Jamal Saidi/Reuters
Lightning illuminates the sky offshore from Beirut October 29, 2008 during a thunderstorm over Lebanon.
I wonder how vulnerable ships are to lightning. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Oct. 24 30, 2008.
Jacek Turczyk/EPA
A young child is enthralled with the thick layer of golden leaves that carpet the Lazienki Park in Warsaw 19 October 2008 as he enjoys a perfect Autumnal day.
I think the absence of other people in this frame helps to create the feeling of a child lost in an experience. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Oct. 17 23, 2008.
Rick Roach/The Reporter via AP
A young snowy egret sees its reflection in a building window in Vacaville, Calif. Monday, Oct. 13, 2008.
Do you find humor in this picture? Or is it more about a pretty bird? This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Oct. 10 16, 2008.
Zhang Kefei/Zuma Press
Di Huanran, 51, dived off a 12.19-meter-high waterfall and set a Guinness World Record. Di, nicknamed The Best Diver in China, comes from Mudanjiang city in northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province. He started diving in early 1970's. He is now a professional diver and is employed to perform diving for tourists at Jingbo Lake resort in Ningan city, northeast China's Heilongjiang province.
It would be cool to watch the water falling with you at the same rate, if you weren't preoccupied with fear or technique. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Oct. 3 9, 2008.
Anthony Smedile/The Press of Atlantic City via AP
Daria Canale, from Huntington Valley, Pa. does some fishing in her wedding gown at the beach at 6th Street in Ocean City, N.J., taking Wednesday, September 24, 2008. Canale just married her husband, Joe, who has a home in the area.
I wonder if she caught anything, and whether she cleaned it while wearing the dress. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Sept. 26 Oct.2, 2008.
Ali Ali/EPA
A young Palestinian plays with homemade sparklers after breaking their fast in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 23 September 2008. Muslims throughout the world are celebrating the holy fasting month of Ramadan during which they observe fast from dawn until dusk.
The streaks of light captured by a longish exposure create an umbrella-like structure that you wouldn't see watching it in person. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Sept. 18 25, 2008.
Binsar Bakkara/AP
Mutia,a 16 year -old Sumatran Orangutan, sits chained to a pipe at an abandoned garment factory before she is rescued by conservationists Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 in Medan, Indonesia. Orangutans are an endangered species whose wild populations are threatened by loss of habitat and increasing contact with human populations, and are often illegally kept as pets.
For what it's worth, I'm glad this orangutan was rescued. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Sept. 12 18, 2008.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
A woman walks through some of the nearly 3000 United States flags that make up the "Healing Field" during the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial September 11, 2008 in Arlington, Virginia. U.S. President George W. Bush will dedicate the memorial forthe 184 people killed at the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building.
I wonder if it was the visual effect of so many flags, or the emotional significance of a Sept. 11 memorial that caused people to vote for this picture. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Sept. 4 11, 2008.
Zou Bo/EPA
A picture made available on Sept. 1, 2008, showing rescuers finding the bodies of a mother covering up her child buried in a collapsed house after an earthquake hit Lixi town in Huili county in southwest China's Sichuan province on 31 August 2008. The quake has killed at least 38 people and forced 152,000 to flee, Chinese news agency Xinhua said.
This photograph shows how an earthquake catches people by surprise - there was only time for this last instinctive act. This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Aug. 28 Sept. 4, 2008.
Friso Gentsch/EPA
Eleven-year-old gorilla female Gana carries her dead baby Claudio on her back as she mourns for him, at the zoo of Muenster, Germany, on August 21, 2008. Claudio died unpredictably for yet uncertain reasons. Gorilla parents mourn for clan members that pass away with the entire group. The keepers will allow her to overcome her grief, which is believed to happen when Gana puts the corpse aside.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Aug. 21 - 28, 2008. This image was heart-wrenching for the editors, and from the strong response, I think for the readers as well. We were moved by this phenomenon of gorilla mourning, which we'd never seen before, and the moment captured by the photographer, where on first glance you wonder why the baby looks odd, and then you realize the actuality. I think as humans who have children, or who have parents, we can't help but empathize with the intensity of such a loss.
Bruce Chambers/The Orange County Register via Zuma Press
Dew clings to blades of grass in Ash Meadow in Ash Meadow in late July near San Diego. The meadow is along the Pacific Crest Trail.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Aug. 14 - 21, 2008. While going up against a handful of iconic Olympics images, this clean reflection of an amazingly spherical drop of water on a blade of grass took the reader's choice prize. The droplet is so perfectly round it actually led to a discussion of physics among the photo editors. In the end, the nice choice of a short depth of field and the sharpness of the reflection's detail led us and the readers to become enamored with this nature image - and Kudos to the photographer for mostly keeping his reflection out of there!
Mike Blake/Reuters
Fireworks explode during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium, August 8, 2008. The stadium is also known as the Bird's Nest.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Aug. 7 - 14, 2008. This week's slideshow was short, with only nine images, but packed with stellar choices. However, the readers chose this moment that captures the grandeur of one of the most epic Olympic Opening Ceremonies of all time over other images of devastation from the conflict in Georgia that started this same week. This image was also included in the Sports Year in Pictures.
China Photos/Getty Images
Fireworks are displayed over the National Stadium during the second dress rehearsal of the 2008 Olympic Games on August 2, 2008 in Beijing, China. China is making its final preparations six days before the Olympics.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of July 31 - Aug. 7, 2008. Again, light, reflection and a new perspective on one of the most consistently favored eye candies - fireworks - come together to make this anticipatory Olympics image a crowd favorite.
Claro Cortes IV/Reuters
A view of the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, with colorful lights is seen at the Olympic Green in Beijing July 29, 2008. The Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, athletics and football final will be staged at the National Stadium during the Beijing Olympic Games.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of July 24 - 31, 2008. This image really plays with light, color, pattern ad reflection to create what we often refer to as "eye candy," a picture that content aside, is just fun to look at.
Jimmy May/AP
The head and necks of a gaggle of geese stick up above the vegetation as they walk the paths made by the tires of a harvester in a recently cut farmer field along Fort McClure Boulevard, in Bloomsburg, Pa., July 23, 2008, while looking for food.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of July 17 - 24, 2008. This image induced a giggle in the editors - a gaggle giggle, if you will (sorry, I couldn't help it). Initial reaction counts for a lot, and when that reaction is a good one, it often means that color, composition and content are all coming together in a nice moment, as they are in this storybook-like image.
Adrees Latif/Reuters
Thai Buddhists carrying candles encircle a large Buddha image on Asanha Puja Day, the eve of the Buddhist lent, on the outskirts of Bangkok July 17, 2008. The image, taken over 25 seconds, captures the light trails of the moving candles.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of July 10 - 17, 2008. The editors found this time lapse image an interesting way to take an unexpected point of view on this celebration. The photographer's positioning themselves below the candles being carried gives this image depth and a surreal quality.
Jeff Haynes/Reuters
Brendan Hansen swims in the Men's 200m breaststroke finals at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, July 3, 2008.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of July 3 - 10, 2008. This week was a close race between this image and the Romanian fireworks image that was also featured in the Year in Pictures. Olympics mania was just about to begin, and this interesting perspective of a swimmer as a cresting, underwater creature grabbed both the editors' and readers' attention.
Russ Dillingham/Lewiston Sun Journal
A sweat bee collects pollen from a Purple Coneflower in Raymond Park in Lewiston, Maine, July 1, 2008.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of June 26 - July 3, 2008. Like our readers, we're often drawn to points of view that we rarely get the privilege to see, like this tack-sharp and intricate detail of a bee. The color and texture of the flower add perfectly to the composition.
Lori Mehmen/AP
A huge tornado funnel cloud touches down in Orchard, Iowa, on June 10, 2008 at 9:04 p.m. The Globe Gazette and Mitchell County Press News reported that Lori Mehmen of Orchard, took the photo from outside her front door. Mehmen said the funnel cloud came near the ground and then went back up into the clouds. Besides tree and crop damage, no human injuries were reported.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of June 19 - 26, 2008. This unbelievable image was taken by a Citizen Journalist and put us as close to a funnel cloud as we'd ever been. With our reader's regular response to amazing nature images, it's no surprise this image won the reader's vote.
Jeff Roberson/AP
Buildings and debris are seen floating in the Cedar River against a railroad bridge, June 14, 2008, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 24,000 people from their homes, emergency officials said Saturday.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of June 12 - 19, 2008. This image really let us feel the magnitude of the Iowa and Missouri flooding. While a great number of homes were destroyed in the flooding, these were physically lost to the owners and let us see the force of the Mississippi unleashed. This image was also selected for the Year in Pictures.
John Hart/Watertown Daily Times via AP
A cloud formation moves over Oconomowoc, Wis., June 8, 2008, as the state contends with heavy rains, wind damage and areas of flooding. In Wisconsin, more than a dozen homes near the swollen Kickapoo River in La Farge were evacuated.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of June 5 - 12, 2008. Nature takes the cake again in a week when water was the star. The storms beginning in the north and the midwest were to be a precursor to the floods that were about to batter the Mississippi and this wall cloud was a great foreboding image of those summer rains.
Jose Fidelino Vera Hernandez/AP
A car collides into cyclists participating in a race in Mexico's northern border city of Matamoros, June 1, 2008. At least one person was killed and 14 injured when a driver slammed into a bicycle race.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of May 29 - June 5, 2008. While the quality of this image taken by a bystander leaves quite a bit to be desired, the magnitude of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and a perfectly timed shutter made this image an unforgettable one that led the cover of msnbc.com for a time. For several of the editors who are regular bike commuters, I believe there was the added dimension of empathy that apparently our readers felt too.
Charlie Riedel/AP
An old barn stands in a wheat field as a sever thunderstorm passes in the distance near Ogallah, Kan., May 22, 2008. Severe thunderstorms dropped tornadoes across much of northwest Kansas.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of May 22 - 29, 2008. The Readers and editors were really in sync during the month of May, as this is yet another awesome nature image that was also included in the Year in Pictures, and if my Dad's vote is any indicator, its a great contender to be the Reader's Choice for the year! P.S. Merry Christmas Dad, and Happy Holidays to all of the PhotoBlog family!
Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan May 18, 2008. The Marine was not injured.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of May 15 - 22, 2008. While images of our armed forces often get a strong response from our readers, this very close call also made the editors gasp at both a perfectly timed photo and a very lucky marine. We very much agreed with the majority of readers here and included this image from Afghanistan in the Year in Pictures.
Carlos Gutierrez/Reuters
Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 19 miles north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanoes are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them.
This image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of May 8 - 15, 2008. This image of an electrical storm above a volcano was like nothing we'd seen, and as you know, we see, and often include, a variety of lightning and storm images in The Week in Pictures. This one blew the others away and was also included in the Year in Pictures.
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