More National Geographic prized photos : The eagle hunter: Asiilbek, a nomadic Kazakh eagle hunter, preps his golden eagle, Burged,

for a horseback hunt in the grasslands of western Mongolia. “For this image, I was lying on my stomach in the prone position looking through the electronic viewfinder at the edge of the stream,” says photographer Eric Esterle. “The ground shook as Asiilbek’s horse passed less than a few feet away, splashing me with ice cold water.”