Skyfall
Photograph by Jayanta Roy, National Geographic Your Shot
"I always like to travel in the Himalaya," says Your Shot contributor Jayanta Roy.
"This photo is a previsualization; I had wanted to capture a rain of
stars over Kanchenjunga for a long time, so I chose the location and
timing, which is at almost midnight. It was bone-chilling, the wind was
so strong and cold. The location is a tiny village called Lungtung in
eastern India, population ten."
Roy took a few test shots and changed location a few times to add the
tree and place Kanchenjunga exactly in the middle of the frame. The
picture was recently published in the Your Shot Daily Dozen.
Strawberry Fields
Photograph by Seyit Konyali, National Geographic Your Shot
Inhabitants of Hüyük, Turkey, make their living from strawberry production, says community member Seyit Konyali, whose picture was recently featured in the Your Shot Daily Dozen.
Girl's World
Photograph by Gina Waga, National Geographic Your Shot
"I captured this moment of my daughter's reckless abandon in a suburban playground in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia," says Gina Waga, a member of National Geographic Your Shot whose picture was recently featured in the Daily Dozen.
"I chose an evening during a specific time of year, when the sunset
would be enhanced by the smoke from the local canefires, creating the
stunning, merging colors."
Waga says a lower-angle composition captured her daughter's
silhouette perfectly. "It was then up to timing: teaching her how to
position herself, pushing her on the swing, then getting back to the
perfect spot in the overgrown grass to capture a moment of simplicity
and beauty in a child's life."
Over the Misty Mountains
Photograph by Volodymyr Zinchenko, National Geographic Your Shot
"This photo was taken in the Carpathian Mountains
near Kolochava village in Ukraine's Zakarpatska region," writes Your
Shot member Volodymyr Zinchenko.
"It was the middle of October, when after weeks of dry weather, it
started raining. There was almost constant rain from the village to the
point where this picture was taken—my camera was the only dry thing."
Zinchenko says the warm mountains caused the moisture to evaporate.
"That and the autumn colors made the picture."
Ice Baby
Photograph by David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes, National Geographic
Born on the ice, a harp seal pup peers underwater
near Quebec’s Madeleine Islands. The islands are among the hosts of
wildlife—including fish, birds, and marine mammals—in and around the
Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Coming Up Roses
Photograph by Ankit Narang, National Geographic Your Shot
Your Shot member Ankit Narang
photographed this couple a few days before their wedding. "It was taken
at a farmhouse away from the city," Narang writes. "I went before the
actual day of the shoot to explore camera angles and interesting light,
and I came across this aerial angle and imagined the couple in the
morning light along with the shadows of the trees."
The shadows would provide a natural vignette effect, but Narang
thought something should be added to the frame to make it more
interesting. "On the day of the shoot, the couple brought rose petals on
their own, and my problem was solved."
Deserted Palms
Photograph by Bill Brewer, National Geographic Your Shot
"This group of palms was planted as part of a
planned real estate project in Lucerne Valley, a small town in the
California desert," says Your Shot member Bill Brewer.
"The development failed and years later these dead palms remain. I've
shot this group of palms a few times, but never at night. [The night I
shot this] I was returning home after shooting along old Route 66 and
had driven up on these old friends. The palms were lit by a combination
of moonlight and a streetlight. The artificial lighting gives the palms a
weird glamour."
Brewer's picture was recently selected for the Your Shot Daily Dozen.
Seeing Reds
Photograph by Daniel Zvereff
Tombstone Territorial Park in Canada’s Yukon
Territory is photographed using Kodak aerochrome infrared film.
Originally intended for aerial photography to indicate areas of
vegetation in surveys and to find camouflaged military encampments, this
infrared-sensitive, false-color reversal film turns plant life a
majestic red or purple hue while nonplant life often renders in gray or
blue.
A Movable Feast
Photograph by Merlin Tuttle, National Geographic
A pollen-gilded bat (Phyllonycteris poeyi) emerging from a flower of the blue mahoe tree (Talipariti elatum)
demonstrates the carrying capacity of fur. This bat lives in eastern
Cuba in a colony more than one million strong—a pollinating powerhouse.
For this shot, which appeared in a March 2014 National Geographic
story on nectar-seeking bats, the feeder seen here was mist-netted as
it approached the flower and released into photographer Merlin Tuttle’s
portable studio. A set of blue mahoe branches and a flower
indistinguishable from those where the bat was netted were placed in the
studio. “After setting up a camera and flashes, we simply waited for
the bat to come to the flower,” Tuttle says.
A Fox Tale
Photograph by Bjorn Anders Nymoen, National Geographic Your Shot
"I was in Svalbard staying in an old trappers' cabin," writes Your Shot contributor Bjorn Anders Nymoen.
"I was on my way to go out fishing in a nearby lake when I suddenly got
this follower. I had forgotten my wide-angle lens back in the cabin,
and after a while he was actually too close. I wanted to catch the
colors of the flowers and take advantage of my 300mm lens, so I lay down
on the ground to get a nice depth of view."
Nymoen, whose shot was a Daily Dozen
selection, has been working with Arctic wildlife for 20 years. "I'm
still fascinated when animals just pop up while you're changing a lens,
charging batteries, and so on. Everything is unpredictable, and that's
what I love about the Arctic."
