsonian Magazine’s 2012 Photo Contest

The morning this photo was taken was unusually quiet, Olesen says. “I was about to pack my bags I heard this juvenile Spectacled Spiderhunter (Arachnothera flavigaster) calling ‘chi-chit, chi-chit,’ trying to attract the attention of its parents above while flapping its wings.” Olesen snapped as many shots possible before the bird flew away seconds later. “[It was] the highlight of my Borneo Trip.”

Taken with a Nikon D3. Photo by Bjorn Olesen.

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Ed note: Check out the category winners from our photo contest here.

Photo of the Day: A beautiful Lynx in the Snow

An Editors’ Pick from our 2012 Photo Contest.

Photo by Ken Conger (Lanexa, VA); Denali National Park, Alaska

Photo of the Day: Medieval Adalaj Stepwell, Gujarat

An Editors’ Pick from our 2012 Photo Contest. 

Photo by Bornav Raychaudhury (Pune, India); Gujarat, India

Photo of the Day: Eruption of Mount Bromo in Indonesia

An Editors’ Pick from our 2012 Photo Contest 
Photo by Weiseng Chen (Puchong, Malaysia);  Mount Bromo, Bromo-Tengger National Park, Java, Indonesia

Photo of the Day: An Editors’ Pick from our 2012 Photo Contest.  Snowy Owl - Ontario, Canada 

Photo by Ryan Vince (Keswick, ON, Canada); Keswick, Ontario, Canada

Announcing the Winners of Our 9th Annual Photo Contest

Our editors pored over more than 67,000 photographs, each one a postcard from a unique time and place.

Ed note: Check out Smithsonian.com to see the rest of the winners!

Deadline for our 9th Annual Photo Contest is tomorrow!

Enter your photograph by December 1 at 2:00 p.m. ET for your chance to win. Last year we had nearly 12,000 contestants from all over the world submit more than 52,000 entries. Finalists for this year’s contest will be announced on March 1, 2012. Good luck!

Pictured: Last Year’s Grand Prize Winner, Prakash Hatvalne, “Indonesian artists make a few final touches before performing”