Grand Prize Winner In National Geographic Photo Contest
February 24th, 2015 - Colts Neck, NJ
COLTS NECK – When Colts Neck amateur photographer Mike Quinn submitted a photo he took five years ago to a National Geographic contest on Instagram, he didn’t expect to win.
“I thought it was a long shot, a very long shot,” he said.
But this month, that long shot changed and Quinn was told he won the grand prize – a trip for two to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
“It was pretty big of a shock,” he said.
Quinn, 29, said he found the contest on National Geographic’s online community Your Shot. While participants could enter as many photos as they wanted, Quinn said he only had one that fit the criteria.
The photo, taken in 2009 using a Kodak point-and-shoot camera, was from an airplane while flying over the Grand Canyon. Quinn told National Geographic that he took the photo when he was flying to Las Vegas and was woken up by the captain telling the passengers that they were flying over the national park.