Over 5,000 entries were entered into this year’s annual National Geographic Student Photo Contest. Twenty-eight finalists were selected, one of them being Lafayette’s own senior Isabel Donovan. After her great-grandfather passed, two years ago Donovan and her family decided to go on a trip to Tanzania, Africa to pay tribute to said relative.

“[My great-grandfather] and my grandparents loved to travel so we felt that it would be a good memorial to him,” Donovan said.

Donovan captured her finalist photo while on their trip. Her grandfather followed National Geographic stalwartly and encouraged her to enter.

“I’ve never done a contest like this before. It’s really cool that my picture got into the finals.”

The selected photo was one of many of Donovan’s entries. Her grandfather suggested she send in the Unsatisfied Scavenger photo because of the depth displayed within the photo. “The layers I think make it a good photo overall. There’s something going on in every frame and you get to see the animals interact with each other naturally, unlike what you’d see in the zoo.”

Donovan likes to practice photography as a hobby. She took the courses Photography 1 and Photography 2 at Lafayette and hopes to pursue photography in college on the side.

Voting for the contest ends Feb. 28 and the polls are still open on the National Geographic website.