A man walks with his dog riding on a scooter across a square on August 9, 2022 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. (Photo by Yang Bo/China News Service via Getty Images)

A family member of the Toraja ethnic group prepares the bodies of exhumed relatives from a community burial site to be cleaned and dressed in a series of traditional ceremonies honouring the dead known as Manene at Torea village, in North Toraja, Indonesia's South Sulawesi on August 17, 2022. (Photo by Andri Saputra/AFP Photo)

The Elterwater quarry in Cumbria, North West England on June 12, 2023 which has now reached a water level that reveals a hidden heart shape in the stone. (Photo by Steven Lomas/Animal News Agency)

During his time in Ethiopia, New York-based art director and photographer Diego Arroyo spent time with the Hamar, Mursi, Dassanech, and Arbore Tribes. They, along with several others tribes, make up the 200,000 people situated in Africa’s Great Rift Valley. The people of the Omo Valley are still primarily herders and farmers, living an isolated and simple life. While they have yet to be truly touched by globalization, they could soon disappear. Their way of life is being threatened by a massive hydroelectric dam. (Photo by Diego Arroyo)

“The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Ms and 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST (06:28 UTC) on Monday, May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province of China, killing an estimated 68,000 people”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A woman cries as she cannot find her 4-year-old daughter and husband on the top of the ruins of a destroyed school in earthquake-hit Beichuan county, Sichuan province, May 17, 2008. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

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)

Actors perform a scene in a film directed by Humam Husari in the rebel-held besieged town of Zamalka, in the Damascus suburbs, Syria September 19, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

An Indian soldier from the international peace keeping force (IPKF) instructs young Sri Lankan recruits in shooting, part of the training given to the citizen's volunteer force in the North-Eastern Sri Lankan city of Batticaloa, September 28, 1989. (Photo by Barbara Walton/AP Photo)