The National Geographic Society has selected its 100 favorite photos of the year. The images, which will be published in the December issue of the magazine, include the first photograph ever taken in space and a time-lapse video shot from a window of an airplane.
“This was our most difficult challenge yet,” said Susan Goldberg, editor in chief of National Geographic magazine. “The photos were so good that choosing a top 10 was incredibly hard.”
This year’s photographs ranged from intimate portraits and environmental portraits to stunning landscapes and scenes from daily life around the world.
Taken by photographers from several countries, the images included a portrait of a young girl with her hair illuminated by colorful strings; an aerial view of hundreds of Star Wars figurines on a beach in Thailand; and an underwater image showing a shark swimming near divers’ legs inside a cage.
“I think that one of the fruits of travel is to know how small we are. It’s good to see how other people live, because it puts our lives into perspective.”
— Paul Theroux
National Geographic’s annual list of the 100 best photos of the year reveals a world full of art and culture, natural beauty, and fascinating events. The pictures capture what happened in 2011, but they also show us how beautiful our planet can be. We’ve picked out some of our favorites at National Geographic.
* This year’s collection included everything from stunning portraits to striking nature scenes to powerful images from war zones.* One picture showed a woman sitting on top of a horse in the middle of a raging flood.* Another picture showed children in India celebrating Diwali by riding on motorcycles through a park near their homes.* Several images showed animals interacting with humans, including one picture that showed a man snorkeling next to a group of dolphins swimming through a river in Brazil.* Another image showed an underwater photographer swimming with several wild dolphins in Australia.* An image showing dozens of birds sitting along the top of an electric power line was another popular shot among readers.* This year also saw some incredible portraits, including one shot that captured two girls dancing together at night in India.* A
In the spirit of National Geographic’s “100 Best Photos of the Year,” we’ve decided to compile our own list of top nature photos. And so we give you, in no particular order, our “Top 100 Nature Photos of 2011.”
These photographs were taken by amateur and professional photographers who were either lucky enough to be at the right place and time or who had the skill to capture a once-in-a-lifetime shot.
The Top 100 Nature Photos Of 2011:
1) In Deepest Depths of Ocean, 2) Heart’s Desire, 3) The Flying Fish Underwater!, 4) Green Sea Turtle Hatching, 5) Manta Ray’s Playful Shadow, 6) A Portrait of the Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens), 7) The Emperor Penguin Chick, 8) Tuna Swimming Close Up, 9) Beautiful Flower Spider (Mecynogea lemniscata), 10) Northern Cardinal Blackbird (Cardinalis cardinalis), 11) Kestrel on Windshield Wiper Blade, 12) Pink Flower Tree Frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor), 13) Monarch Butterfly Over Snowfall, 14) Confused Young Seal Pup in the Pacific Northwest, 15) Crow
The 100 best photos of 2013 were unveiled on National Geographic‘s website today with the magazine’s editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg saying that the annual list celebrates “our capacity to be dazzled by the world around us.”
This year’s top 100 pictures include images of a frozen river in China, a beluga whale underwater off the coast of Canada, a sunset in Australia, a little girl playing with bubbles in Brazil, a snowboarder falling down a hill and a nun sweeping at the Vatican.
The top ten pictures for 2013 (in reverse order), as revealed to AFP by Goldberg, are:
It’s worth noting that there are no photos from Syria included in this list. “We’re not ignoring that story,” Goldberg said. “Photographers have been covering it, but we didn’t feel like we could do it justice given how many other stories were out there this year.”
Because of this, Goldberg said, they’ve dedicated an entire section to the coverage of Syria and that any photo that is not included in the top 100 could be found under those marks.
The remaining 90 photos will be posted over the next few days on National Geographic’s Instagram feed and its website.
We are especially interested in the many beautiful images of nature, animals, people and places that have been submitted for consideration for the annual National Geographic Photography Contest.
The contest, now in its eighth year, is open to anyone who has an interest in photography, from amateurs to professionals. The winner of each category receives $2,500 and a trip to Washington D.C. to attend the annual National Geographic Photography Seminar.
Taken during the past 12 months, these 100 photos represent the very best of more than 137,000 submissions sent in by photographers from around the world. Here you will find photos of dazzling beauty and astonishing intimacy that capture the breadth of human experience.
The collection of some of the most amazing photographs taken in 2014.
National Geographic has recently unveiled the results of its yearly photo contest. And as usual, we are left astounded by the beauty, and power, of photography.
Here is a selection of some of our favorites from over 10,000 entries.
The winners were selected from a short list of just 20 finalists; you can see the rest here.
This year I will be starting my journey with NatGeo, this is a photo a day project that I am doing and working on. This is the first photo in the series…
I will be traveling to India, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and many other places taking photos of the people, landscapes, architecture and the things that make this world so beautiful. I will also be getting some advice from some of the best photographers in the world.
Tune in everyday to see what photo I choose for that day!
