1st place winner in the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2013 Contest. The photo description states, “The glass bulb of the lightbulb has been opened, causing the inert gas inside to escape. When turned on, the tungsten filament burns with a flame, due to oxygen entering the light bulb. The light bulb was screwed into a socket, which was replaced with the lamp base using image processing.” Photo #1 by Stefan Krause, Germany

2nd place winner: “National park ‘Sviati Hory’ (Holy Mountains), Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.” Photo #2 by Balkhovitin

3rd place winner: “A swallow drinking while flying over a swimming pool.” Photo #3 by sanchezn

4th place winner: “A Burrowing Owl near Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil. It is standing on one leg.” Photo #4 by Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes / edited version by King of Hearts

5th place: “Two Rhaetian Railways ABe 4/4 III multiple units with a local train are just crossing the spiral viaduct near Brusio, Switzerland.” Photo #5 by Kabelleger / David Gubler

Also listed in 5th place, meaning there was no 6th place listed: “A RhB Ge 4/4 II with a push–pull train crosses the Wiesen Viaduct between Wiesen and Filisur, Switzerland.” Photo #6 by Kabelleger / David Gubler

7th place winner: “President Barack Obama jokingly mimics U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney’s ‘not impressed’ look while greeting members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team in the Oval Office.” Photo #7 by Official White House Photo by Pete Souza / edited version by El Grafo

8th place winner: Cologne Cathedral at night in Köln, Germany. Photo #8 by Thomas Wolf

#9th place Wikimedia Common Picture of the Year winner: “Chital (Axis axis) stag attempting to browse on a misty morning in Nagarhole National Park,” India. Photo #9 by Yathin S Krishnappa

Also listed as 9th place while 10th place was skipped. “Indian street-seller hands displaying green chickpeas.” Photo #10 by Jorge Royan

#11: Aircraft Rescue Firefighting training (U.S. Marine Corps). Photo #12 by Lance Cpl. Manuel F. Guerrero, United States Marine Corps

#12: New born calf of a Frisian red white cow. That’s the list of Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2013 winners, but let’s look at the photo categories and other awesome contenders. Photo #12 by Uberprutser

Genre Animals was broken down into the following categories: Arthropods, Birds, Mammals, Other animals. Here’s one example listed under 60 submissions to arthropods during round 1 selection. “A male Meadow Brown butterfly (Maniola jurtina) as seen in the Rhine Valley of Switzerland.” Photo #13 by Böhringer Friedrich

Genre – Animals: One of 63 photo submissions to the Birds category. “Lesser Kestrel birds mating in Hérault, France.” Photo #14 by Pierre Dalous

Animals: Mammals had 34 great shots, including this one of a “plains zebra walking at Klein Namutoni with a storm and rainbow in the background, Etosha National Park,” Namibia. Photo #15 by Yathin S Krishnappa

Animals: 39 photos were listed as Other Animals. “A Namaqua chameleon in threat display, Namib desert, Namibia. The chameleon was in the middle of a highway C14 and was approached to be moved off the road. The chameleon then changed its color to black and displayed its brightly colored mouth as a threat display.” Photo #16 by Yathin S Krishnappa

There were 32 photos in the running listed under “Plants and fungi,” including this “Tamme-Lauri oak. The oldest tree in Estonia. Tamme-Lauri oak is depicted on the back side of Estonian ten kroon banknote.” Photo #17 by Abrget47j

The other end of the spectrum, photo submission under Plants and fungi: “SEM image of Tradescantia pollen and stamens.” Photo #18 by Heiti Paves

This Macrocranion was listed among the 13 submissions to Bones, shells and fossils: Macrocranion species “are often described as forest-floor predators, about the size of small squirrels but with longer limbs” This one is described as “Eocene, Messel, Germany; Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, Germany.” Photo #19 by H. Zell

65 submission to People: “People and human activities.” This photo is of “Sahrawi tribal men performing fantasia at the Tan-Tan (Moussem) Festival in Tan-Tan, Morocco.” You don’t see that every day. Photo #20 by Maxim Massalitin

Another striking image listed under “People” that looks like a movie set scene. “Vintage travel gear seller at the marche Dauphine, Paris”. Photo #21 by Jorge Royan

There were 59 submissions to Architecture: Cities and Bridges, so we decided to show you four, including this one of “Singapore National Day Parade fireworks, preview Marina Bay Sands floating platform.” Photo #22 by chensiyuan

Night view of Macau Science Center, designed by Pei Partnership Architects in association with I. M. Pei. It opened in 2009 and now it’s considered a landmark of Macau; it’s “very visible when arriving on the ferry from Hong Kong. The main building has a distinctive, asymmetrical, conical shape with a spiral walkway and a large atrium inside. Galleries lead off the walkway, mainly consisting of interactive exhibits aimed at science education. There is also a planetarium with 3D projection facilities and Omnimax films.” Photo #23 by Diego Delso

Night view of The Széchenyi Chain Bridge from Buda Castle in Budapest. Photo #24 by Wilfredor

Architecture: Cities and Bridges: Rainbow over Sickla kaj, Södra Hammarbyhamnen, Stockholm. Photo #25 by Arild Vågen

Architecture: Castles and fortifications had 69. Yes, there were the usual suspects for castles, but we hadn’t previously seen this “Swiss House (Schweizerhaus) at palace garden of Ritzenbüttel Castle.” Photo #26 by Tuxyso

This may be closer to what springs to mind when you think “castle” photo. “Castle Neuschwanstein at Schwangau, Bavaria, Germany.” Photo #27 by Thomas Wolf

Architecture: Religious buildings had 62 submissions, including this “Night view of Santa Maria della Salute basilica in Venice.” Photo #28 by Wolfgang Moroder

Architecture: A whopping 88 submissions to Constructions and buildings. “Harbor entrance with Bavarian Lion, the New Lighthouse and the Schwaben in Lindau (Lake Constance, Germany).” Photo #29 by Julian Herzog

Architecture: Interiors and details had 52 photos competing, all with exquisitve details like this one of Averbode Abbey church interior, Belgium. Photo #30 by Marc Ryckaert

54 fantastic photos under Panoramas: Panoramic views. “A view to Romsdalen from the Litlefjellet ridge between Romsdalen and Vengedalen, Møre og Romsdal, Norway in June.” Photo #31 by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen)

Nature: Nature views had 103 photos submitted! “Gypsum crystals of the Naica cave, person in the Cave of the Crystals” for scale. Photographs taken from inside Naica Mine in Mexico are rare, yet the photographer released this one to the Commons. Photo #32 by Alexander Van Driessche

Here’s another stunner in Nature Views. “Sand dunes in the Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia. Older dunes are reddish and larger, newer dunes are yellow-brown.” Photo #33 by Yathin S Krishnappa

Nature View from the “Second chamber of the Smoo Cave, Durness in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland.” Photo #34 by Florian Fuchs

Nature View, zoom out. “Island Neuwerk near Hamburg in Germany’s Wadden Sea.” Photo #35 by Ralf Roletschek

Enchanted Forest, Garajonay National Park, La Gomera, Spain. Yet another of the varied and very respectable Nature View images submitted into the Commons. Photo #36 by Diego Delso

Astronomy: Category Astronomy, satellite and outer space had 22 pics. This is Jeju Island in South Korea. It is also known as Island of the Gods. Photo #37 by Robert Simmon, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey / Earth Observatory

“James Webb Space Telescope Mirror” was another from Astronomy, Satellite,and Outer space. Caption: “Ball Aerospace’s Jake Lewis is reflected in one of the mirrors on a James Webb Space Telescope Array that was in the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility for Testing. During cryogenic testing, the mirrors will be subjected to temperatures dipping to -415 degrees Fahrenheit, permitting engineers to measure in extreme detail how the shape of each mirror changes as it cools.” Photo #38 by NASA / MSFC / David Higginbotham / Emmett Given

Genre: Objects and miscellaneous. Category: Vehicles and crafts had 53 photos. “The Space Shuttle Atlantis is seen shortly after the rotating service structure (RSS) was rolled back at launch pad 39a, Thursday, July 7, 2011 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.” Photo #39 by Bill Ingalls / NASA

NASA in the 1980s. Caption: The April 12 (1981) launch at Pad 39A of STS-1, just seconds past 7 a.m., carries astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen into an Earth orbital mission scheduled to last for 54 hours, ending with unpowered landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.” Photo #40 by NASA

Time is everything for this rare capture in Vehicles and crafts: Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. “Captain Chris Stricklin ejecting from an F-16C Falcon fighter jet as he miscalculated a Reverse Half Cuban Eight maneuver. The pilot ejected safely 0.8 seconds before total destruction of the $20 million aircraft resulting in no further loss of military or civilian property.” Photo #41 by Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III, U.S. Air Force

23 photos in the voting were from Genre Objects and miscellaneous: Objects, rocks and miscellaneous. “Cigarette smuggling with a book. This exhibit was on display in the Main Custom Office in Munich.” Photo #42 by High Contrast

Tiny mammal fella was another very unusual photo most folks wouldn’t see in real life. Caption: “Newborn bat of Lesser short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis). Captured within 12 hours from the birth.” Photo #43 by Anton Croos

Mammals: “A mother sperm whale and her calf off the coast of Mauritius. The calf has Remora australis attached to its body.” Photo #44 by Gabriel Barathieu

Animal: Mammal photo in Wikimedia Commons 2013 Picture of the Year contest. Adult male lion of the Okondeka pride stretching in Etosha National Park. Photo #45 by Yathin S Krishnappa