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)

“The Red River Hog (Potamochoerus porcus), also known as the Bush Pig (but not to be confused with P. larvatus, common name “Bushpig”), is a wild member of the pig family living in Africa, with most of its distribution in the Guinean and Congolian forests. It is rarely seen away from rainforests, and generally prefers areas near rivers or swamps.

Red River Hogs eat grass, berries, roots, insects, molluscs, small vertebrates and carrion. They are capable of causing damage to plantations. Red River Hogs typically live in herds of 6-20 members led by a dominant boar. Sows rear 3-6 piglets at a time.”

Photo: Two 17 day old red river hoglet twins forage for food next to their mother Bahiti at London Zoo on August 23, 2007 in London, England. Red River hoglets inhabit the forests and swamps of West and Central Africa. The recent additions to the London Zoo pig pen have been eagerly awaited by zoo keepers. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Palestinian girl Manar Al-Shinbari (R), 15, who lost her both legs by what medics said was Israeli shelling at a UN-run school where she was taking refuge during the 50-day war last summer, is helped by her sister to put on her headscarf in an apartment in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip January 13, 2015. Manar's mother and three of her brothers were killed in the same incident. The girl's family house was destroyed by Israeli shelling during the war. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Modern art is truly fascinating. Not in a way that it produces some novel things that will fascinate future generations for decades and even centuries to come. No, that is very far from the truth. On the contrary, modern art is essentially anything (yes, any little thing) that is a bit unusual and was created by a famous person. Let’s take the creation of Antoine Bridier-Nahmias for example. His brainchild is a set of pictures of petri dishes that were contaminated by various cultures of fungi. If this is art, I missed my chance of becoming famous when I accidentally left a piece of bread in a bag in a cupboard for about six months, and didn’t take a picture of the rather shocking results that awaited me when I finally discovered it. (Photo by Antoine Bridier-Nahmias)

There isn’t exactly a college out there for face painting so Elsa Rhae Pageler‘s talent is as raw as it comes. Perhaps what’s even more amazing is that the video editor and producer from Kansas City graduated with a degree in Film and Media Studies and only does face painting and airbrushing as a side job. An application may take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours and apart from outside gigs, she features video tutorials on her YouTube channel showing how she paints herself to recreate video game and fictional characters. Photo: “Face Palm”. (Photo by Elsa Rhae Pageler)

There are so many little, seemingly simple, yet ingenious things that make our life so much simpler. Take scotch tape for example. It’s just a roll of thin plastic film that is sticky on one side, yet how much simpler it made the packaging process of various goods! However, the removal of scotch tape, now there is a problem. Unless you have something sharp, it’s nearly impossible to tear it. To combat this, a brand new product has come out. Rip cord tape – is a regular scotch tape combined with a rip cord. The manufacturer of this product claims that it will make the removal of scotch tape much easier. However, when we look at the pictures, we realize, that yes, the rip cord will remove the middle of the scotch tape; however, the sides will remain in place! This will once again present a problem during the removal process.

It is amazing how much the humanity can change the face of the earth. Not only can it create huge craters, which look a lot like craters from meteors, they leave a big enough impact that it can be seen from space. Though this crater, caused by a massive explosion on 1 July 1916, looks large, being 90 feet deep and 300 feet across; it is nowhere big enough to be viewed for space. A common misconception is that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space. In reality, however, it is impossible. Not only is it of the same color as the earth near it, it is also not that wide. Deforestation, on the other hand, can be clearly seen from space. Also, at night, all the lights that the large cities produce are also very visible.

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.