People take part in a water gun battle as part of the annual Songkran festival, also known as water festival, the traditional Thai New Year celebrations, at the tourist spot of Khao San Road in Bangkok, Thailand, 13 April 2023. Thailand celebrates its first water-splashing Songkran festival following a three-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Songkran is celebrated with splashing water and putting powder on each other's faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the old year. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA)

An injured woman is pictured near the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Ro state, Mexico where 5 people were killed, three of them foreigners, during a music festival on January 16, 2017. A shooting erupted at an electronic music festival in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen early Monday, leaving at least five people dead and sparking a stampede, the mayor said. Fifteen people were injured, some in the stampede, after at least one shooter opened fire before dawn at the Blue Parrot nightclub during the BPM festival. (Photo by Victor Vargas/AFP Photo)

Fossilized whale bones are on display outside the Wati El Hitan Fossils and Climate Change Museum, a UNESCO natural World Heritage site, on the opening day, in the Fayoum oasis, Egypt, Thursday, January 14, 2016. Egypt has cut the ribbon on the Middle East's first fossil museum housing the world's largest intact skeleton of a "walking whale" in an attempt to attract much-needed tourists driven off by recent militant attacks. The construction of the much-hyped Fossils and Climate Change Museum was covered a 2 billion euros (2. 17 billion dollars) grant from Italy, according to Italian Ambassador Maurizio Massari. Its centerpiece is an intact, 37-million-year-old and 20-meter-long skeleton of a legged form of whale that testifies to how modern-day whales evolved from land mammals. The sand-colored, dome-shaped museum is barely discernible in the breathtaking desert landscape that stretches all around. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo)

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)

U.S. Rep Steve Southerland grins after winning an auctioned possum during the Wausau Possum Festival on Saturday, August 2, 2014, in Wausau, Fla. What is usually a must-attend event for statewide candidates was notably lacking of them this year, perhaps because candidates who now raise tens of millions of dollars focus more on television ads than making personal contact. But not attending is a missed opportunity, said Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political science professor who drove more than 350 miles for the festival. (Photo by Heather Leiphart/AP Photo/The News Herald)

An Indian Hindu devotee pours milk on a snake as an offering during the annual Nag Panchami festival, dedicated to the worship of snakes outside the Nagvasuki temple, in Allahabad, on July 28, 2017. Officially the snake charmers' profession is banned in India, but many in the country offered prayers and milk blessings to cobras and other deadly serpents on July 28 in an annual tribute. The 800,000 charmers and their young apprentices come to the fore for the Nag Panchami festival which dates back several centuries. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

A Hindu devotee ululates as she holds a banana tree trunk after taking a dip in the waters of the Ganges river during a ritual as part of the Durga Puja festival in Kolkata, India, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A woman reacts with flour over her face while playing a game with cake-making ingredients as part of local festivities marking Myanmar's 70th Independence Day in Yangon on January 4, 2018. The country is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its declaration of independence from British colonial rule. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)