The 10 winning photos from National Geographic's 2015 Traveler Photo Contest

It's not an easy task to narrow down 17,000 images taken by intrepid world travelers - but that's what National Geographic has just finished doing for its 2015 Traveler Photo Contest.

The contest, in its 27th year, is divided into four categories: Travel Portraits; Outdoor Scenes; Sense of Place; and Spontaneous Moments.

Images were evaluated through two rounds where both creativity and photographic quality were taken into consideration.

Grand-prize winner Anuar Patjane Floriuk, who won with a dynamic whale image, said the photo wasn't even planned. "I was taking photos near the head of the whale, and all of a sudden she began to swim toward the rest of the diving team," he told National Geographic. "The divers gave the whale and her calf space, and I just clicked at the moment when the flow and composition seemed right."

Captions below were written by the photographers.