The Commons Picture of the Year is a competition that was first run in 2006.It aims to identify the best freely licensed images from those that during the year have been awarded Featured picture status.This year's candidate images are listed at Commons:Featured pictures/chronological/2024.
Second place: Banna children in Ethiopia with traditional body painting, playing on wooden stilts. צושרײַבונג: WAVRIK(CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Third place: Young stars form in 'The Pillars of Creation' as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared camera צושרײַבונג: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; image processing by Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI) (public domain)
Third place: Firefighter fighting a battle against a veld-fire at Ashton Bay, Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. צושרײַבונג: StevenTerblanche(CC BY SA 4.0)
First place: Evolution of a Tornado: Composite of eight images shot in sequence as a tornado formed in Kansas. – צושרײַבונג: JasonWeingart (CC BY-SA 4.0)
First place: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto on July 14, 2015. – צושרײַבונג: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute (public domain)
First place: Two Julia Butterflies (Dryas iulia) drinking the tears of turtles in Ecuador. The turtles placidly permit the butterflies to sip from their eyes as they bask on a log. This "tear-feeding" is a phenomenon known as lachryphagy. Attribution: amalavida.tv (flickr) (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Third place: High above Tocopilla, Chile, one of SQMs Boxcabs coasts downhill to the Reverso switchback. Attribution: Kabelleger / David Gubler (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Second place: 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)
Third place: High-speed photography of a light bulb shot with an airsoft pistol (positioned right of the lamp). Stefan Krause, Germany (User:Ritchyblack)
First place: A view of the lake Bondhus in Norway. In the background a view of the Bondhus Glacier as a part of the Folgefonna Glacier. (POTD) Heinrich Pniok (Alchemist-hp / pse-mendelejew.de)
First place: In mid-August 2010 ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky snapped this amazing photo at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. A group of astronomers were observing the centre of the Milky Way using the laser guide star facility at Yepun, one of the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). (POTD) – Credit:
Second place:Stari Most, the "Old Bridge", which connects the two banks of river Neretva, has been a symbol of Mostar for centuries. This view from north shows Helebija tower to the left and Tara tower to the right. It was made from the minaret of Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque. (POTD) – Credit: Own work by Ramirez. (GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0)
First place:Sikh pilgrim at the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar, India. (POTD) – Credit: Wikimedian Paulrudd. (GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0)
Third place: The Russian military honor guard welcomes U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia, June 26, 2009. Mullen is on a three-day trip to the country, meeting with counterparts and touring the Russian military academy. (POTD) – Credit:MC1 Chad J. McNeeley. (PD US Navy)