Second Place Winner: “Thunderstorm at False Kiva”. I hiked out to these ruins at night hoping to photograph them with the Milky Way, but instead a thunderstorm rolled through, creating this dramatic image. – Max Seigal. National Geographic Traveler Director of Photography Dan Westergren, one of this year's judges, shares his thoughts on the second place winner: “This photo combines two different scenes into one: the small kiva in a cliff dwelling and the grand vista of Canyonlands National Park across the valley. I really like the two different color palettes – warm inside and purple outside. This two-for-one scene was caused by the lightning storm outside the dwelling, which lit up the landscape like it was a huge electronic flash. Looking at this picture I can imagine what a wonderful sight it must have been for the ancient people who lived here. It doesn't seem too amazing now in our modern world, but might have been mind-blowing for the prehistoric residents”. Location: Utah. (Photo and caption by Max Seigal/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

Galapagos – Rocking the Cradle: Four major ocean currents converge along the Galapagos archipelago, creating the conditions for an extraordinary diversity of animal life, April 25, 2016. The islands are home to at least 7,000 flora and fauna species, of which 97 percent of the reptiles, 80 percent of the land birds, 50 percent of the insects and 30 percent of the plants are endemic. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak for National Geographic/World Press Photo)

A radiation monitor indicates 114.00 microsieverts per hour near the building housing the plant's No. 4 reactor, center, and an under construction foundation, right, which will store the reactor's melted fuel rods at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and earthquake. Some 110,000 people living around the nuclear plant were evacuated after the massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and spewing radiation into the surrounding air, soil and water. (Photo by Issei Kato/AP Photo/Pool)

Bikini-clad women ski as they are led by a car during a performance on the frozen Yenisei River outside Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia, March 20, 2016. The performance, entitled “Siberian Spring's Strings” and created with the participation of artist Vasily Slonov, marked the day of spring equinox (vernal equinox), according to organizers. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

This picture taken on October 20, 2016 shows students practising wushu at the Tagou martial arts school in Dengfeng. China is investing hugely in football training and has vowed to have 50 million school- age players by 2020, as the ruling Communist party eyes “football superpower” status by 2050. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP Photo)

Director Taro Kambe directs as he watches acting with VR headset during a rehearsal for ROCKET's 3D virtual reality adult film at the company's studio in Tokyo, Japan, July 31, 2017. Japan is the world's second biggest virtual reality market after the United States and the adult entertainment industry and gaming sector are turning to VR as a new way to distribute content. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Students receive a group punishment during a military-style close-order drill class at the Qide Education Center in Beijing February 19, 2014. The Qide Education Center is a military-style boot camp which offers treatment for internet addiction. As growing numbers of young people in China immerse themselves in the cyber world, spending hours playing games online, worried parents are increasingly turning to boot camps to crush addiction. Military-style boot camps, designed to wean young people off their addiction to the internet, number as many as 250 in China alone. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)