Photo of the Day
A novice shaman makes an offering of milk to the spirits at her initiation in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. This picture originally appeared in a December 2012 story called "Masters of Ecstasy," about the increasing number of shamans in northeast Asia.
In Antarctica, a gentoo penguin chick receives a meal of regurgitated krill and small fish from a parent penguin. Gentoo penguins choose nesting sites inland, away from ice.
A couple in Sevastopol, Crimea, shares a kiss at a party celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. A story in the September 1994 issue documented the culture and tension of the Crimean peninsula, which is claimed by both Ukraine and Russia.
Children play on a hill overlooking Nazareth, Israel. A story called "Where Jesus Walked" ran in the December 1967 issue, showing places Jesus lived and travelled to, as mentioned in the Bible. Nazareth is the city where Jesus spent his childhood.
Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King holds his "I Have A Dream" speech while talking with a volunteer security guard who wears a Gandhi cap, a symbol of nonviolent resistance to segregation. Photographer James P. Blair took the day off of work from National Geographic to document the event on his own. His photos of the day, including this one, have rarely been published.
A Franciscan priest gazes at the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Christians believe this is where Jesus was buried after his crucifixion, before resurrecting from the dead.
Kids play on a homemade swing at a 4,000 acre ranch in Pony Springs, Nevada. The ranch is home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous sect that was the subject of a story in the February 2010 issue.
In India's Golden Temple of Amritsar, a Sikh reads a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib. The holy text contains prayers, wisdom from Sikh gurus, and writings of Hindu and Muslim saints.
Tourists visit a scenic overlook called Oedolgae Rock on Jeju Island, South Korea. This picture originally appeared in a September 1975 story profiling South Korea and its response to external conflicts and internal pressures.
| In this picture from the January 1969 issue, a pharmacy student at Oregon State University gets hands-on learning at a model drug store at the university. The wide-ranging story covered the state of Oregon, with its diverse cities and stunning landscapes. |
Sisters sweep out sludge from a watering trough on their family sheep farm in Ivanhoe, New South Wales, Australia. This photo appeared in an April 2009 issue about an extreme drought, known as the Millennium drought, that affected Australia for about 15 years.
| In this picture from the November 1992 issue, a pair of Southern American bald eaglets await food at the George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Thanks in part to the work done by the centre, bald eagles went from being an endangered species to one of "least concern" in the early 2000s. |
A tour boat passes a boy and his horse swimming in the Nile River. This photo originally appeared in a May 1993 story about the critical importance of water in the Middle East.
In this photo from 1935, National Geographic's first chief of the Cartographic Division, Albert H. Bumstead (standing), checks details on an atlas while other staff members operate a photo-typesetter that Bumstead invented. The Cartographic Division has innovated mapmaking for more than a century.
Six-year-olds practice ski jumps on a slope in Lac-Beauport, Quebec, Canada. This picture appeared in the January 1958 issue, in a story about winter festivities in Quebec.
To celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, a Russian Orthodox man emerges from priest-blessed, frigid water through a cross-shaped hole in the ice—a ritual believed to protect the faithful from evil. This photo originally appeared in an April 2009 story documenting the growth of the Russian Orthodox church.
Wildlife artist Keith Shackleton steers a boat around Elephant Island, Antarctica. The island was famously a temporary home to Keith's distant relative, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, after his ship was crushed by ice in 1916.
A story in the September 2008 issue documented families of elephants living in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. Here, a bull elephant named Boone greets a matriarch named Maya and her daughter.
Ichthyologist Eugenie Clark scuba dives in the Red Sea, looking for bioluminescent fish nicknamed "flashlight fish." Clark authored the November 1978 story this photo appeared in—one of a dozen articles she wrote to educate the public on underwater worlds.
A new convert to Christianity is baptised in a river on the island of Saint Vincent in the West Indies. This photo appeared in the September 1979 issue, in a story about Saint Vincent, Grenada, and the Grenadines after political turmoil and a volcanic eruption.
The December 2012 issue contained the story of two men setting out to document all 39 species of birds of paradise. It took 9 years, 18 expeditions, and 39,000 photographs, but they did it. Pictured here is a greater bird of paradise performing a courtship display on a treetop on Wokam Island, south of New Guinea.
