A breath-taking collection of photographs from none other than National Geographic has captured that magical time between the first and last hour of sunlight in some of the world’s most impressive places.

The series, titled ‘Golden Hour,’ is from one of the organization’s ‘Your Shot‘ communities – and offers up some of the prettiest pictures taken by travelers at dusk and dawn.

From sunrise over a foggy Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, taken by Michael Bennett to Florentina Tilvic‘s image of first light over a reserve in Kenya where an acacia tree and grazing gnus are silhouetted, the images astonish.

Hues of oranges, pinks and purples glow in landscapes such as a snowy Mount Baker in Washington State by Joel Brady-Power and Mark Donougher‘s epic shot from the Diné deities in Monument Valley, Utah.

Spectacular sunsets were captured by Raymond Y Choo in the picturesque Oia village, located on a sheer cliff on the northern tip of Santorini, Greece and Mathieu Dupuis in the stunning Montparnasse, Paris, lit by glowing street lights.

‘It was any photographer’s regular spot for sunrise but I took a bet with sunset and it worked out pretty well,’ Nan Li Toh said of the incredible picture uploaded of the Riffelsee Lake in Matterhorn, Switzerland.

Jaromir Chalabala captured a frosty morning in Prague, with swans silhouetted on Vltava river while Golden fog was similarly mysterious in Lazar Ovidiu‘s picture of Rodna, Bistrița-Năsăud, Romania. And Sergiy Kadulin‘s moody shot of Klyuchevskoy volcano erupting in Kamchatka, Russia, is one of the best.

National Geographic encourages all professional or hobbyist photographs to share their best travel pictures by uploading them on its Your Shot website.

These superb shots were picked from the Golden Hour community within the travel category, but scores of communities exist in the realms of weather, landscape, food, culture, architecture and many more. To share your shots click here.