2017 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year

“Scared of Heights” Taken from the highest residential building in Asia: The Zenith in Busan. This was taken with official permission (which took me months to get) and safety measures were taken. I had to hang myself over the edge to get this shot. Not for the faint of heart! But when you're at a height like this, the world below you just seems a different world. It takes away the fear one would normally have, and gives a sense of peace instead. (Photo and caption by Albert Dros / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year)

It's the final week to enter the 2017 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest, and as a special treat, Nat Geo's editors have released some of the incredible entries from the Cities category. After previewing the Nature and People entries, it's interesting to see how world-class photographers interpret our urban environments.

Photographers have up to June 30, 2017 to submit to one of these three categories, with the winner taking home a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Archipelago with National Geographic Expeditions. Whether looking at the symmetry of cities from high in the sky or capturing the mystical spirit of a foggy morning, each image tells the unique tale of its environment.

Heights seem to be a popular theme, whether through the aerial photography of Andy Yeung or climbing atop the highest residential building in Asia for a shot that will inspire vertigo. Through its three sections, the photography contest paints a multi-dimensional image of the natural world, the people who inhabit it, and what they are capable of building.

Check out more editors' selections from the Cities category of the 2017 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest.

2017 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year cities

“NYC Light II” A Manhattan sunset captured from Queens across the East River. Part 2 in a New York trilogy called NYC Light. (Photo and caption by Lars Sivars / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year)

“MotherBoard City” Hong Kong is one of the highest population destiny city in the world. This city is full of sky-high buildings yet surrounded by lots of mountains. If you go up to the top, you will see a motherboard like a structural design of the whole city. The buildings seem like computer servers, whereas the main roads are the connecting cables of different servers. People are like data, transferring from one side to another side. (Photo and caption by Ho Lam Cheng / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year)

“Uummannaq” Uummannaq is a small island in Greenland, home to about 1200 people. It was really a treat waking up with such views on the colorful houses, with the icebergs in the fjord as a backdrop. They say you leave a piece of your heart behind when you leave Uummannaq… it is true. (Photo and caption by Rayann Elzein / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year)

“Walled City #08” The Kowloon Walled City was the densest place on Earth. Hundreds of houses stacked on top of each other enclosed in the center of the structure. Many didn’t have access to open space.This notorious city was finally demolished in the 1990s. However, if you look hard enough, you will notice that the city is not dead. Part of it still exists in many of current high-density housing apartments. I hope this series can get people to think about claustrophobic living in Hong Kong from a new perspective. (Photo and caption by Andy Yeung / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year)

“Levels of reading” The city library in Stuttgart. (Photo and caption by Norbert Fritz / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year)

National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year - Cities

“Moonlightning” Lightning strikes lower Manhattan as a summer storm approaches a moonlit New York City skyline. (Photo and caption by Christopher Markisz / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

“Vibrant Life on Commercial Street” “The aim of life is no more to control the mind, but to develop it harmoniously; not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here now; and not to realize truth, beauty and good only in contemplation, but also in the actual experience of daily life – Bhagat Singh”. Vibrant street shoppers enjoying their daily lives during Ramadan in Commercial Street, Bangalore. (Photo and caption Nikhil Rasiwasia / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

“The Fog and Mist in Hong Kong” When warm winds bring the promise of Spring from the southern ocean and begin to mingle with the last remnants of Winter, sea fog anchors around the harbors. This photo captured the stunning view of the sea fog at the Kwai Chung Container Terminal. Where sea voyages end at the harbor, layers of sea fog draw in, only the cranes of the container ships and the twin towers of the Stonecutters Bridge project through the swirling mist. (Photo and caption by Edward Tin / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year)