Reflecting the Ages

Photograph by Paul Weeks, National Geographic Your Shot

"While in Beijing last year, my travel buddy and I stumbled out of our hotel around 5 a.m. and began walking in search of a location to shoot the sunrise," writes Your Shot contributor Paul Weeks . "After a few miles we discovered this great reflective angle along one of the long corners of the Forbidden City's outer walls. I'm not sure why it's called that, seeing as you can get inside for just a few yuan, but I do know that this structure is very old. Built in the 1400s, it has seen many people come and go at this very location."

This photo was submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

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The Sunflower

Photograph by Bernardo Cesare , National Geographic Your Shot

Your Shot community member Bernardo Cesare counts this submission, a photomicrograph of an ocean jasper from Madagascar, among his favorites. Cesare had put thin sections of jasper under a microscope, and "They turned out to contain a microscopic garden of flowers," he says. This shot was "by many named the Sunflower."

Read more about the process of creating this image in a recent Your Shot: Spotlight interview with Cesare.

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Mourning in Romania

Photograph by Tiplea Remus , National Geographic Your Shot

Funeral ceremony, Romania

"The composition and perspective work together very well here. I like how the delicate flowers so neatly placed on the tombstones mirror the crowd of people, the specks of color echoed in the clothes of the mourners. It feels almost as if we are witnessing a metamorphosis of sorts." Alexa Keefe, Photo of the Day editor

This photo was submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

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A Study in Pink

Photograph by Ken Dyball , National Geographic Your Shot

"We took off in a Cessna from a little dusty airstrip just beside Lake Turkana in northern Kenya," says Your Shot contributor Ken Dyball. "We had waited out the heat of the day so we could use the soft afternoon light. [After] about five to ten minutes flying south, we encountered these flamingos flying over Lake Logipi."

This photo was submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Get tips on taking aerials and using special techniques »

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Here Be Dragons

Photograph by Stefano Unterthiner, National Geographic

An adult Komodo dragon hangs out near Indonesia's Komodo village. With people living inside the dragon-protecting Komodo National Park and poorly marked boundaries for wildlife habitat, encounters with lizards are inevitable. Most end without injury.

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Northern Lights

Photograph by Christian Nesset , National Geographic Your Shot

Night view of Sunndals ra, Norway, a town surrounded by spectacular mountains

"I love seeing the pulse of life cozily tucked away between the sleeping mountains. Energy and serenity come together here in a pleasing way." Alexa Keefe, Photo of the Day editor

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Get tips on photographing the night sky » See the magic of illuminated scenes »

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Hungary Birds

Photograph by R ka Zsimon

On a good day in the field, a birder might see a flock of birds, writes photographer R ka Zsimon of this photo of great egrets in the tidal area of the Danube in Hungary. The image received an honorable mention in the Nature category of the 2013 National Geographic Photo Contest .

This photo was submitted to the 2013 National Geographic Photo Contest .

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Predawn Offering

Photograph by Alex Webb, National Geographic

Before dawn during India's Maha Kumbh Mela the largest religious festival in the world an old woman performs puja, a ritual offering to the gods. Kumbh Mela's most devout pilgrims are often elderly. They come for the entire festival and renounce all comfort while there.

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Walrus Interrupted

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic

Atlantic walruses swim amid ice floes off the coast of Greenland.

Hear Paul Nicklen talk about his work in the Arctic »

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Neighborhood Masterpiece

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

Like a presiding spirit, the cathedral duomo in Italian of Santa Maria del Fiore keeps watch over the streetscapes of Florence, including this block of Via dei Servi, a few hundred yards northeast of the church.

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Backcountry Blue

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic

Canada's Yukon backcountry hides sublime surprises, such as Azure Lake in the rugged Ogilvie Mountains. Glacial meltwater laden with fine sediment lends the lake its namesake color.

Watch Paul Nicklen and others speak about the power of photography »

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A Visit to Zavareh

Photograph by Bahareh Mohamadian , National Geographic Your Shot

An ancient castle in the old town of Zavareh, Iran

There is a cinematic quality to this photograph and to others in Bahareh s gallery which lends a sense of drama and timelessness that I find very appealing. Alexa Keefe, Photo of the Day editor

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

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Petroglyphs by Night

Photograph by Joseph Thomas , National Geographic Your Shot

"Imagine if we could speak to the earliest Americans," writes Your Shot contributor Joseph Thomas, who submitted this picture to the Imagine If assignment. "In a way, they are speaking to us. Photographing these petroglyphs inspires a sense of communion with the ancients who created them, a spiritual connection that reaches back through the ages. Three o'clock in the morning brought the moon into perfect position to illuminate the scene. The cactus was lit by a flashlight with an orange filter."

"The moonlit sky and the rock wall create striking planes of color that neatly divide the image. The creative use of an orange filter gives the photo a nice pop of color while balancing the petroglyph on the other side of the frame." Monica C. Corcoran, managing editor, Your Shot

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

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Color Block

Photograph by Antonio Feci , National Geographic Your Shot

Colonial architecture in Campeche, Yucat n, Mexico

What could be an almost too quiet scene of solid blocks of color comes alive with the details the clouds, the crucifix, and the passerby. Alexa Keefe, Photo of the Day editor

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

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Going Solo

Photograph by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic

Determined to finish a new route, superclimber Alex Honnold dangles from an overhang on Oman's Musandam Peninsula. After pushing as far as possible on the rock, a deepwater solo climber simply lets go.

Click through a gallery of Instagram photos from the expedition » Watch a video of a "splash landing" »

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Winter Layers

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic

Having gorged on salmon to lay on fat for hibernation, a grizzly wears a coat of ice in Canada's Yukon.

Hear Paul Nicklen talk about his work in the Arctic »

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Charges Ahead

Photograph by Julie Fletcher

"I cannot describe the eerie feeling I had when I walked in on this scene," writes Julie Fletcher of this photo, which received an honorable mention in the Places category of the 2013 National Geographic Photo Contest .

"I followed a massive storm front for several hundred kilometers hoping to capture something special, but this blew my mind. The surreal milky green water is a natural phenomenon caused by electromagnetic activity from the lightning hitting the water's surface. There was no rain where I was and not much wind either, but in the distance the sky was charged and angry, subjecting its wrath [to] the graveyard of dead trees in this normally very dry lakebed. I was able to capture a series of unique images, this being one of the best."

This photo was submitted to the 2013 National Geographic Photo Contest .

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The Pilgrim Bride

Photograph by Shahnewaz Karim , National Geographic Your Shot

"A newlywed bride waits for her husband before boarding the special train in Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh," writes Your Shot contributor Shahnewaz Karim of this picture chosen for publication in the Spontaneous Adventure assignment. "The mehendi in her hand is still showing as the light seeps through the roof and the people 'seated' there for the journey. This pilgrimage home is to enjoy the Eid festival with family."

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Explore weddings around the globe »

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Starry Sight

Photograph by Peet J van Eeden , National Geographic Your Shot

Close-up of a sea star at Pomene Estuary, Mozambique

Looking at this underwater gem, I feel as if I could as easily be looking at the surface of a volcanic landscape. The texture and color are amazing. Alexa Keefe, Photo of the Day editor

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

See pictures of patterned sea creatures » See pictures of our world in shades of orange »

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At Play on the Black Sea

Photograph by Mathias Depardon

A young man jumps into the Black Sea near Novorossiysk, Russia. In 1942, the town was occupied by Germans, but a small unit of Soviet sailors defended a part of the town known as Malaya Zemlya for 225 days. Novorossiysk was awarded the title of "Hero City" in 1973.

Mathias Depardon s photo project, Black Sea Postcards, was featured on the National Geographic photography blog Proof »

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A Plain Difference

Photograph by Robin Moore , National Geographic Your Shot

A black rhino and two zebras stand on Kenya's Laikipia Plains.

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

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Searching for Signals

Photograph by John Stanmeyer, National Geographic

Impoverished African migrants crowd the night shore of Djibouti city, trying to capture inexpensive cell signals from neighboring Somalia a tenuous link to relatives abroad. For more than 60,000 years our species has been relying on such intimate social connections to spread across the Earth.

See this and other photographs from our list of favorites from 2013 »

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Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, National Geographic

Skeletons of Russian thistle, better known as tumbleweed, pile up in a yard in Lancaster, California.

See this and other photographs from our list of favorites from 2013 »

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Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, National Geographic

Skeletons of Russian thistle, better known as tumbleweed, pile up in a yard in Lancaster, California.

See this and other photographs from our list of favorites from 2013 »

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Homeland

Photograph by Thomas Dworzak

Circassians tour their ancestral homeland in the Caucasus, where the Russian Empire carried out a brutal military campaign in the 19th century.

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Obscuring Old Faithful

Photograph by Abelardo Morell

Using the ground beneath his feet as a canvas, photographer Abelardo Morell inspires fresh appreciation for America's national parks. Here, he uses a camera obscura focusing light through a small opening onto a dark surface to capture Yellowstone's Old Faithful.

See this and other photographs from our list of favorites from 2013 » Watch a video interview with Abelardo Morell » See how Morell constructed his camera obscura »

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Bearing the Changes

Photograph by Paul Souders

"A polar bear peers up from beneath the melting sea ice on Hudson Bay as the setting midnight sun glows red from the smoke of distant fires during a record-breaking spell of hot weather," writes Paul Souders, who submitted this winning picture to the 2013 National Geographic Photo Contest . "The Manitoba population of polar bears, the southernmost in the world, is particularly threatened by a warming climate and reduced sea ice."

See all the winning images » Download contest wallpapers »

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Arriving for Prayer

Photograph by John Stanmeyer, National Geographic

Wrapped in white to symbolize purity, women arrive for prayer at an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Asaita. An increasing number of Christians from Ethiopia s highlands come here to work on farm plantations.

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Snow Cats

Photograph by Steve Winter, National Geographic

Experts thought cougars rarely socialize, but F51, a female living near Grand Teton National Park, traveled and fed with another female one spring. Eventually the other female adopted one of F51 s kittens.

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Into the Swarm

Photograph by Michele Martinelli , National Geographic Your Shot

Oppression, interaction, collaboration. In the life cycle of nature nothing is lost, but the coexistence of different species is sometimes difficult. In Madagascar there periodically recurs the archaic antagonism between man and the migratory locust, in a circle of life where the two species [compete] for space and food for their survival. Here inside the heavy bag there are in fact locusts that the man caught during the day.

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

View the Your Shot story Explore Our Changing World »

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Knot an Owl

Photograph by Mauro Mozzarelli , National Geographic Your Shot

A camouflaged gray owl protects its nest in this Your Shot picture chosen for the Daily Dozen roundup of editors' favorites.

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

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Kimbe Bay's Movable Feast

Photograph by David Doubilet, National Geographic

Animals that look like plants, feather star crinoids sweep plankton from the waters of Australia's Kimbe Bay. With 900 species of reef fish, the bay literally pulses with life a movable feast for predators like these barracuda.

David Doubilet speaks on photographing the underwater world »

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Snowy Day in Bucovina

Photograph by Bogdan Comanescu , National Geographic Your Shot

Winter enwraps a quiet corner of Romania's Bucovina region in this 2013 photo by Your Shot contributor Bogdan Comanescu.

This photo and caption were submitted to Your Shot . Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Take a walk in a winter wonderland » Get tips on shooting in cold weather »

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