Wikimedia commons Picture of the year is a competition that was first run in 2006 and is organized every year. The best pictures are picked from the free images filed under the creative commons license and from those which have been awarded the Featured Picture status by Wikimedia. These are the winners for the year 2012.
European Bee-eater, Ariège, France. The female (in front) awaits the offering which the male will make. Pierre Dalous (User:Kookaburra 81)
On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the Corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Flickr)
High-speed photography of a light bulb shot with an airsoft pistol (positioned right of the lamp). Stefan Krause, Germany(User:Ritchyblack)
4th place
A wide evening view to Måbødalen in Eidfjordmunicipality, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway in 2011 August.
5th place
Yak near Yamdrok lake, Tibet. It is a long-haired bovinae found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. The Tibetan economy is dominated by subsistence agriculture. Due to limited arable land, the primary occupation of the Tibetan Plateau is raising livestock, such as sheep, cattle, goats, camels, yaks, dzo, and horses. The Tibetan yak is an integral part of Tibetan life.
6th place
Šmarjetna gora, view towards Škofja Loka, Slovenia.
7th place
Heritage castle park in Pszczyna, Poland.
8th place
Door to Hell, a burning natural gas field in Derweze,Turkmenistan.
9th place
Merging in the mist – Vasco da Gama Bridge, Lisbon, Portugal.
10th place
Tarvasjõgi, Kõrvemaa Nature Park, Estonia.
11th place
Endeavour silhouette STS-130 over Earth’s colorful horizon. The image was photographed by an Expedition 22 crew member prior to STS-130 rendezvous and docking operations with the International Space Station. Docking occurred at 11:06 p.m. (CST) on Feb. 9, 2010. The orbital outpost was at 46.9 south latitude and 80.5 west longitude, over the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern Chile, with an altitude of 183 nautical miles when the image was recorded. The orange layer is the troposphere, where all of the weather and clouds which we typically watch and experience are generated and contained. This orange layer gives way to the whitish Stratosphere and then into the Mesosphere. In some frames the black color is part of a window frame rather than the blackness of space.
12th place
Arlington Row, Bibury, UK built in 1380 as a monastic wool store. The buildings were converted into weaver cottages in the 17th century.
indilone 