In no particular order, the 5 most amazing photo posts of 2012.

1. Animal Portraits

Award-winning photographer Tim Flach brings a portraiture eye and intention to animal photos. Just amazing.

2. SNOWFLAKES' ICE CRYSTALS ARE ASTOUNDING

Russian photographer Andrew Osokin makes the normally invisible visible. There are so many more on his LensArt profile.

3. TILT-SHIFT OLYMPICS

Tiltshift does this interesting thing where it both removes a lot of the distance between you and the subject and distorts it past recognition.

4. VIBRANT JELLYFISH PHOTOS

Russian biologist Alexander Semenov amazing images.

5. ASTOUNDING PHOTOS FROM SPACE

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