A vacation gem

Occasionally while on vacation you run across something unexpected.  When we wandered into the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History's exhibit of the Windland Smith Rice International Awards, I knew we stumbled onto a vacation gem!.

I had never heard of this competition, but apparently it's an annual photography competition that was launched in 1996.  The top winners in each photographic category as well as a few of the Highly Honored images are showcased in an exhbit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural Science's Special Exhibit Hall located in Washington, D.C.

These images are enlarged and printed to a size from 2 x 3 foot to nearly 4 x 6 foot.  The images themselves are outstanding, but when viewed in this large format, they are simply incredible.

The Winland Smith International Awards exhibit will be displayed until March 2014. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is  located on the National Mall, 1000 Madison Drive, NW, Washington, DC.  It is open every day of the year (except December 25) and is FREE to the public!