An Indian women offers early-morning prayers or a “puja” at a ghat early in the morning on the banks of the Betawa River in Orchha in the state of Madhya Pradesh on July 5, 2015. (Photo by Rebecca Conway/AFP Photo)

Revelers throw a woman to the air during the opening and the firing of the “Chupinazo” rocket which starts the 2014 Festival of the San Fermin Running of the Bulls on July 6, 2014 in Pamplona, Spain. The annual Fiesta de San Fermin, made famous by the 1926 novel of US writer Ernest Hemmingway entitled “The Sun Also Rises”, involves the daily running of the bulls through the historic heart of Pamplona to the bull ring. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

A giant ham bread, a typical Venezuelan Christmas dish, is seen on a table during an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the biggest ham bread, in Caracas November 15, 2014. The giant hallaca more than 120 metres long. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Breitling Wingwalker Freya Paterson, from Liverpool, UK, flies above Kuwait City's iconic Water Towers with pilots David Barrell and Martyn Carrington, on March 6, 2014. The team loop and roll up to 160 mph enduring G-forces of 4-5g. Crowds are expected to line the Kuwaiti coastline to catch a glimpse of the Wingwalking team on Saturday, March 8, 2014, to mark the opening of the first dedicated boutique in the city for the prestigious watch brand. (Photo by Katsuhiko Tokunaga/Breitling)

A mahout splashes water on his elephant in the river Sabarmati on a hot summer day in Ahmedabad, India, May 20, 2015. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Fireworks explode over a floating Christmas tree in Lagoa Lake in Rio de Janeiro. (Photo by Victor R. Caivano/Associated Press)

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)

In this October 14, 2013 photo, ecology professor Ricardo Freitas catches a broad-snouted caiman to examine, then release back into the water channel in the affluent Recreio dos Bandeirantes suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Caimans are like tanks, a very old species with a remarkable capacity for renovation that allows them to survive under extreme conditions where others couldn't, said Freitas, who runs the Instituto Jacare, or the Caiman Institute, which aims to protect the reptiles. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)