Pyongyang Mass Games, North Korea

Photograph by David GuttenfelderNational Geographic

Children mobilized for the annual mass games in Pyongyang, North Korea, act as pixels to portray a happy patriot in uniform.

Bubbles, Cartagena

Photograph by Massimo Rumi
National Geographic

On Sundays during Mes de la Cometas, or Kite Month, the sky over Cartagena, Colombia, fills with colorful kites moving in every direction. "I knew this was a great opportunity for photography," says Your Shot contributor Massimo Rumi, who on arriving at a park found that the many colors, families, and kids presented a larger challenge than expected. "Flying a kite is a family sport in Cartagena, and I wanted to capture a family moment of relaxation and fun," he says.

Having come across a dog chasing soap bubbles, Rumi first tried to focus on the animal, then suddenly zoomed out. "I wanted to capture the whole family, and the bubbles unexpectedly helped frame the people in such a perfect way."

Basketball Court, Hong Kong

Photograph by Brian Yen
National Geographic

Your Shot contributor Brian Yen calls it his "weekly photography fix": the uninterrupted hour and a half after he drops his daughter off at her ballet lesson, which he spends shooting pictures in the school's neighborhood. "I had encountered this scene in the past, but always with many players on the court," he says of this image, shot from a pedestrian overpass above Garden Road in Hong Kong. "But this time, near the end of my walk, I saw this lone player shooting hoops. The contrast with the Friday evening rush hour traffic was immediately obvious."

There's Always One

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Photograph by Yashani Shantha
National Geographic

Elephants at the elephant orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka. The orphanage was originally founded in order to afford care and protection to the many orphaned elephants found in the jungle. As of 2003, there were 65 elephants. Since the captive breeding program was launched in 1982, over 20 elephants have been born. The aim of the orphanage is to simulate the natural world. However, there are some exceptions: The elephants are taken to the river twice daily for a bath, and all the babies under three years of age are still bottle fed by the mahouts and volunteers.

Imperiled Rhino

Photograph by Richard Young
National Geographic

Zimbabwe's Matopos National Park had 86 white and 36 black rhinos ten years ago. Poachers have reduced these numbers to only 9 white 17 black rhinos today. These numbers say it all. The park's oldest white rhino, Gumboot, was killed by poachers just two weeks before I took this picture of Swazi 2, his horn cut off to help protect him from poaching. If we do not act now to save them from poaching, we will be the generation responsible for the extinction of the rhino in the wild.

Deer, Richmond Park

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Photograph by Prashant Meswani
National Geographic

This was taken in early morning at Richmond Park in late October.

Reflection, Hungary

Photograph by Zsolt Szabo
National Geographic

Misty summer photo, Nagykanizsa, Hungary.

Eastern Screech Owlets

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Photograph by Graham McGeorge
National Geographic

Eastern screech owls like to take over woodpecker nests that have been dug out over the years in pine trees, which are the main species of tree at this swamp. The Fish and Wildlife Service also paints a white ring around the base of a tree that has active nests so they will be avoided when conducting controlled burns. Screech owls can range in height anywhere from eight to ten inches, so you have to have a sharp eye to find these little birds of prey.

I spent the first few weeks of April this year photographing the gray morph screech owl that was living in the nest and had no idea there were three owlets inside.

Seagulls, Alaska

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Photograph by Court Leve

National Geographic

This image was taken while flying in a helicopter from Juneau, Alaska, to Cordova, Alaska. The four-hour flight routes through some of the most desolate areas of Alaska, including what is known as the Lost Coast. We were flying at elevations up to 15,000 feet near the Fairweather Range when my pilot wanted to then follow the coastline. As we turned the corner, the beach below was filled with what seemed to be millions of seagulls. The noise from the helicopter spooked the birds and wave after wave of gulls took flight below us. It was somewhat mesmerizing.

Winter Layers

Photograph by Paul Nicklen
National Geographic

Having gorged on salmon to lay on fat for hibernation, a grizzly wears a coat of ice in Canada's Yukon.

Holy Week Procession, Guatemala

Photograph by Chantal Levesque

This photo was taken during a procession in Antigua Guatemala during Holy Week.

Gorner Glacier, Switzerland

Photograph by Robbie Shone

Beneath the stars, two scientific explorers descend into the icy depths of a moulin on the Gorner Glacier in Switzerland. The freshly exposed rock above the glacier on the left-hand side shows how the ice has melted under an increasingly warm world. These explorers are mapping the changes taking place beneath the surface. Their work must be carried out at night because high daytime temperatures create vast amounts of meltwater, making exploration difficult and dangerous.

Cheetah, Serengeti

Photograph by Eva Liang

A gazelle's blood stained the cheetah's mouth. Taken in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Africa.

Swans, Slovakia

Photograph by Norbert Nemes

Swans and ducks, Piešťany, Slovakia

Penguin Pair, Antarctica

Photograph by Marius Ilies

I took this picture at Port Lockroy during my trip to Antartica in 2010. The two penguins almost touching flippers, looking at each other, and captured against the majestic frozen background, seemed romantically involved.

Starlings, United Kingdom

Photograph by John O Neill

A flock of starlings takes flight at the moment of shutter release. These social birds were declining over the past few years in the U.K., but the numbers appear to be stabilizing. They can flock in such huge numbers that they have been known to break the boughs of trees while roosting.

Shepherd's Cave, Afghanistan

Photograph by Matthieu Paley

Kyrgyz men seek shelter in a shepherd’s cave during their annual journey from their mountainous homeland in remote Afghanistan to the nearest trading village in Pakistan, an icy, five-day trek. They will barter livestock, wool, and dairy products for everything from tea to television sets

Scotch Pines, Norway

Photograph by Orsolya Haarberg

Still water and the setting sun create a painterly backdrop for a stand of Scotch pines on the island of Sula—one of the many ice-scraped, sea-sculpted, barely peopled places that together create Norway’s sublime shore.

Leopard, Okavango Delta

Photograph by Beverly Joubert

A leopard sits in an ancient baobab tree in Botswana's Okavango Delta, a seasonal oasis for wild things above and below the water's surface.

Cassowary, Australia

Photograph by Christian Ziegler

A cassowary peers through foliage in northeast Queensland, Australia. Females like this one can weigh 160 pounds. No one knows what the casque on her head is for, but it could be a sexual ornament.