Pat Collins

This photo was take at 32nd and Broadway. I've been taking photos of the Empire State building for a year and a half now as I walk past it every day and it has become my muse. Nothing says New York like the Empire State building and i thought this photo captured some great up close and far off focal points well, not to mention the literal nod to our Big Apple.

Pat Collins

This photo was taken at 32nd St and 6th Ave. I've been taking photos of the Empire State building for a year and a half now as I walk past it every day and it has become my muse. Nothing says New York like the Empire State building and i thought this photo captured the grit and the movement of the city well, with the ESB as a backdrop.

Fiona D.

Stunning holiday decorations in Brooklyn Heights.

Matthew Le Var

This photo was taken in Casa De Campo in the Dominican Republic. The photographer who was 5 at the time was practicing with my phone. He had a very clear idea of the types of shots he wanted. This photo has great texture and I love the color balance.

Johanna Zapp

I took the photo of the famous art/mural space on Bowery and Houston. I love the murals that change all the time. I love that I was able to get this girl on a bike. Its just a great moment in time.

Karilyn

This photo was taken in 03/13 during my trip to Japan.
One night while lost inside a park in Kyoto, I suddenly came across this beautiful cherry blossom tree. The cherry blossom season turned out to be earlier than expected this year, and I was in the perfect place that night - it was just magical.

Johanna Zapp

I took it from my roof on the lower east side. I took it because it was a beautiful sunset. I;m a sunset whore. I love the cloud above the freedom tower.

Lauren

This is, hands down, my personal favorite photo of 2013.

I took this at Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona while on vacation with my husband in the Grand Canyon area. While perfectly content with the grandeur and beauty of the Grand Canyon, we went to Antelope Canyon per the suggestion of an acquaintance who said that it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. We went in relatively blind, assuming that this was just another state-run natural wonder, there fore your casual exploring pleasure, as there are many in the area.

What we encountered upon arriving, however, was something of a modern day sideshow. After paying a $50 admission fee, we hopped on the back of a pickup truck and held onto our seats as a young, female tour guide drove the truck over gigantic sand dunes en route to the canyon.

Upon arriving there--completely covered in red sand and totally dehydrated--we realized that we had a tight 40 minutes in the canyon with hundreds of other eager tourists who seemingly materialized out of nowhere and who were all there expressly to take hundreds of photos at 25 or so carefully predetermined spots.

Those around us has expensive SLR cameras and had planned their trip around getting that "perfect shot" of, among other things, a sand waterfall, a bear, and something that vaguely looked like Salvador Dali, all created by the interplay of light and shadow on the canyon walls (note, these images can be easily Googled).

My husband and I, on the other hand, came to the canyon with only our iPhones in tow--hardly the ideal camera for this carefully-curated camera experience. The whole experience was so hokey (although the space was undeniably beautiful) that I just gave up on capturing the carefully-curated shots altogether and turned my iPhone around on all of the tourists vying for the same shot.

This photo is the result, and I think it is my favorite from the entire trip.

Heather Le Var

The photo was taken in South Mountain Reservation between Maplewood and South Orange NJ.

There were cicadas all around, and some were molting, others dying. It was one of the most amazing up close and personal bug events I've ever witnessed.

Richard Evans

Yosemite National Park, Mariposa Grove. These giant sequoias are a wonder of nature, they are strong and perhaps the largest living things on earth; some are 3000 years old.

They are beautiful, breathtaking, and it is something everyone should try to see in their lifetime.

Fiona Dutta

I took this photo during a morning run around Perth, Australia's waterfront. I took it because the weather was beautiful, the sky was clear, the downtown skyline looked breathtaking and I wanted to capture this amazing moment during my visit to Perth. I like it because later when I looked at the photo on my phone, I couldn't believe just how clear the photo was and could hardly believe I took such a flawless photo with my iPhone camera.

Alana

it was a beautiful sunrise in NYC

Wanda Frankel

I live in Brighton Beach and was here during Hurricane Sandy. I took this photo after I had volunteered in Coney Island at the disaster relief center set up there, about a half a mile from where I live. If you look carefully, you can see the water line halfway up the wall, which is where the surge came up to during the storm.

Alana

I had to be at work early one morning - and the sunrise was stunning.

Todd Gerard

The aftermath of the Spuytin Duyvil Metro North train derailment. The photo conveys the sheer destruction, dismay, and frustration of the event.

GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido

It was a grey day in Madison Square Park, and this guy was making these beautiful huge bubbles as if out of nothing. It seemed like such a perfect urban moment.

Jon Bloom

This is a photo I took from the roof of my building in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx. I was trying to capture the solar eclipse but got this instead. I was happy with how it turned out. I like the shadows on the clouds as well as the glimpse of the Woodlawn Cemetery you can see on the right side of the photo.

Alana

It was a sunny beautiful day in Brooklyn at Brooklyn Bridge Park - it reminded me why I love being from NYC.

Jack

On their way north up the Pacific Coast Highway, these two young bikers take a break to absorb the great, albeit foggy, scenery. But being 2013 'absorbing the scenery' means taking selfies and posting the moment on social media.

I like this photo for its classic composition, and how immediately the viewer can recognize the smartphone body language of the subjects, despite their distance from the camera.

Terry di Paolo

I took this on the Amtrak train just after it left New London CT. People out on the rocks fishing at sunset, it was a perfect summer evening.