National Geographic Magazine's Top 10 Photos Of 2009

Flip through the pages of any issue of the National Geographic Magazine and you'll find eye-opening and evocative images - the best published anywhere in the world. Earning the "yellow border" is one of the most highly-prized accomplishments in photo-journalism. Yet even among these striking images, there are some that stand out as instant icons for our times. And what really set all of National Geographic Magazine's photos apart are the stories behind the photos.

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Fattening up for winter, a brown bear waits to snatch salmon in Kuril Lake, located in the southern region of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Photo by Randy Olson published in National Geographic Magazine, August 2009.

Randy Olson

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Prime qualification for cavers: tolerance for a tight squeeze. John Benson can make progress only with his helmet off and his head turned just so. He exhales, making his body as flat as possible, slides a few inches on his back, stops, inhales and repeats. Photo by Stephen Alvarez published in National Geographic Magazine, June 2009.

Stephen Alvarez

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Simon Booth remembers when he grazed 250 head of cattle on his ranch in southeastern Australia — a sight his children Ryan and Claire may never see. Photo by Amy Toensing, published in National Geographic, April 2009.

Amy Toensing

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Muscling over the Nu River’s rush on a steel cable, Nan Boyi hauls a cow to market. The hard-earned sale brought this Lisu-minority villager about $150, two-thirds the average yearly income in rural Yunnan Province. Photo by Fritz Hoffman published in National Geographic Magazine, May 2009.

Fritz Hoffman

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A garland of nature crowns Chicago’s City Hall, softening the hard edges of a town famous for steel and stone — and lowering summer temperatures on the roof. Inspired by a worldwide movement, Mayor Richard Daley has made Chicago North America’s leading “green roofs” city. Photo by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel published in National Geographic Magazine, May 2009.

Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

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Facing the dawn, women of the An-Nadzir commune begin Islam’s Feast of the Sacrifice, which celebrates the Koran’s account of God sparing the prophet Ismail. As the sun rises, their prayers join those raised by a chorus of Indonesia’s Muslims, fundamentalist and moderate alike: “Allahu akbar” — God is great. Photo by James Nachtwey published in National Geographic Magazine, October 2009.

James Nachtwey

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Stung by soaring food prices, angry Egyptians throng a kiosk selling government-subsidized bread near the Great Pyramid at Giza. Across the globe, rising demand and flat supplies have rekindled the old debate over whether production can keep up with population. Photo by John Stanmeyer published in National Geographic Magazine, June 2009.

John Stanmeyer

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River dolphins navigating the Amazon Basin’s tea-colored brew of silt and rotting vegetation seem to glow orange. Out of water, they’re pale gray, with some marked in pink. Called botos in Brazil, they use high-frequency sonar clicks to build a 3-D echogram of their dark world. Photo by Kevin Schafer published in National Geographic Magazine, June 2009.

Kevin Schafer

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Like his ancestors, young Nija will grow up to roam the wildlands around Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania — if outside pressures don't curtail his people's freedom first. Photo by Martin Schoeller published in National Geographic Magazine, December 2009.

Martin Schoeller

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At least 1,500 years old, a 300-foot titan in California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has the most complex crown scientists have mapped. Photo by Michael Nichols published in National Geographic Magazine, October 2009.

Michael Nichols

With flair, action, and behind-the-scenes footage, this one-hour special counts down the "best of the best" from the magazine that has won dozens of national magazine awards for photography.

We're asking the editors to take a list that includes hundreds of amazing photos and whittle it down to just 10. As we do, we reveal the stories you haven't heard about the photographs. The program will include interviews with National Geographic Magazine Senior Photo Editor Chris Johns, as well as photographers and editors involved in everything from getting that perfect shot, to choosing the right photo.

The top 10 images were taken by:

• Kevin Schafer, who struggled with the murky, tannic waters of the Amazon River for his first National Geographic magazine assignment.

• Fritz Hoffman, who dangled from a cable over the raging Nu River in China as villagers crossed on a zip line to take animals to market on the other side.

• Amy Toensing, who, documenting the drought in Southwestern Australia, describes how her picture came together almost by accident as she followed a family through the parched landscape of what had once been a thriving farm.

• Stephen Alvarez, who explains how he illuminates pitch-black underground caves to expose them in a way that has truly never been seen before.

• Martin Schoeller, who typically shoots portraits of celebrities like Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie, photographed the Hadza, a vanishing culture in Tanzania. He shipped a complete studio to the African bush with lights and generators to capture this series of intimate, searing portraits.

• Randy Olson, who used a computer to control an underwater camera trained on a grizzly bear in Kamchatka, Russia.

• John Stanmeyer, who usually covers wars, international conflict and social injustice, traveled to nine countries for a story about the global food crisis.

• James Nachtwey, who has a similar beat to Stanmeyer’s, spent several months in Indonesia covering the many faces of Islam in a nation that is home to more Muslims than anywhere else in the world.

• Len Jenshel and Diane Cook, a husband-and-wife photographer team, battled time and weather to make a photograph of a rooftop garden on Chicago’s City Hall.

• Michael “Nick” Nichols, National Geographic Magazine’s editor at large, was ranked No. 1 of the top 10 with his photograph of a giant redwood tree. He talks vividly on camera about how it took nearly a year to complete the photograph and how it almost drove him to the brink. Using gyroscopes, dollies and computers, Nichols and his team made a seamless top-to-bottom photograph of a 300-foot redwood tree, the first in history.

View more photos and get tips from National Geograhic.

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