While hiking at Jasmund National Park in northwest Germany, a rainstorm passed by and created a stunning scene! The sea was completely flat and the only thing out there was the tiny sailing boat.
This photo of a cowboy in Cabo San Lucas was taken at the most amazing sunset; the air was extremely heavy, and the contrast of the lighting was unbelievable. I saw this cowboy coming straight at me and I knew at that point in time how to describe the beauty of Cabo San Lucas. It was not about the magnificent ocean, the calving whales, or the seals that swam from Lovers Cove to Divorce Beach. Cabo was about the beauty of the people that made this place simply remarkable.
In the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico, steel pillars supporting a gas platform make a vertical reef encrusted with tube sponges.
Upholstered with luminous sponges and corals, the bridge of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Duane attracts schools of smallmouth grunts—and divers. The ship was intentionally sunk in 1987 off Key Largo to create an artificial reef 120 feet (36 meters) deep.
Hunting for morsels of plankton, a school of spadefish hovers near the surface off Japan’s subtropical Bonin Islands. The turquoise color permeates the water late in the afternoon, as the red rays of the setting sun spread out and grow weak.
Diving Browning Passage at the northern end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, is one of the most spectacular experiences in the Pacific Northwest. The sheer diversity and abundance of life is astonishing. At the end of one dive, ascending into rough and choppy surface conditions, I took this lucky shot of a green anemone as a wave washed over it.
Photograph by Jens Troeger
Feel the sea, the silence, the blue, the liberty. Mediterranean Sea, Minorca.
Underneath the ice, spikes meet spikes as an Alaska king crab the size of a nickel crawls over a knobby sea star. After a dozen years, the crustacean will grow to the size of a tractor tire. Photograph by Brian Skerry
Ipanema Beach in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, at night
In January, when much of the Northern Hemisphere is huddled down in the cold winter, the small bohemian surf town of Sayulita, Mexico, shows off its full colors and is ripe with bone-warming heat. Away from the tourist-trinket masses, the locals and visitors to Sayulita come and relish in its simple and natural yet stunning assets: sun, surf, salt, and sunsets. Are you sighing in awe? So was I. A winter—or any—view has rarely looked this good.
Photograph by Ashley Gordon
Posting the National Geographic Photo of the Day here. I do not claim any ownership of these photos.
