Happy Snaps

After a valiant start at keeping up my blogging, I've had a poor couple of weeks mainly due to a particularly hideous illness that managed to spread through our entire household and then was passed round a second time just for good measure. I'm now pleased to report that I am once again back to my normal self and ready to get back to this blogging malarkey. 'Hurrah!' I hear you cry!

There are three things in my life that I so wish I was good at but, alas, am terrible. These are:
1. Singing (in my head I sound like Alicia Keys - apparently I'm the only one that hears it like that)
2. Cooking (truly inedible nearly every time)
3. Photography

Despite my lack of ability at all of the above, I still retain a keen interest in all of them (if watching X Factor every week counts as a 'keen interest' in singing?!). So, when I noticed that National Geographic were holding their annual photography contest, I couldn't help but take a flick through the entries. Needless to say, I did not enter.

What's most interesting about these photos is often the story behind them. Here's a few of my favourites. Take a look at all of this year's entries here.

'Fishing' by Stan Bourman.

'My Friend the Giraffe' by Ashleigh Haworth. Taken in Glen Rose, Texas.

'Ballerinas, Berlin' by Maria Helena Buckley. A cast of ballerinas prepare to take to the stage.

'Supercell Thunderstorm' by Sean Heavey. A supercell thunderstorm works its way across a Montana prairie at sunset.

'Unsafe Journey' by Amy Helene Johansson. A woman finds a quiet spot on a packed train from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to return to her hometown to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.

'Simple Joy' by Brian Yen. Taken in the slums of Bacoload, Philipines.