Best of January 2018
Your Shot photographer Saulius Damulevicius snapped this picture of Camp 2 while descending Ama Dablam, a mountain in the Himalayas. With its peak reaching 22,349 feet in elevation, Ama Dablam is the third most popular Himalayan mountain for permitted climbing expeditions.
Two male Komodo dragons fight on the beaches of Komodo Island, Indonesia. They're likely competing for the chance to mate with a female dragon; only one will be victorious.
On an autumn evening in Guilin, China, two fishermen and their trained cormorants rest on their rafts. Cormorant fishing is a Chinese tradition that goes back more than 1,000 years. The fishermen tie small snares around the cormorants' necks. The bird leaves its post, catches a fish in its beak but can't swallow it, and then returns to the boat, where the fisherman retrieves the catch.
Three wild dog pups play together in Mkuze, South Africa. Their toy of choice? The leg of an unfortunate impala.
Visitors to "National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey" in New York City's Times Square experience the view inside a simulated "bait ball". "Encounter" takes visitors on a virtual tour of the Pacific Ocean.
In Papua New Guinea, a young hawksbill turtle swims beneath a wave just minutes after hatching. As though the journey to adulthood weren't hard enough, hawksbill turtles are critically endangered due to human impact.
A summer storm settles in over Beijing, China. Your Shot photographer Qing Hu captured this dramatic scene by using a long exposure of three seconds.
Your Shot photographer Sonalini Khetrapal had the opportunity to photograph this lion, named Ziggy, while on a game drive in the Serengeti. "It was a bright and sunny day, with a strong wind blowing across the plains,"; she remembers. "This presented a rare opportunity to capture a close-up of a perfectly calm yet strikingly alert Ziggy as it walked past our vehicle."
In the early hours of the morning, fisherman sort their catch to see at a fish market in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vietnam. The province's location on the southeastern coast makes fishing and aquaculture important economic activities.
Your Shot photographer Eric Lew truly froze a moment in time while on an expedition in Greenland. He photographed his expedition boat, the Kisaq, beneath an arched iceberg. "Twenty minutes after we finished viewing the berg," he says, "we looked back to see it collapsing!"
An Arabian horned viper digs itself into the desert sands of the United Arab Emirates. This picture wasn't so much the result of luck as it was of determination. Your Shot photographer Nimit Virdi was on a trip with friends, intent on finding snakes and reptiles in the desert. He says, "We scoured the dunes for traces of a distinct pattern left behind by these beautiful reptiles or watching our every step to find a snake hiding in the sand trap for unsuspecting prey."
In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, an old nine-story apartment building called the Café Apartment has been turned into a home for coffee shops, restaurants, and coworking spaces. "It's very funny," says Your Shot photographer Samsara Tran. "You could easily spend a whole day exploring this apartment."
Mer de Glace is a glacier in the French Alps. Here, adventurers climb up a moulin, a vertical shaft inside of the glacier, to emerge back on top.
The Sonepur Cattle Fair in Patna, India, features an enormous cylindrical structure known as the "Wall of Death". From above, spectators watch as adventurous men and women drive vehicles at high speed around the walls, eventually riding parallel to the ground.
Your Shot photographer Freya Dowson tells us that this elephant calf has already beat the odds. "At only a few days old," she says, "this young elephant calf survived: days stuck in the mud of the Tana Delta, eventual abandonment by her family due to extreme drought conditions, discovery by the local community, transport on the back of a motorcycle, and a flight from the Delta in the back of a two-seater Super Cub. She was kept alive overnight on the cool tiles of the pilot’s bathroom floor until The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust arrived on the Kenyan coast to rescue her."
Vibrant fall foliage surrounds Komadome Falls in Nasu, Japan. Nasu, approximately 120 miles north of Tokyo, is known for its hiking trails and stunning autumn colours.
Your Shot photographer Vincent Roazzi, Jr., was working in Havana, Cuba, when he reaped the benefits of being flexible. "I was originally photographing the green jumpsuited mechanic and his orange car when a group of skaters showed up," he says. Rather than being annoyed at the interruption, Roazzi struck up a conversation with the skaters. "We had an impromptu photoshoot as the mechanic watched, his tools laying in the street."
High-rises of public housing bustle with life in Macau, China. The autonomous region off the south coast of China used to be a Portuguese colony until 1999 and is now a resort city. With approximately 55,000 people per square mile, it's the most densely populated region in the world.
A slackliner walks a highline over Navagio Beach in Zakythos, Greece. Slacklining is a sport involving a flat rope strung between two points, often with less tension than a tightrope. Those who walk across wear harnesses connected to the slackline, to catch them in the event of a fall.
Three silky sharks cruise in the waters of Jardines de la Reina, or Gardens of the Queen, a national marine park in Cuba. The park covers 850 square miles, and remains one of the best protected areas in the Caribbean.
A night market, called Talad Nud Rod Fai, bustles in Bangkok, Thailand, behind the large Esplanade shopping center. Open only in the evening and into the night, the market offers food stands and discounted goods for crowds of tourists and locals alike.
An Arctic fox pauses on the ice while on the lookout for food. Smart foxes tail polar bears, hoping to claim their leftovers for dinner.
During a Holi festival in India, a woman savors the colorful celebration. Holi is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates the end of winter and the coming of spring. Participants spray each other with water and colored powders, and also enjoy singing, dancing, and exchanging sweets. Your Shot photographer Lopamudra Talukdar says of women enjoying the festivities, "The spirit is up and the guard is down."
King penguin chicks surround an elephant seal on South Georgia Island. The island, located in the southern Atlantic Ocean, is extremely remote. Each spring, hundreds of thousands of elephant seals come ashore for their mating season.
Years and years of erosion have formed this meandering sandstone canyon in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Below, vegetation thrives on the banks of the river that has cut through the stone for so long.
Your Shot photographer Peter Nestler spent 18 hours in the Italian Alps, admiring the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. "The most peaceful and happy times in my life are when I am alone (or as close as I can get) in nature," he says. "The more densely populated we become, the more important I believe it is to preserve these natural spaces."
"Whilst out snorkelling late one afternoon on Jervis Bay [in Australia], I stumbled across this Common Stingaree gracefully gliding over the shallow sand flats," says Your Shot photographer Jordan Robins. "As the sun was setting, I managed to captured this over-under image where you can see above and below the water captured in a single exposure."
An old Volkswagen Beetle sits near a cliff in the town of Belen, Turkey. Belen sits at about 2,000 feet elevation, just a few miles from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Oxpeckers enjoy symbiotic relationships with hooved mammals in Africa, including Cape buffalo, zebras, and giraffes. The oxpecker removes ticks from hard-to-reach areas on the animals, and in return gets a tasty meal.
A long exposure captures the final day of festive New Year celebrations in Jujing, a small, round village in China. The first day of the Chinese New Year is determined by the lunar calendar, and celebrations continue for fifteen days, ending with the Lantern Festival.
During an NCAA game in Las Vegas, Nevada, airmen from nearby Nellis Air Force Base hold up an enormous American flag.
