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In anticipation for the new year National Geographic has released its 2015 "photo of the day" roundup featuring images taken by its YourShot community. The photo of the day segment featured on their website displays stunning photography captured from around the world, serving as a daily reminder of the beauty of nature.
YourShot is National Geographic community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, a chance to get published in the National Geographic magazine and more.
Taken in loctions such as Antartica and the Persian Gulf the top pics were chosen by National Geographic magazine
"When Penguins Attack by Clinton Berry with a GoPro on Antarctica's sea ice, about six miles from Casey Station. "I studied the movements of the penguins for weeks" He said "They walked in the same area almost every day. We would get maybe a dozen penguins or less going by. The day this was taken there were over 60 penguins. it was a bit of luck involved too." (National Geographic/Clinton Berry)
"Shining Through by Ernie Vater": The setting sun shines through the ice on the shore of a frozen Lake Superior, traversed by Your Shot member Ernie Vater to reach this spot. “Part of the beauty of this place is the silence of it,” he writes of the ice caves at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore near Bayfield, Wisconsin. “You hear nothing except the occasional creaking of the ice (which can make you jump if it's right under you). There were a few times when I just stopped and enjoyed the quiet. In this spot the only sounds were the water drops splashing.” (National Geographic/Ernie Vater)
"Yellow Jellies" by Ciemon Frank Caballes: The residents of Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk—one of the Rock Islands of Palau—surround a snorkeler in their midst. The saltwater lake’s golden jellyfish, harmless to humans, spend much of their lives following the sun as it makes its daily progress across the sky. For these jellies, sunlight is essential: It nourishes the algae-like organisms that live symbiotically in their tissues. (National Geographic/Ciemon Frank Caballes)
"Bioluminous Larak" by Pooyan Shadpoor: While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran—an island in the Persian Gulf—Your Shot member Pooyan Shadpoor came across the luminous scene in the photo above. The “magical lights of [the] plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot,” he writes. (National Geographic/Pooyan Shadpoor)
"Dancing With the Moon" by Andrew George: The aurora borealis shares the sky with a bright moon in Iceland. Named for the Roman goddess of dawn, the vivid beams of light result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth’s atmosphere (National Geographic/Andrew George)
"All the Fish in the Sea" by Jeff Hester: Your Shot member Jeff Hester was drawn to make this image because, he says, “I believe this is what our oceans should look like.” But Cabo Pulmo, a marine park off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, hasn't always been this way. “In 1995, [the] park was established by local citizens to counteract depleted reef fishes and marine life due to overfishing,” he says. “Today, the biomass is booming, and the ecosystem is returning to a healthy state. For this particular image, I wanted to show some scale ... so I had my wife, seen in the foreground, swim ahead of me.” (National Geographic/Jeff Hester)
"Cracking the Surface" by Alexey Trofimov: “Ice on Lake Baikal is a very interesting phenomenon,” writes Alexey Trofimov. “Ice ridges, cracks, tears, hugging. All this creates unique and fantastic stories.” Trofimov spends a few months a year photographing landscapes at the lake—the world’s deepest and oldest—in southeastern Siberia. On this trip, he hoped to make an unusual picture of the ice, showing elements not normally visible. When one morning brought a strong frost and wind, which created unusual patterns in the cracks, Trofimov “had only to wait for sunrise to make this picture.” (National Geographic/Alexey Trofimov)
To see the full list of their YourShot Photo of the day picks visit National Geographic.
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!["Bioluminous Larak" by Pooyan Shadpoor: While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran—an island in the Persian Gulf—Your Shot member Pooyan Shadpoor came across the luminous scene in the photo above. The “magical lights of [the] plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot,” he writes.](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/12/23/14/NG-your-shot4.jpg)
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