

TIME OF HOPE: Charisse Raysor of Washington, D.C., displays her earrings at President Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20. SARAH BETH GLICKSTEEN/Staff
VIET BOUNTY: A vendor in Dalat, Vietnam, displays her produce. Dalat has a good growing climate. ANDY NELSON/Staff
SNACK TIME: Humba, the silverback leader of a gorilla family, pauses to eat in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He’s one of 200 gorillas there. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff
LIKE FATHER: Cutter Hermesmeyer, 8, stood by his father, Sam, this fall. Sam manages the 40,000-acre O’Brien cattle ranch outside McLean, Texas. MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
HELPING HUG: Charlotte Mbaime (l.) embraces a resident of Nyamiyaga, Uganda. As part of her education, Charlotte, a student at Africa Rural University in Kagadi, helped villagers build a school, improve sanitation, and expand their farms. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff
FLIGHT CHECK: Staff Sgt. Christopher DeLucia uses a laptop to determine the status of a Predator drone at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev. The unmanned planes, sent overseas and launched over Iraq and Afghanistan, are flown via remote control by pilots based in the United States. TONY AVELAR/Staff
QUICK RINSE: A young boy washed his face while others drew water at a fountain in Leh, northern India, in late summer. Water scarcity, caused by climate change and tourism demands, means that the city’s 117,000 people have running water only two hours per day. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff
MOTHER AND CHILD: Olga Timbela hugs Lindiwe, the youngest of the six AIDS orphans she and her husband have adopted in Tshepisong, South Africa. MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
OLD ARMY MEETS NEW: US Marines led pack mules in Hawthorne, Nev., this spring as part of a training exercise to prepare them for conditions – and modes of transportation – in Afghanistan. TONY AVELAR/Staff
SNOW-FREE: Cliff Field competed at the US National Nordic Combined Championship at Lake Placid, NY. , in October. Jumpers landed on plastic-string ‘snow.’
ALFREDO SOSA/Staff
CHEETAHS PROSPER: Cheetahs groom each other at the Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Center in De Wildt, South Africa, where the animals are rehabilitated. MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
FRONT LINES OF CONTAMINATION: Nurse Rosa Moreno runs a clinic in San Carlos, Ecuador. Oil drilling has made the river water unsafe to wash in, bathe in, or drink.
MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
NASCAR BOUND? Five-year-old Mallory Tullis sits in her Quarter Midget race car at a track in Braselton, Ga., in August. MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
CHRISTMAS LEER: Master maskmaker Manuel Horta holds up a devil mask worn in a traditional Mexican Christmastime dance. TONY AVELAR/Staff
TRAIN MAN: A conductor awaits a scheduled departure from Guangzhou, China, near Hong Kong, up the coast to Wenzhou. ANDY NELSON/Staff
SANCTUARY CITY: Ethiopian immigrant Ali Abdoon practices writing English words at Clarkston (Ga.) Community Center. Refugees from more than 50 nations have been settled here since the 1990s. 1 in 3 of the town’s 7,000 residents is foreign-born. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff
PEOPLE POWER: Fairgoers enjoyed a ride on a hand-cranked Ferris wheel in late summer in Nakhrola, a village west of Delhi, India. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff
BICYCLE STEEPLECHASE: Cyclocross contestants leaped over a barrier during a race in Auburn, N.H., this fall. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff
SEEKING A LIFT In April, 7-year-old Ally Gay held a kite into the wind in a church parking lot in Youngstown, Ohio, a city suffering a long economic decline. ANN HERMES/Staff
FATHER AND SON: Paul Christie of Somerville, Mass., enjoys a lunch with his son, Ford (nearly 4), at a restaurant.
SARAH BETH GLICKSTEEN/Staff
BABY YOGA: Mothers and their infants do Itsy Bitsy Yoga at the Mamas Move gym in Norwell, Mass.
MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
TATTOO CULTURE: Prison inmates at the Deuel Vocational Institution near Tracy, Calif., stand outside during their weekly visit to the recreation yard. The lack of exercise time is a product of acute overcrowding. TONY AVELAR/Staff
MATH LAUGH: Chanratta Som (r.) did math exercises with Jamy Tran this spring at a GED prep class at a community college in Lowell, Mass. ANN HERMES/Staff
CONFESSION: An unnamed former militia member in Walungu, Democratic Republic of Congo, admits to raping women during a 15-year civil war in that country. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff
EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: A Galapagos giant tortoise munches on leaves at the Charles Darwin Research Station in Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
HOME, SWEET CAMPSITE: In August, Laurie Bowen held a family cat while her daughter, Christina, chatted with grandson Damiyan. Ms. Bowen and her family moved to this campground in Lebanon, Tenn., when her husband lost his construction job. MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/Staff
URBAN RESPITE: Jeffery Abdulrahman (seated, l.) and Ilya Neodin played chess in May in Dundas Square, downtown Toronto. ANN HERMES/Staff
NUNS HAVING FUN: Tsering Palmo (c.) poses with other Buddhist nuns at the Ladakh Nuns Association in Leh, northern India. Dr. Palmo founded the organization to empower nuns through education. MARY KNOX MERRILL/Staff