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 girl dances in front of the digital art installation “Light in Dark” created by teamLab, a collaborative of Japanese digital artists, during a special exhibition of “Shake! Art Exhibition! and Learn and Play! teamLab Future Park” at National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (or Miraikan) in Tokyo, Japan, 19 January 2015. The exhibition is held through 01 March 2015. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA)

People and Nature category winner: Why did the sloth cross the road? by Andrew Whitworth (Osa Conservation and University of Glasgow), taken in Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. “I was driving out from the Osa Peninsula, located on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica on a dark, stormy day. This female three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) had luckily just about made it across the road, and the drivers of the Toyota on this occasion had spotted her in good time”. (Photo by Andrew Whitworth/2019 British Ecological Society Photography Competition)

The moon rises behind the skyline and financial district in Toronto, November 25, 2015. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Reuters)

Icelandic horses play on a stud farm in Wehrheim Frankfurt, Germany, as the sun rises on Thursday, May 21, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A view of the Sheikh Zayed highway in Dubai and some high rise buildings, November 8, 2007. (Photo by Steve Crisp/Reuters)

American media personality, socialite and model Kylie Jenner says “rise and shine” with her bra in the second decade of September 2022. (Photo by kyliejenner/Instagram)

A full moon rising over the Re Island Bridge in Rivedoux, France is pictured on December 14, 2016. (Photo by Xavier Leoty/AFP Photo)