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OUR BEST IMAGES
OF THE YEAR

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we find that a comprehensive new study has bad news for men’s sperm, get a glimpse of the year’s most stunning photos, track down a tree at the bottom of the world, examine why the mass killing of donkeys could lead to a deadly outbreak ... and take the Nat Geo quiz.

A person in a silver suit holds a pitchfork on lava rocks

HOTOGRAPH BY ARTURO RODRÍGUEZ

An astronaut on a moonscape? No, a specialist collecting glowing lava on a pitchfork.

This image is on the cover of Nat Geo’s Year in Photos issue for December. In all, 132 photographers visited 60 countries and submitted 2,238,899 images to document the multifaceted world we live in. Our photo editors selected 118 of their favorites for consideration.

See all the year’s best photos here.

Please consider getting our full digital report and magazine by subscribing here.

Two hyenas snarl at each other

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEN GUYTON

Tough talk: A hyena nicknamed Palazzo submissively lays her ears back as the clan’s dominant female, Moulin Rouge, towers over her and Palazzo’s pup. Nat Geo Explorer Jen Guyton captured this tense exchange using an infrared camera while on the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

A boat sails near an iceberg

PHOTOGRAPH BY RENAN OZTURK

Peekaboo with the icebergs: That’s how photographer Renan Ozturk described launching a camera drone from the boat the Polar Sun, on a journey through a melting Arctic. This image was taken from Disko Bay, Greenland. See the photographers of the year.

A portrait of a woman with long pink braids

PHOTOGRAPH BY WAYNE LAWRENCE

In the surf: Pontsho Name was one of the people Wayne Lawrence photographed from Durban, South Africa. “Capturing someone’s true essence is the most difficult thing about portrait photography, and I fail most times,” he said. “My approach is to always gauge a person’s energy and try to match it.” See more of the year’s best.

STORIES WE'RE FOLLOWING

Sperm counts are tanking for men worldwide. ‘We may cross a tipping point when most men will be sub-fertile,’ says one expert.

Wildlife Watch: How the mass killing of donkeys could unleash another deadly outbreak Related: About the Nat Geo Society-funded Wildlife Watch

She was a California castaway. Her tale captured a nation.

The surprisingly difficult hunt to find the southernmost tree in the world

What can we learn from the world’s ‘happiest’ places?

How these foods may help you live longer

Where Jesus walked: Maze of tunnels reveals remains of ancient Jerusalem

The rebel queen who took on Rome

PHOTO QUIZ: THE SECRET INGREDIENT

A muted color photograph of a National Geographic magazine on a table with fruit and flowers

PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS

A ‘starchy’ photo: This 1927 photograph, featuring a copy of Nat Geo, used a primitive way of creating a color photo. The autochrome consisted of a glass plate covered with a thin wash of starch grains dyed red, green, and blue. The soft, dyed colors made the photos look like a painting. Which vegetable’s starch was the key ingredient in autochromes? Click here to find the answer.

LAST GLIMPSE

A picture of gear

PHOTO COMPOSITE BY MARK THIESSEN

Thinking big: Nat Geo Explorer Jasper Doest needed to get the elephant image, but off-the-shelf trail cameras were being “smashed and tusked” to pieces. Together, he and Nat Geo’s photo engineer Tom O’Brien designed high-tech camera traps to withstand skittish and powerful forest elephants. The result? Roughly 1,100 pounds of equipment (pictured above) shipped from Washington to Gabon so he could complete the assignment. See how it went.

Related: The real-life MacGyver in Nat Geo’s basement

BEHIND THE SCENES

We hope you liked today’s newsletter. This was edited and curated by Sydney Combs, Jen Tse, Heather Kim, and David Beard. Have an idea or a link for us? Write [email protected]. Happy trails!

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