WHO PUT THE POP IN CHAMPAGNE?OUR BEST IMAGES
OF THE YEARSaturday, December 31, 2022In today’s newsletter, we end 2022 with a look at the year’s most stunning photos, discover how fats and sweets change your brain, mark the 11 best night sky events to see in 2023 … and take the Nat Geo quiz.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 Pictures issue. 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.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JEN GUYTON Tough talk: A hyena nicknamed Palazzo submissively lays her ears back as the clan’s dominant female 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. 
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.

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 FOLLOWINGThe best compact cameras for 2023The 11 most spectacular night sky events coming in 2023Who put the bubbles in Champagne?How fats and sweets change your brainA look at who celebrates the new year first and lastWhat can we learn from the world’s ‘happiest’ places?How an ancient civilization built hundreds of tombs and temples that rival Cairo’sShe was a California castaway. Her tale captured a nation.PHOTO QUIZ: THE SECRET INGREDIENTPHOTOGRAPH 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. 

SAY CHEESELAST GLIMPSEPHOTO COMPOSITE BY MARK THIESSEN 

Thinking big: Nat Geo Explorer Jasper Doest needed to stealthily photograph elephants, but off-the-shelf trail cameras were being “smashed and tusked” to pieces. Together, he and Nat Geo’s photo engineer Tom O’Briendesigned 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 Doest could complete the assignment. See how it went.

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

BEHIND THE SCENESToday’s Soundtrack: New Year’s Resolution, by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas 

We hope you liked today’s newsletter. This was edited and curated by Sydney Combs, Jen Tse, and David Beard. Have an idea or a link for us? Write david.beard@natgeo.com. Happy New Year! 

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