An exquisite photo collection showcasing awe-inducing moments from around the world, including the aurora borealis, cities made of neon lights, a great wildebeest migration, a contortionist on display--and more. In life, there are certain sights that are as beautiful as they are unforgettable--from a majestic supercell to the secrets of a deep blue ice cave to the world's largest library. These fascinating spectacles shock us in their diversity, their complexity, and their epic scale, bringing us the miraculous beauty of our planet. Featuring more than 200 color images, including acclaimed photography from the National Geographic Image Collection, this volume presents a dazzling array of natural and manmade wonders, unusual phenomena, and amusing curiosities. Each page will enlighten and inspire, presenting our world at its best.

Collects the work of National Geographic's best photographers, featuring striking images of places, events, natural phenomena, and manmade heirlooms seldom seen by human eyes, including ancient cave art and volcanic lightning.

Capturing the moment in which a firecracker explodes into a burst of electric energy or the last rays of the sun as it stretches across a red-rock valley, certain special photos offer an unrivalled conduit to the world around us.

Presents information on female rule-breakers, including Josephine Baker, Jane Goodall, Margaret Cho, and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

."..this is an iconic collection of National Geographic's photography of the world's most beautiful locations that will immortalize the beauty of the great outdoors, showcasing evocative, and often unseen, images of extraordinary landscapes around the world."--Amazon.com.

"The latest entry in National Geographic's popular photo line gives readers a front-row seat to the wonders of landscape photography. Choosing from among the world's best portfolios, curators at National Geographic have arranged a symphony of photographs that tell the story of a single day, from dawn's first light to the closing moments of sunset, from daylight to dark. Short legends accompany every photograph to explain the picture, the scene it conveys, or how the photographer captured it, along with quotations from literature that provide historical context. With the widest possible array of perspectives, close-ups, and details, these photos present a lifetime of vision, each page a new experience of time and light"--

Includes photographs by Annie Griffiths and other National Geographic photographers.

A celebration of color by one of the first women National Geographic photographers devotes each chapter to a color while providing inspirational essays that explore each color's qualities, meaning and symbolism, in a sumptuously photographed tribute that includes coverage of "unseen color" as revealed by new technologies.

Celebrate the beauty of the world after dark--from starlit skies and glowing city streets to exquisite nocturnal creatures --with this magnificent new photography collection from National Geographic. The world is a different place after dark, and this breathtaking book illuminates the mesmerizing realm of all things nocturnal, with more than 250 glorious images. Page after page of vivid photographs explore the many nuances of night vision--from the sea by moonlight to night markets in Laos to the face of a child lit up by a screen in a darkened room. The range of images in these pages is breathtaking: A smoky jazz club. Flowers that bloom only at night. Phosphorescent fish. Lions photographed with infrared cameras. The Eiffel Tower, all lit up. Faces around a campfire. A stadium lit by floodlights. Earth from space. Elegant, sexy, and a little mysterious, this richly illustrated book is a stunning pathway to some of the world's most captivating sights.

Since its establishment as a federally protected wilderness in 1964, the Boundary Waters has become one of our nation's most valuable--and most frequently visited--natural treasures. When Amy and Dave Freeman learned of toxic mining proposed within the area's watershed, they decided to take action--by spending a year in the wilderness, and sharing their experience through video, photos, and blogs with an audience of hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens. This book tells thedeeper story of their adventure in northern Minnesota: of loons whistling under a moonrise, of ice booming as it forms and cracks, of a moose and her calf swimming across a misty lake. With the magic--and urgent--message that has rallied an international audience to the campaign to save the Boundary Waters, A Year in the Wilderness is a rousing cry of witness activism, and a stunning tribute to this singularly beautiful region.