Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

A young Free Syrian Army fighter holds a rifle in Haresta neighbourhood of Damascus January 16, 2013. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

This combination of two photos taken on July 5, 2014, shows the Aazzab family waiting to break their fast, top, and their meal, bottom, during the holy month of Ramadan in Casablanca, Morocco. For the millions of Muslims abstaining from food and drink from sunrise to sunset every day during Islam's holiest month of Ramadan, that first sip of water after a grueling fast is by far the most anticipated moment of the day. (Photo by Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP Photo)

Members of Brighton Swimming Club brave the early morning temperature to take a dip in the sea east of the pier on January 5, 2022. The club, founded in 1860, is the oldest in England. (Photo by Simon Dack/Alamy Live News)

17-year-old dance student Amelia Hubbard of Halesowen, West Midlands, takes to the park in south Birmingham, United Kingdom on April 14, 2022 to do some spring moves, as temperatures soar in the UK on Good Friday.(Photo by Peter Lopeman/Alamy Live News)

“A very delicate person, beneath the flamboyance”. Jasper, Ladbroke Grove, 1977. “In the 1970s, Australia was rather cut off. I’d always wanted to live abroad, so I moved to Rome and then London. I was an art historian, but started studying photography part-time. I was interested in the demi-monde culture and began mixing in all sorts of circles. Jasper was a rather wonderful character...”. (Photo by Jane England)

Against the scorching sun, a hungry jackal chases a flock of birds looking for a quick morning snack. Taken in South Africa's Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, these images capture the moment a lone hunter tries, and then succeeds, in his pursuit. (Photo by John Mullineux/Solent News)