We’ve selected for you the best photos from the February 2016 National Geographic. You may also be interested in such photo series: National Geographic: Best of January 2016. Enjoy watching! National Geographic’s website: photography.nationalgeographic.com 1 Sacred Swim. Photograph by Raja Subramaniyan. A quiet morning at Dashashwamedh Ghat, the main ghat in Varanasi, India, on the banks of the Ganges River, afforded Your Shot member Raja Subramaniyan an image that could project the feel of the moment: a lone visitor "taking the holy bath." The ghats, especially this one, are often full of pilgrims and tourists alike, but of this photo the photographer writes, "I loved the atmosphere of the Dashashwamedh Ghat on that day—beautiful sunrise with warm light, the mist effect, the arrangement of boats."
2 From Above. Photograph by Craig Goodwin. "After three days and 20 miles of hiking the beaches of Olympic National Park, I ended up on Second Beach in La Push, Washington," begins Your Shot community member Craig Goodwin, who snapped this photo of a meteor streaking across the night sky. He was looking to create images of "compositions revealed by the receding waters ... focusing on star reflections and sections of flat beach," but as it turned out, his photo opportunity came from above. "After a large wave receded, I rushed in to set up my tripod at this location ... While I watched for encroaching waves, a bright fireball ripped through the sky and into the frame. I think I might have danced a little when that happened."
3 Eagle Hunter. Photograph by Steve Morrison. While in western Mongolia in the summer of 2014, Your Shot member Steve Morrison captured this photo of a nomadic herder who hunts using a trained golden eagle, a centuries-old Kazakh practice. The eagles are extremely quick and can dive upon prey at speeds of more than 150 miles an hour. "I had the opportunity to spend four days camped beside the ger (yurt) belonging to Shohan and his family," Morrison writes. "On this day, we had followed Shohan deep into the valley that extends west beyond his summer pastures, above upper Dayan Nuur near the Chinese border."
4 A Wash of Color. Photograph by Eduard Paravyan. While engaged in a prosaic activity—waiting—Your Shot community member Eduard Paravyan took a moment to examine his surroundings. "One bright, sunny day, we arrived at Ko Phi Phi in Thailand," he writes. "While waiting [for] a long-tail boat at the pier, I noticed the extraordinary transparency of the water. In the depths I saw the fish and enchanting reflections of sunlight." Realizing the photo-worthiness of the moment, he snapped this image of colorful fish swimming in the Andaman Sea.
5 Reverent Light. Photograph by Jongsung Ryu. Your Shot member Jongsung Ryu, who submitted this photo, captured a solemn moment inside a temple in Myanmar: a shaft of sunlight hitting the massive Buddha statue, which overwhelms the temple's interior and dwarfs the monks, at just the right angle. "When I entered the pagoda, I found that the light gets into the tower through the window," Ryu says. "I wanted to take the photo with that light ... But it was not easy to capture a sudden moment, so I [spent] more than just one day [there]."
6 Wintry Walkabout. Photograph by Shaun Wilson. Your Shot community member Shaun Wilson submitted this photo of an icy trek in the English Lake District. "We got caught on top of Helm Crag in the snow," he writes. "Helm Crag is a fell in the Central Fells." The mountains in the area, locally known as "fells," aren't imposing compared with other mountains throughout the world, but their beauty is a tourist draw.
7 Birdcall. Photograph by Matt Cuda. While at a fund-raiser at the Carolina Raptor Center in North Carolina, Your Shot member Matt Cuda snapped this dramatic photo of an apparently outspoken eastern screech-owl. "It was vocalizing and possibly working on its breakfast," he writes. "The [center] takes in wild birds that were injured, rehabilitates them, and then releases them back into the wild."
8 Double Down. Photograph by Claire Stepleton. This image from Ravello, Italy, on the country’s Amalfi Coast, is yet another piece of evidence supporting the area’s reputation for stunning and romantic views. After a day of exploring Minori, the village in this frame, Your Shot member Claire Stepleton could thank her “boisterous” hotel neighbors for the opportunity to photograph this double rainbow. “My husband and I were resting at our hotel … during an early evening rain shower. I could have kissed [our neighbors] when they pointed out the emerging rainbows!”
9 Rays of Color. Photograph by Miguel Quental. Nasir al-Mulk, a traditional mosque in Shiraz, Iran, is known as the Pink Mosque for the use of pink tiles throughout its interior. Your Shot member Miguel Quental came across a moment splashed with much more than pink in this early morning shot in the mosque. “I went early in the morning so I could capture the natural light in its splendor,” Quental writes. “When I got inside I knew that [it] was a very special place; the colors and the energy flowing can make anyone feel [at] peace.”
10 First Snow, First Light. Photograph by Nick Ocean. Your Shot member Nick Ocean caught the first snow of the season in Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park in November 2015. This early morning shot, taken from the aptly named Sunrise Point, required some off-road driving and skirting around a downed tree. All that work earned Ocean the privilege of being the only person in the park to enjoy this particular scene.
11 Sweat and Swing. Photograph by Dotan Saguy. Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, has been a popular spot for fitness fanatics since it was first built in the 1930s. It’s also one of Your Shot member Dotan Saguy’s favorite places to photograph “because of the layering opportunities as well as the opportunities to compose ... frames within the frame.” Saguy had been alerted to the main subject of this image and was intrigued by the intense facial expressions the man made during his workouts. “I had been trying many different ideas there,” Saguy writes. “One day [I] was lucky enough to bump into this particular situation which had a strong subject in the foreground and its complete opposite in the background, both of which were framed by the bars.”
12 Winter Flight. Photograph by Tommy Eliasson. A little snowfall didn’t deter this robin from taking to the sky, nor did it stop Your Shot member Tommy Eliasson from stepping into his garden in Halland, Sweden, to capture this image. Eliasson was able to set his camera up and snap a series of photos before the bird flew on.
13 A Light in the Dark. Photograph by Brett Rylance. “Shwedagon temple is one of the most photographed icons in all of Myanmar,” writes Your Shot community member Brett Rylance. To get the shot they were hoping for, Rylance’s guide had to plead for access to the top of an office building. “Our guide and I wanted an aspect not often seen: We wanted Shwedagon's sacred pagoda atop Singuttara Hill at sunset with Yangon’s pulsing city elements below to create juxtaposition.”
14 Time to Go. Photograph by Akinori Koseki. Your Shot member Akinori Koseki was the only one on the train platform in the wee hours of the morning during this snowstorm in Fukushima, Japan. The photographer caught this train conductor checking his watch just moments before the 5:30 a.m. train was due to pull out of Aizu-Kawaguchi Station on the regional Tadami Line. Despite the heavy snowfall, the train left on time—helped in part by arriving at a station with no customers.
15 A Ponderous Panda. Photograph by Surendra Pradhan. A red panda appears to be deep in thought at the Darjeeling Zoo in West Bengal, India, home to a breeding center for the endangered animals. The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) has seen its population reduced by approximately 50 percent over the last two decades. The Darjeeling Zoo’s red panda program, which began in 1994, currently has six males and six females after two of the animals died in 2015.
16 The Devil's Gold. Photograph by Maciej Dakowicz. Your Shot member Maciej Dakowicz had always wanted to see Kawah Ijen in Indonesia and made sure to find his way to the crater on his first visit to the country, despite the arduous path to get there: a two-hour uphill hike, followed by 45 minutes of trekking down into the crater. Although only at the crater on Java Island for a few hours, Dakowicz had "a very memorable day." He watched miners go up and down the crater, doing the dangerous job of carrying heavy baskets of sulfur, sometimes called devil's gold. Every day, 300 or so miners make the two-mile climb to the top of the volcano and haul out 150 to 200 pounds of sulfur at a time.
17 Painted Sky. Photograph by Soroush Etemad. While visiting Oia, on the Greek island of Santorini, Your Shot member Soroush Etemad was “mesmerized by [the] captivating beauty” of this sunset. Beneath a palette of orange and red, a large gathering of people stood on castle ruins to watch the sun go down over the Aegean Sea.
18 Taking Flight. Photograph by Thomas P. Peschak. A white tern flits through regenerating native forest on Cousine, a private island off the coast of Praslin and one of Seychelles’ ecological restoration successes. A luxury resort helps pay for the island’s conservation projects.
19 Peekaboo. Photograph by Dariusz Kucharski and Kornelia Kucharska. This pet Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) that lives with Your Shot members Dariusz Kucharski and Kornelia Kucharska is a well-fed critter. Here, it pokes its head out from behind leaves in a colorful terrarium as its Warsaw-based owners drop live crickets into the enclosure.
20 Valley Dusting. Photograph by Tyler Lekki. At the end of a four-week road trip, Your Shot member Tyler Lekki ran into some bad luck: a flat tire. He stayed the night in a local hotel in Monument Valley National Park in Utah, and his fortunes turned around when he was able to capture this sunrise shot of the park’s towering sandstone buttes after a light coating of snow.
21 A Peck on the Beak. Photograph by Christine Sandberg. Yellow-crowned night herons (Nyctanassa violacea) are usually dormant during the day, but Your Shot member Christine Sandberg caught these two apparent lovebirds in action one afternoon in a park in Pinellas County, Florida. “I noticed something different in their movements and behavior this day. I slowly approached them, they slowly approached each other up in the foliage,” Sandberg writes. “Suddenly—a touch from a beak, and the look of love in their eyes.”
22 Setting the Stage. Photograph by Rou Yu. The 2008 Beijing Olympics brought a construction boom to the city; while it has slowed since then, the construction hasn’t ceased. Your Shot member Rou Yu came across these workers lit from behind on staging—likely erected to celebrate the Chinese New Year—between the Bird’s Nest, or Beijing National Stadium, and the Beijing National Aquatics Center, known informally as the Water Cube.
23 Early to Rise. Photograph by Hardik Desai. “The place has its unique appeal,” Your Shot member Hardik Desai writes of Iceland’s Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. “Dawn happens two hours before sunrise, and the sunrise colors usually last almost 90 minutes if there are no clouds.” A day after scouting out the location, Desai drove 30 minutes to arrive at the lagoon in time to capture the sunrise, hoping for exactly this result.
24 An Exquisite Eye. Photograph by David Liittschwager. Vertebrate eyes—like this eye of a juvenile female southern ground-hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri)—are all variations on the same basic design, which functions much as a camera does.
25 Romance in a Crowd. Photograph by Chenkun Long. Few cities are more romanticized than Paris, and Your Shot member Chenkun Long was able to capture that spirit in this image from New Year’s Eve, taken near Palais de Chaillot and the Eiffel Tower. “People were cheering for joy [at midnight], and this couple started to kiss and wished to have a romantic and happy 2016,” Long writes.
26 Cloud Camp. Photograph by Mc Daniels Cirunay. While awaiting sunrise atop Osmena Peak in Cebu, an island province in the Philippines, Your Shot member Mc Daniels Cirunay saw an opportunity for another photograph. “I was waiting for the sun to come up, but the fog was so thick so I looked the other way and saw this,” he writes. “The fog was moving fast because of the speed of the wind, so I waited for the fog to open up a bit and show something from the camp and the peak.”
27 Balancing Act. Photograph by Marco Marcone. Your Shot member Marco Marcone snapped this artfully framed shot of fishermen balancing on small fishing vessels on Inle Lake in Myanmar. “I was in a boat a little bit larger than that of the fishermen in the photo," he writes. "Honestly, they were just there for tourists … Anyway, I tried to do something new. I [hadn’t] seen anyone before [put] the camera and himself inside the fishing net!"
28 Don't Blink. Photograph by Sammantha Fisher. While exploring in Vara Blanca, Costa Rica, Your Shot photographer Sammantha Fisher captured this image of the nocturnal red-eyed tree frog. By day, these amphibians sleep stuck to leaf bottoms. When disturbed, they flash their bulging red eyes to shock predators.
29 Celestial Spin. Photograph by Alexander Grabchilev. Your Shot community member Alexander Grabchilev submitted this image of star trails over Karnataka, India. He made this photo while visiting Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the location of the extensive ruins of the Hindu city of Vijayanagar, built in the 14th through 16th centuries.
Grabchilev explains his process for photographing the star trails: “I [did] about a hundred shots with a 40-second exposure, one by one, and [the shots were] stitched in post-processing.”
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