Staring at the Sun

Photograph by Clemens Capek , National Geographic Your Shot

A meerkat family warms up at sunrise in Oudtshoorn, South Africa. Shortly after waking up, a meerkat family also called a gang or mob will warm in the sun to harvest energy for the day, writes Your Shot member Clemens Capek. The animals are normally shy, but one family in the area became accustomed to humans in close proximity, allowing Capek to capture them in their natural surroundings.

Capek s image was recently featured in Your Shot s Daily Dozen .

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Pure Life

Photograph by Shibasish Saha , National Geographic Your Shot

Laborers work among the dust and debris at a brick field in Kolkata, India. Men and women work together every day to earn some money for their family, writes Shibasish Saha, a member of our Your Shot community.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Cracking the Surface

Photograph by Alexey Trofimov , National Geographic Your Shot

Ice on Lake Baikal is a very interesting phenomenon, writes Your Shot member Alexey Trofimov. Ice ridges, cracks, tears, hugging. All this creates unique and fantastic stories. Trofimov spends a few months a year photographing landscapes at the lake the world s deepest and oldest in southeastern Siberia. On this trip, he hoped to make an unusual picture of the ice, showing elements not normally visible. When one morning brought a strong frost and wind, which created unusual patterns in the cracks, Trofimov had only to wait for sunrise to make this picture.

This photo was submitted to the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest. Find your best travel photos and join the competition.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Friendly Reflection

Photograph by Pablo Ponti , National Geographic Your Shot

It had been raining all day in Luanda, Angola, where we live, writes Pablo Ponti, a member of our Your Shot community. Just as the last raindrops fell and the sun broke through the clouds ... I took my daughter and her two best friends out for a snack, and when we approached a large puddle, the opportunity to show their silhouette in the water's reflection was formed in my mind. Since they are best friends, I wanted to show them in a different light, through their feet and their reflections. The kids enjoyed it, and I loved the end result.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Mother of the Forest

Photograph by Marsel van Oosten , National Geographic Your Shot

These baobab trees on Madagascar are up to 800 years old, writes Your Shot member Marsel van Oosten. Locally known as mother of the forest, the baobab forms a micro-ecosystem of its own, supporting life for both animals and humans, van Oosten says. Old hollow baobabs are a home to snakes, bats, bush babies, bees, and sometimes even humans. More importantly, the tree is an important source of water it can store up to 4,000 liters of water in its trunk. For Africa, it is literally the tree of life.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Goddess Dressing

Photograph by Stephanie Sinclair, National Geographic

In Nepal s Kathmandu Valley, young Newari girls called kumaris are worshipped as living goddesses. Like other kumaris, Dangol, pictured here, wears special makeup for festivals. But it s more than makeup that changes on these occasions. Former kumaris have described feeling bigger and stronger and said that heat radiates from their foreheads.

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Market Talk

Photograph by Brian Hammonds , National Geographic Your Shot

While at the Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul, South Korea, Your Shot member Brian Hammonds was drawn to the contrast of the blues in the displays and the reds and pinks worn by the women seen here. An elevated walkway at the front of the market allowed Hammond to capture the scene from above.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Dome Light

Photograph by Matthew Saville , National Geographic Your Shot

As technology shrinks the world around us, it becomes more and more difficult to find ourselves truly lost in the outdoors, writes Your Shot member Matthew Saville. This makes those particular moments and scenes that much more special. Saville captured this shot of a tent on Half Dome s Diving Board while camping in Yosemite National Park. Getting to the Diving Board was quite a challenge, as there is no official trail, he writes. For anybody who is prepared, careful, and respectful of nature, the reward is one of the most breathtaking views in all of Yosemite, in my opinion.

This photo was submitted to the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest. Find your best travel photos and join the competition.

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Double Trouble

Photograph by Danielle Mussman , National Geographic Your Shot

Ethel the Great Dane attempts the impossible on a spring day in northern Kentucky. I am constantly drawn to her eternal optimism in attempting to catch balls thrown her way, only to be defeated by her gangly legs and just-a-beat-off timing, writes Your Shot member Danielle Mussman. Ultimately, the photos of her missing the ball are always more amusing than those of her finally succeeding in catching it. Mussman s husband thought he might improve the odds by slowly tossing two balls in Ethel s direction. The result? writes Mussman. Double the confusion, double the frustration, and double the treats for our sweet girl who never gives up.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Eye Sight

Photograph by Martin Oeggerli, National Geographic

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) captures the intricacies of a fruit fly s eye. The compound eye is a tightly packed collection of single lenses that gives the fly a gridlike view of the world. Scientists suspect the bristles may help protect the lenses, which have no eyelids, from dirt and debris. Photographer Martin Oeggerli specializes in shooting very small things using an SEM at the School of Life Sciences in Muttenz, Switzerland. His images appear in the story Bug-Eyed in the June 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine.

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Piercing Faith

Photograph by Avishek Das , National Geographic Your Shot

A believer pierces his face during the Hindu festival of Charak Puja in West Bengal, India. The rituals of Charak Puja, a way to show the miracle of God, are unique and, at times, a little risky, writes Avishek Das, who shared this photo on Your Shot. For Das, getting such a shot had its difficulties. People are in a hurry to complete the exercise soon, and huge mass gatherings are there, he writes.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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New Bee

Photograph by Anand Varma, National Geographic

A new honeybee emerges from a brood cell. In her six-week life span, this worker bee will forage for food, make honey and raise the next generation. Photographer Anand Varma shares the story behind creating a stunning time-lapse of developing bees on Proof .

Image composed of 23 digitally merged photographs.

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Tale out of School

Photograph by Siddhartha Banerjee , National Geographic Your Shot

Your Shot member Siddhartha Banerjee captured this picture during recess at a secondary school in Kolkata, India. They had their midday meals and went to play, he writes. Suddenly, a student emerged from a classroom and leaned over to look below. It seemed he was invisible to the rest of the students already playing, but it seemed the boy was intently watching them, as if his soul [were] already there with the boys out there.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Spring Powered

Photograph by Mike Frosberg

A powerful spring pushes up through the ice of a Platte River backwater in Nebraska. Photographer Mike Frosberg s project, the Platte Basin Timelapse ," attempts to capture a watershed in motion from the mountains to the plains.

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Waterfall of the Gods

Photograph by Ed Graham , National Geographic Your Shot

Although the days are short in Iceland in February, the sun remains low on the horizon while it s up, writes Your Shot member Ed Graham. This allows six to eight hours of shooting in a beautiful golden light if the weather cooperates. Here, the winter sun falls on Iceland s Go afoss, or Waterfall of the Gods, one of the largest in the country. To achieve this shot, Graham made a hazardous climb. The bare surface of the rock was slick from refrozen mist from the falls, he writes. I got as close to the edge as I dared.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Peaceful Outlook

Photograph by Abdullrahman Almalki , National Geographic Your Shot

It took three days for Your Shot member Abdullrahman Almalki to capture the moment he wanted from this vantage near the city of Ta if in Saudi Arabia. Almalki used a tripod and a remote shutter release to achieve a meditative image encompassing the lighted highway, clouds, and stars.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community. Check out the new book Getting Your Shot for more photos, plus tips and creative insights from Nat Geo experts.

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Bridging the Gap

Photograph by Sajad Rafeeq , National Geographic Your Shot

A Kashmiri man pulls a sledge meant to ferry tourists across a bridge in the mountain town of Sonamarg, India. Your Shot member Sajad Rafeeq was visiting the popular destination with friends when they encountered roads blocked by heavy snowfall. Rafeeq saw this man and other locals providing transport with the sledges and, climbing down from his car, captured the shot with frozen hands. It was very cold, and the temperature was very low, but these people still worked in these harsh conditions to earn a living, he writes.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now

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Changeable Spring

Photograph by Tatiana Touraeva , National Geographic Your Shot

While traveling through Vladimir, Russia, Your Shot member Tatiana Touraeva and her family stopped to stroll around a historic section of town. The weather seemed to be pretty changeable that day, Touraeva writes. Though a freezing wind was blowing, the sun could still be seen through the clouds. We were having fun, riding scooters and playing tag when the snow began to fall. That was quite unexpected, with all that sunshine and green grass almost [coming] out of the ground here and there, she writes. The church s domes seemed lit up by the rays, and the snowflakes so big and light moved slowly in the air ... That was really a rare moment I will remember for the rest of my life.

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Diving In

Photograph by Sarah Lee

A woman duck dives beneath a wave on a wooden alaia, a modern rendition of an ancient Hawaiian surfboard. The main reason I love ocean and surf photography is the combination of the physical and creative challenge of it, says photographer Sarah Lee, who captured this image off Kona, Hawaii.

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Night Moves

Photograph by Steed Yu , National Geographic Your Shot

Constellations in the southern Milky Way compete with an earthly display of light near Tanzania s Lake Natron. These glowing elves were flying up and down among the lush grass on both sides of a ravine stream, like a flowing firefly way as if to contest ... the Milky Way, writes Your Shot member Steed Yu.

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Factory Setting

Photograph by Trynidada , National Geographic Your Shot

An abandoned World War II torpedo station appears suspended between a moody sky and a calm bay near Gdynia on the coast of Poland. Setting out from Warsaw, Your Shot member Trynidada drove through the night to catch the first light of sunrise but as the sun came up, the weather turned dark. The sky had this steel-like color, with just a hint of white clouds moving slowly on the horizon, Trynidada writes.

Trynidada s image was recently featured in Your Shot s Daily Dozen .

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Robber at Rest

Photograph by Mervin Pearce , National Geographic Your Shot

A robber fly saved from a pool rests on the tip of a bottlebrush flower in Boksburg, South Africa. Using post-processing software, Your Shot member Mervin Pearce created a composite image consisting of multiple shots of the fly stacked on top of each other.

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Fan Girls

Photograph by Kate Parker , National Geographic Your Shot

We all know that sound it makes when you yell into a fan, writes Kate Parker, who shared this picture with our Your Shot community. Parker had volunteered to take a friend s children outside after an early dinner out. This was shot in July in Georgia, she writes. Lots of restaurants have these huge fans outside in case anyone is looking to sweat while they eat. [As] soon as the girls saw the fan, they were drawn right to it. Parker recalled doing this herself as a child. It is universal. I knew I wanted to capture that moment ... yelling freely, with the wind blowing their hair, and just being kids.

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Temple Dance

Photograph by Kampol Jindaprom , National Geographic Your Shot

A ceremony takes place in the courtyard of the Put Jaw Chinese Temple during the annual Vegetarian Festival in Phuket, Thailand. A wonderful moment, writes Your Shot member Kampol Jindaprom, who visited the temple to pay homage during the nine-day event. It stems from ... belief and faith.

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Yellow Jellies

Photograph by Ciemon Frank Caballes , National Geographic Your Shot

The residents of Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk one of the Rock Islands of Palau surround a snorkeler in their midst. The saltwater lake s golden jellyfish, harmless to humans, spend much of their lives following the sun as it makes its daily progress across the sky. For these jellies, sunlight is essential: It nourishes the algae-like organisms that live symbiotically in their tissues.

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