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These are the best images of the best, showcasing “stunning photography captured in locations all around the world.” National Geographic magazine and society rounded up their own “most intriguing photos of 2022.” Starting with “2,238,899 total photos snapped by NatGeo’s team of photographers,” they argued between themselves until “118 were selected as the top shots.” Their “Pictures of the Year” are the ten they like the best, in no particular order.
SpaceX Photobomb
First up in the top images is the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch over Blue Cypress Lake, Florida. Photographer Mac Stone caught the stunning blast off from Cape Canaveral in the early hours of June 19, 2022. “The rocket left a bright streak in the sky over bald cypress trees in Florida’s Blue Cypress Lake.” He was meant to be “photographing at night in a remote swamp.” SpaceX photobombed his shoot for the second time in that version. He noted “the increased frequency of launches without fanfare” makes it seem “that we have crossed over into a new era where cosmic missions are simply business as usual.”
Unique combined images
Stephen Wilkes and his team “endured rough terrain and windy weather” to grab a “unique” combined photo shot of Bears Ears National Monument. He captured 2,092 images of the Utah landmark over a span of 36 hours. Then, he painstakingly “combined 44 of them.” He manages to display “the sun, a full moon and the alignment of four planets.” Meanwhile, you were looking at the rocks and wouldn’t have noticed if nobody pointed it out. “Beyond the sense of awe and beauty, there’s a palpable sense of history with every step you take.”
All in a day’s work
Collecting samples from a volcanic eruption requires gear that looks a lot like a space suit, here on Earth. The next of the year’s most attention grabbing images depicts Spanish military emergency specialist Armando Salazar as he was “collecting samples from the eruption of La Palma’s Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge in Canary Islands, Spain.” Arturo Rodriquez got an extraordinary photo of “Salazar doing his everyday duty as he steps across sizzling rocks and collects lava on a pitchfork.” He does that to help “scientists better understand the 86-day event and the site’s potential for future blasts.” That one scored the issue’s cover shot
A blur of Lincoln Memorial images
Tourists rush by in a blur at the Lincoln Memorial which, “visited by thousands of tourists each year, celebrated its centennial in 2022.” Long camera exposure was the best way photographer Sasha Arutyunova could think of to capture “the hustle and bustle of tourism surrounding Washington, D.C.’s presidential monument made from 38,000 tons of marble, limestone and granite.” The images she produced blur “the crowds of different passersby who’ve treated the monument as a backdrop for protests, prayer vigils and celebrations of all kinds this year.” She was generally “trying to capture a feeling of the sea of visitors to the memorial each year, while positioning the Lincoln statue as this steady constant.”
Images of fear
There were no shortage of iconic images coming out of Ukraine since the Russian troops invaded. This one depicts a “mother-daughter duo, both named Oksana Hapbarova.” They embrace “for a photo taken by photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind.” They related their experience in a Kyiv bomb shelter. “For six days in the shelter, I couldn’t sleep, because I was scared I would never wake up,” the younger Hapbarova relates.
A shot worth the risk
Photographer Renan Ozturk “made a risky move when he launched his camera drone from a moving boat” to catch images of their vessel sailing between two photogenic icebergs in Greenland. Launching his model of camera drone is tricky on solid land. “The National Geographic expedition ship Polar Sun was five weeks into its journey when Ozturk went exploring off the coast of Greenland.” The once in a lifetime opportunity helped make up his mind. “Launching the drone from a moving boat is always a dangerous and exciting affair. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience to shoot such a feature.”
Patience and luck get the images
According to photographer Katie Orlinsky, the vivid images she caught of a tapir named Preciosa in Emas National Park, Brazil happened only with a lot of luck. With a full harvest moon overhead, “Preciosa wandered down the road as Orlinsky doubted ever spotting her again. It was definitely not this tapir’s usual route.” The species “dates back some 50 million years as one of the few survivors of the Ice Age extinctions of megafauna.” Those are “really big mammals like mammoths.” Today, the tapir population has tapered off. All “tapir species are either threatened or endangered.”
Baby brain activity
Nine-month-old Ian Boardman seems to be having the time of his life in images captured by photographer Lynn Johnson. This award winning one “caught the moment in which baby Ian looks up and smiles at a doctor who’s brushing his skin to activate nerve fiber responses.”
Images of spring migration
It helps to have a drone if you want to get great images of caribou trekking across the Alaskan landscape. Katie Orlinsky caught up to this group in Kobuk River Valley. They were in the middle of their spring migration. “While caribou populations throughout North America are dwindling, the Western Arctic herd has also been whittled down to a record low of less than 200,000.”
The last laugh
A pair of hyenas bare their teeth at photographer Jen Guyton as she snaps their photo at night with an infrared camera. They were probably just protecting the little one. The images show a “dominant hyena female — named Moulin Rouge by scientists,” who “towers over a submissive hyena called Palazzo, as Palazzo’s cub peers out in between them.” They got even by “stealing a tripod from Guyton during the shoot.“
