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)

Hailey Hanestad thinks nothing about nuzzling up to the animal, called Wiley, and even dozes off with him on her bed. Wiley has been a treasured member of the family since being rescued by Hailey's dad, Rick, three years ago. Today he's thought to be just one of two coyotes in the US that have become domesticated after being born in the wild. Photo: Coyote Wiley sniffs Hailey, 8, at their home. (Photo by Barcroft Media)

These pictures show a five-year-old boy who is already extremely comfortable around alligators. Blaise's dad T-Mike runs the Kliebert Gator Farm, the biggest and oldest in the world and which was started by his grandfather Harvey in 1957. Photo: T-Mike Kliebert and his son Blaise tackle Chinaman a 12 foot alligator in Hammond, Louisiana. (Photo by Barcroft Media)

A Burmese worker sets up Christmas lights inside a woman's clothing store inside a shopping mall December 6, 2011 in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Pictures of deceased people are seen inside a chapel at a cemetery in the village of Smoljinac, Serbia, October 25, 2016. From a distance, the cemetery in the eastern Serbian village of Smoljinac looks like a residential neighbourhood eerily placed among graves. But once inside the grounds, after passing a section with the usual stone slabs, visitors find rows of small bungalows painted in pastel colours. They have one or two rooms, large windows and ornate plaques – some inside, some outside – memorialising the deceased. These are the burial chapels of Smoljinac, cosy cabins with a furnished room inside, a storage place for wreaths and funeral paraphernalia, and the family crypt below. Some even have electric power inside. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

“I wonder about everyone that I photograph, what are they thinking at the moment, what is going on in their life, what are they really like. Photographs are such abstractions of real life, both true and false at the same time and so limited in the scope of what can be captured, yet limitless in how it stimulates our imagination. Indeed, photography is a rich medium”. – Mike Peters. Photo: Meatpacking District, NYC, September 28, 2012. (Photo by Mike Peters)

People push a stretcher carrying an injured victim after a mosque blast inside the police headquarters, at a hospital in Peshawar on January 30, 2023. A blast at a mosque inside a police headquarters in Pakistan on January 30 killed at least 25 worshippers and wounded 120 more, officials said. (Photo by Zafar Iqbal/AFP Photo)

Internally displaced Syrian children play inside a refugee camp in the Hama countryside, Syria January 1, 2016. (Photo by Ammar Abdullah/Reuters)