After much ado, and many beautiful photographs (at least 18,000 entries), the winners of the 2014 National Geographic Photography contest have been chosen. With the actual winning photograph being a supercell storm photo out of Colorado, “The Independence Day” (featured below), we have selected some of the winning bunch for your perusal, with some personal favorites thrown in as well. First prize winner  Marko Korošec was awarded a National Geographic Alaskan expedition for two. Shown above is merit prize winner “End of the World” out of Ecuador. For more info, images, or desktop-wallpaper motivation, go to the contest home page.

Winning photograph “The Independence Day” below…