National Geographic Foto of the Day

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Divers, Easter Island


October 18, 2012

[h=2]Divers, Easter Island
[/h] Photograph by Randy Olson, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Tourists diving on Easter Island's reef encounter a fake moai, made for a 1994 Hollywood movie and then sunk offshore. The reef is healthy, though it is overfished. Tuna and salmon are imported, primarily for tourists.

 

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Roman Arch, Algeria


October 19, 2012

[h=2]Roman Arch, Algeria
[/h] Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
TIMGAD, ALGERIA
This triumphal arch awed visitors to the city of Thamugadi, founded by the emperor Trajan around A.D. 100 as a civilian settlement near the fort of Lambaesis. The grooves left by wagon and chariot wheels can still be seen in the stone road.

 

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Soldier Beetle and Magnolia


October 20, 2012

[h=2]Soldier Beetle and Magnolia
[/h] Photograph by Mark W. Moffett, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Beetles are among the most ancient pollen carriers. This soldier beetle munches a magnolia, which emits both scent and heat as lures. Cantharidae on Magnolia grandiflora, National Arboretum, Washington, D.C.

 

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Warren Cave, Antarctica


October 21, 2012

[h=2]Warren Cave, Antarctica
[/h] Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
A mix of ropes and ladders eases access to Warren Cave, a labyrinth of passages melted from the ice by the volcano's heat. Small currents of air probably cause the scalloping around the cave's entrance.

 

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Mong Kok District, Hong Kong



October 22, 2012

[h=2]Mong Kok District, Hong Kong
[/h] Photograph by Mark Leong, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
A neon-soaked district beloved by Hong Kong film directors, Mong Kok blazes with massage parlors and karaoke joints, conjuring visions of gangster shoot-outs. Triads, the local gangs, stay low profile, specializing in extortion and loan-sharking.

 

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Moai, Easter Island


October 23, 2012

[h=2]Moai, Easter Island
[/h] Photograph by Randy Olson, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Their backs to the Pacific, 15 restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki, the largest of Easter Island's ceremonial stone platforms. Rapanui artisans carved the moai centuries ago from volcanic rock at a quarry a mile away. By the 19th century all of Easter's moai had been toppled—by whom or what is unclear. In 1960 these moai were swept inland by a tsunami, which fractured some (left).

 

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Spiny-Headed Blenny


October 24, 2012

[h=2]Spiny-Headed Blenny
[/h] Photograph by Brian Skerry, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Corals build the rampart that shelters the landward provinces of mangrove and sea grass. The reef's calcium carbonate city teems with species, among them this spiny-headed blenny.

 

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Mustang Province, Nepal



October 25, 2012

[h=2]Mustang Province, Nepal
[/h] Photograph by Cory Richards, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Dusk falls over the temples and homes of Tsarang, once the region’s most important town. In Mustang, where the centuries have not disrupted the traditional rhythm of life, the caves offer clues to a time when the remote Himalayan kingdom was a hub linking Tibet to the rest of the world.

 

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Havana, Cuba



October 26, 2012

Havana, Cuba


Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
A window reflects an image of Fidel Castro in a working-class Havana neighborhood few tourists see.

 

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Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro


October 27, 2012

[h=2]Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
[/h] Photograph by David Alan Harvey, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Yachts bob in Botafogo Bay, cradled between the beach and the tall rock known as Sugar Loaf.

 

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Cheetah, Kenya


October 28, 2012

[h=2]Cheetah, Kenya
[/h] Photograph by Frans Lanting, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
A male cheetah assumes a lookout pose in a fig tree in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. His prospects are sobering. Shy and aloof by nature, requiring vast spaces to live and hunt, the planet's fastest sprinters are in a race for their very survival.

 

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Emperor Penguins, Antarctica


October 29, 2012

[h=2]Emperor Penguins, Antarctica
[/h] Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Emperor penguins are Olympian swimmers, capable of diving to 1,750 feet and remaining underwater 20 minutes on a single breath. "I was mesmerized by their beautiful bubble trails," says Nicklen, who braved 28°F water to capture these images.

 

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Buzescu, Romania



October 30, 2012

[h=2]Buzescu, Romania
[/h] Photograph by Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
A fantasia of styles, from villa to temple to castle, lines the main street of Buzescu, population 5,000. Men are often away on business; women, wealthy or not, stay to cook, clean, and raise the kids.

 

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Parrandas Festival, Cuba



October 31, 2012

[h=2]Parrandas Festival, Cuba
[/h] Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
A plume of fireworks surrounds a reveler at the Parrandas, a December festival in the colonial town of Remedios, near Cuba's north coast. Two barrios compete to stage the most impressive display.

 

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Tern Chick, Sri Lanka



November 1, 2012

[h=2]Tern Chick, Sri Lanka
[/h] Photograph by Lalith Ekanayake
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
The progeny, a solitary chick amidst the adult great crested terns, taken from a prone position with a wide-angle lens at a breeding site on a Sri Lankan island in northwestern seas.

 

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Night Workers, Japan



November 2, 2012

[h=2]Night Workers, Japan
[/h] Photograph by Teruo Araya
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
Night workers prepare to board a ferry in the Japanese port of Aomori. It feels sort of ominous, as if the workers are waiting for something to emerge from the depths of the boat.

 

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Water Patterns


November 3, 2012

[h=2]Water Patterns
[/h] Photograph by Jorgen Tharaldsen
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
In a world of a million water pictures, it's easy to dismiss this as "just another reflection shot." Still, this unedited image proves how unreal water can behave under certain circumstances.
Here I stand at the narrowest point of a small lake, and as usual I have thrown objects into the water to see how it behaves visually. Because the lake was so narrow, only a few meters, the circles started to recoil from land. The effect is called, to my knowledge, interference, but I have yet to see anything similar, even after all these years of throwing rocks into the water.

 

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African Elephant and Queleas


November 4, 2012

[h=2]African Elephant and Queleas
[/h] Photograph by Antero Topp
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images

A flock of red-billed queleas coming to drink at the same time as an African elephant

 

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Kocatepe Mosque, Turkey


November 5, 2012

[h=2]Kocatepe Mosque, Turkey
[/h] Photograph by Andrew Abrahamson
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
Kocatepe Mosque, one of the largest in the world (holding up to 24,000 worshippers), is a modern building completed in 1987. I had been given permission to wander around and take photos during the service, although I only got up to the top balcony after it had finished and most people had gone.

 

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Penguins, Antarctica


November 6, 2012

[h=2]Penguins, Antarctica
[/h] Photograph by Joshua Holko
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
Penguins adrift on an iceberg during a heavy snowstorm in Antarctica

 

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Zebras, Kenya


November 7, 2012

[h=2]Zebras, Kenya
[/h] Photograph by Justin Bowen
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
I was lucky enough to see these two fighting zebras while crossing the Masai Mara in Kenya. We stopped our vehicle and watched as the two zebras bit, kicked, and otherwise pestered each other. The two crossed our path and then started kicking violently. I followed the pair and was able to capture this moment just before they split up and went their separate ways.

 

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Winter Morning, Yosemite


November 8, 2012

[h=2]Winter Morning, Yosemite
[/h] Photograph by Tony Williams
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
All that is required to surprise and delight is to go out early on a winter morning in Yosemite and keep your eyes open wide.

 

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Hamar Portrait, Ethiopia


November 9, 2012

[h=2]Hamar Portrait, Ethiopia
[/h] Photograph by Pascal Mannaerts
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
The Hamars are a people of East Africa living in southwestern Ethiopia in a fertile area of the Omo Valley. The gracious Hamar women, freeing pride and dignity even in the midst of the bustling weekly market, are easily spotted with their characteristic outfits. They take pride in their dress and accessories and win the prize as the most decorated of the Omo people. The traditional dress code for unmarried Hamar girls includes elegant cowrie-shell collars, seeded or glass-beaded necklaces, and decorated goatskin clothing.

 

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Butterfly at Sunset


November 10, 2012

[h=2]Butterfly at Sunset
[/h] Photograph by Toni Guetta
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
Macro shot of a butterfly with the sunset in the background

 

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Abruzzo, Italy


November 11, 2012

[h=2]Abruzzo, Italy
[/h] Photograph by Steffen Springstein
This Month in Photo of the Day: 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest Images
Wildflowers in the morning sun in the mountains of Abruzzo, Italy