“The child of a monkey holds on to its mother tightly. A lone straw bale stands in a field prior to being collected. A few rays of sunlight filter into a dark, foreboding cave filled with clear blue water. These are a mere three of the imagination-fueling winners from the international Wiki Loves Earth photography competition, whose results were announced today. The overall winner, seen above, shows a banded demoiselle hovering near a dandelion’s seedhead. It was praised by the contest’s selection committee for its composition, sharpness, and colors; one member called out the extraordinary detail visible on the damselfly’s wings. Wiki Loves Earth focuses on “protected” areas, referring to places like nature reserves, landscape conservation areas, national parks—the unique locations that make up a large proportion of the world’s natural heritage. The contest asks photographers to contribute their work to Wikimedia Commons, a media repository which holds many of the photos used on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia ecosystem. All of the content on Commons is freely licensed, meaning that it can be used by anyone, for any purpose, often with only a minimum of restrictions…” [h/t Barclay Walsh]