National Geographic is having their annual photo contest that ends November 30^th. The Atlantic’s In Focus column with Alan Taylor was able to get a sneak peek at submissions. Here you can view 45 of his favorites from the submissions that have been posted within the community. The photo contest runs under three different categories: People, Places and Nature.

This contest features some truly remarkable photo submissions. They run the gamut from natural weather phenomenon, such as an electrical storm at sunset in Death Valley to a capture of the breathtaking Temple eerily poking out through the shadows of the sun amidst a dust storm at the Burning Man festival this year. Then there’s the strange sight of gas bubbles trapped under a frozen lake bed in an arid part of the Canadian Rockies during the wintertime when the temperature is a frigid 30 degrees below Celsius.

Truly, this is a very aesthetic and varied collection of images. My favorite is probably submission number 8 (pictured). This strange sight was captured in Sindh, Pakistan, where in 2010 local flooding caused millions of spiders to take refuge in trees to escape the rising water. Since it took so long for the flood waters to recede, lots of trees in the area became suddenly cocooned in spider webs.

There is also a rare glimpse of a leopard at Yala National Park in Sri Lanka and then the ordinary (a chain link metal fence) becomes extraordinary looking at submission number 22.

This is proof that a photographer with a good eye can take a picture of absolutely anything and make it a quality picture, no matter the subject.