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June 2008
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Top Shots
Take a look at each month's magazine selections for Your Shot from both the editor and our voting machine.
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National Geographic.” She was right.]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
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Not-so-still Life Construction worker Glen Dettmer first spotted this snail and grasshopper in the weeds near his Fort Lauderdale job site. Then he photographed them on a desk in his hotel room before releasing them. "The company gave me the camera for work," admits Dettmer, 44. "It's supposed to be for shooting before-and-after pictures of construction." But South Florida's plentiful wildlife has shifted his focus. "I've shot millipedes, turtles, fish, and iguanas so far," he says. "I don't think I've used it for work yet."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Sweet Feast "This shot embodies the symbiosis between the wild berry and the beetle, as the beetle lives off the insects that harm the fruit," says photographer Tom Hall. "The vivid green and orange seem to explode with the sunlight, and the beetle was in just the right place." Hall captured the image last spring in a park in Scheveningen, near The Hague in the Netherlands.]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Up, Up, and Away Hopes and dreams ignite the night during the Lantern Festival, marking the end of the Chinese New Year festivities in Pingsi, a town in northern Taiwan. "People write their wishes on paper lanterns, light them, and launch them into the sky in the belief that they will come true," says photographer Sheng-Fa Lin. "It's such a unique and fun experience, that I wanted to share this celebration with the world."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Losing His Head While browsing through the Milwaukee Art Museum last January, photographer Ran Tao decided to add a humorous embellishment—her boyfriend, Alex—to Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz's work "Two Figures on a Beam." "Since Alex's body shape is similar to the two 'people' in the sculpture," she says, "I thought it would be fun to take his picture and create my own art."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Water Wheels "I was just getting home when I saw these children driving their bikes through the water," says Samuel Melim, 30, a Web designer. "This shot shows how life is good, and how the little things can be wonderful."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
In for the Kill Photographer Dean Bertoncelj was visiting a park's raptor show on Spain's Lanzarote island when he snapped this bald eagle snatching a fish. "For a living I shoot fashion and celebrity photography," says Bertoncelj, 38. "But animals are something I enjoy the most."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Morning Expedition Warmed by late morning sun, mounds of soil at a construction site in Targu Mures, Romania, invite one man to dig—perhaps for fishing worms. "The steam created a mysterious strange light that drew my attention," says photographer Calin Oprea, who was out for a jog. Oprea needed little encouragement to submit the photo to "Your Shot." After posting the image on an online photo gallery, he responded to one man's comment that "This shot is worthy of National Geographic." That's all it took.]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Winter Cottage Who would think that such a peaceful scene of the back of photographer Ben Bishop's house could be so hard to capture? Weather was the culprit. Cold snowy conditions forced Bishop to protect his camera and lenses in plastic bags when he set up in the wee hours. But high winds blew some of the bags off and turned the ones covering his flashes into sails. "After getting this shot," he said, "I watched my flash—as if in slow motion—blow over the fence, breaking the fence and snapping my cheap light stand in half."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
It's Not Easy Being Green His pet veiled chameleon was "either cold or not totally happy," says Igor Siwanowicz, 30, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. "Contrary to popular belief, color change is an expression of the lizard's physical condition and mood rather than an adaptation to surroundings."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
One Giant Leap A six-minute exposure scraped the space shuttle's launch path across a night sky last December. Ryan Smith, a 27-year-old engineer, used mapping and space websites to determine the best time and place to get the picture.]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Moment of Peace and Play Soaked by a March downpour during the long walk from the dining facility to his trailer barracks, Pfc Jonathan Duncan made a little impromptu fun splashing through puddles of rain. "I was playing around with my Canon G6, an early birthday present from my wife," says Brian Hill, who served with Duncan in the Third Infantry Division at Camp Liberty on the outskirts of Baghdad. "The photographer in me couldn't let this opportunity go to waste, so I started taking pictures." The photo is thought provoking for Hill, who has since left military service. "There's a juxtaposition between the soldier in the middle of a combat zone splashing through a puddle. And the rigid linear shapes of the barricades—along with the slightly blurred person—add to the contrast."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Public Baths Plopped in the middle of a busy downtown street in Angola's capital city of Luanda, three boys take advantage of a sinkhole formed when a water main ruptured beneath the pavement. "Traffic was passing right by them," says photographer Kostadin Luchansky, who shot the image from his nearby apartment window. Luanda's water supply is limited, he says, so this hole and another "upstream" drew crowds for days. "Kids were bathing, playing, and fetching water to wash cars. The holes got larger and larger every day, but they didn't seem to be bothered. A stream of happiness for some turned out to be a big urban problem for others."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
That's the Spot! Two young grizzlies took a road sign literally in Alaska's Denali National Park. Photographer Mark Dilley—shooting from the safety of his car—had glimpsed a bear scratching itself on the same sign years earlier. "I didn't think I'd get another chance to get that shot," he says.]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Another Day, Another Euro Luis Zilhão captured this rush-hour scene in the Portuguese village of Vilarinho Seco. "When everybody is going home after a day in the field, you see people guiding animals and carrying vegetables or wood for the fireside where dinner will be cooked in old metal cauldrons."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Room for One More? Timing was everything for photographer John Krerowicz, who caught a second black-capped chickadee as he snapped a photo of one that had just landed on a suet feeder in his yard. "This was a one-in-a-million shot," he says. "Chickadees, like many small birds, are lightning fast. I was lucky that the hovering bird in the background entered the frame at the exact moment I was taking the picture."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Veiled Beauty Day's end presented an opportunity for Marios Theocharous last November. "I was in my kitchen and saw how the light coming in the window captured the curtain and the red cyclamen blooming on the other side," he says. "I thought it was beautiful, a subject worthy of National Geographic."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Fish Flyby She didn't know she'd photographed this airborne needlefish. On vacation in the Dominican Republic, Irina Lynch thought she was just taking a picture of the sea. "The sun was so blinding that I didn't even see the fish. I only heard a splash," she says. "I noticed the fish when I went back and looked at the photos." Lynch, 27, works for a printing company in London. "I've been an amateur photographer since I was about 12 years old," she says. "I took pictures with my dad's Zenit camera and made a horrible mess developing them in the bathroom."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Eye of the Beholder Aiming for a close-up of her cat's eye, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Caitlin Redding ended up with something altogether more. "I thought this was a good picture because of how clearly you can see my house reflected in Javerna's eye," she said. "I always wondered how animals see the world. This was a cool way to interpret that idea."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Beautiful Drinker "My wife was afraid I was going to drop our expensive digital camera in the water," says Bryan Johnson of his prolonged and precarious efforts to get the perfect picture of a yellow paper wasp drinking from his swimming pool. Coming from a nest near his house in Tucson, Arizona, several thirsty wasps were landing for a drink as Johnson lumbered waist-high through the pool to capture a scene only seconds in duration—until finally he got what he wanted.]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Secret of Life In the waters off Lanzarote, one of Spain's Canary Islands, photographer Carlos Suárez encountered a school of sargo fish feeding on a cluster of cuttlefish eggs. "They were devouring the newborns as they emerged from the black egg sacs," he said. "As I examined an egg, I was amazed to see a small cuttlefish—an exact replica of its adult parents—moving around inside. I felt lucky that the ocean had offered this opportunity for me to see the secret of life between my fingers."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Cocky Robin Several weeks and many mealworms were spent waiting for this wild European robin to pose on a white backdrop placed in his garden, explains photographer Tim Gainey. "This shot sums up the character of that little bird," he says.]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Cat on a Hot Cactus Before helping this bobcat down from a 30-foot (10 meters) saguaro with a bag net on a pole, Terry Stevens snapped the stranded animal—which then bounded off, unhurt, into the surrounding desert. "There had been mountain lion sightings in the area," says Stevens, 58, an airline pilot when not plucking cats off cactuses. "That might be what chased him up there."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Hungry Heron Now free to indulge his passion for photography, Alabama retiree Bill Houghton happened upon this wildlife drama as it took place on a lakeshore in Montgomery's Shakespeare Garden. A great blue heron flew in and snatched a duckling right out from under its hapless mother. "There was nothing she could do to stop it," says Houghton, who watched the heron swallow the baby duck after flying off a ways. "Later, it came back," he said, "and—one by one—picked off the entire clutch of seven ducklings."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Game of Cat and Mouse "This was a real mighty mouse, and I was rooting for him," says photographer Daniel Stark of Portland, Oregon, about the prolonged backyard battle between his girlfriend's cat, Rufus, and a mouse he'd caught—two seemingly mismatched opponents. Lasting several minutes, the encounter enabled Stark to run into his house and set up his camera for an action shot he never expected to complete. "Sometimes it appeared that both creatures were playing a game," says Stark. "After Rufus battered the mouse around a bit, it would play dead until the cat picked it up again for a good shaking. But eventually the mouse got away."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
In the Shadows Though busy working on a television shoot one cold morning at the Krugersdorp train station outside Johannesburg, Graham De Lacy—a freelance art director—caught this commuter emerging from the manufactured mists of the production's smoke machines. ]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Winged Grace "I had some trail mix, and he had the will," says Jonathan Ingraham of the hungry Steller's jay he photographed during a snowshoe hike through Rocky Mountain National Park. "Every chance I get to go somewhere with my camera," he says, "I do it."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Parked for the Winter "It reminded me of a fish bone that a cat might find in the garbage," says photographer April Douglas of a rack of bicycles covered in fresh snow. "But the scene was so beautiful, serene, and unusual, and looking straight down gave me a great perspective." Douglas shot the image from the 11th-floor balcony of the Ottawa apartment where she lived last winter. "That balcony allowed me to capture some of the most beautiful photos I've ever taken."]]>
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Commentary by Photo Editor Susan Welchman]]>
Star Trek While strolling along the beach at St. Catherines Island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, photographer Christena Pazos came upon this sea star stranded in the sand. "It was at very low tide, and this little guy looked as if it was trying to make its way back home," she says. "I'd never seen a starfish 'walking.' So right after snapping the photo, I scooped it up and took it back to the sea."]]>
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