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)

“A Little Monkey on the Cliff”. “A cold front hit the Nagano prefecture. I saw a little monkey enduring the cold in Jigokudani Monkey Park. This little monkey is really cute”. (Photo by Hidetoshi Ogata/Smithsonian Photo Contest)

Israeli security forces arrest an Ultra Orthodox Jewish man as they close a synagogue in the Mea Shearim Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem, on March 30, 2020, amid efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)

In this photograph taken on September 22, 2016, a Pakistani devotee decorates symbolic paper boats, an offering to Muslim saint Abdulqadir Jilani as a way of giving thanks after their desire to give birth to a son was fulfilled, before dropping it into the water during an annual ceremony on the banks of the River Ravi in Lahore. The ceremony commemorates a centuries-old tale that Muslim saint Abdulqadir Jilani raised a sunken ship carrying a wedding party, at the pleading of the groom's mother, saving all the occupants. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

A Hindu holy man on his way to the annual holy dip at Gangasagar, gestures towards a visitor as he rests at a transit camp in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, January 6, 2016. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take the annual holy dip at Gangasagar, where the Ganges River reaches the Bay of Bengal, on the auspicious Makar Sankranti festival day that falls on Jan.14. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

Revellers attend the 25th edition of the Sziget Festival on August 9, 2017 in Budapest, Hungary. The Sziget Festival, one of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2017, taking place from August 9-16 on the Hajogyari Sziget in Budapest. (Photo by Laszlo Mudra/Rockstar Photographers)

A model wears a creation as part of the Mugler Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2023 collection presented in Paris, Thursday, January 26, 2023. (Photo by Thibault Camus/AP Photo)

Photographer and animal lover Chris Keeney shows how to use a PetCam with your own pet and offers expert technical know-how and inspiring creative suggestions to get you started. This is Coulee, a border collie/golden retriver mix from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Chris Keeney/Princeton Architectural Press)