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 plays with colourful papers at the 23rd Sziget (Island) Festival on Shipyard Island in Budapest, Hungary, 13 August 2015. The festival is one of the biggest cultural events of Europe, offering art exhibitions, theatrical and circus performances and music concerts. Almost 200 performers from 47 countries will entertain the hundreds of thousands of visitors from 11 to 18 August. (Photo by Balazs Mohai/EPA)

Pinatas depicting Mexican actress Kate del Castillo (L) and the drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman are displayed outside a workshop in Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, Mexico, January 13, 2016. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

Bjorn, aged 5, smiles as he poses with a Owl butterfly during an event to launch the Sensational Butterflies exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, Britain March 23, 2016. The exhibition opens to the public on March 24 and runs until September 11. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

When Colin Garratt went to photograph the traditional sentinels of the British countryside, he found they ranged from the dapper to the downright sinister. “They are not from the anaesthetised world of the craft fair”, says Colin Garratt, “but are the direct descendants of the ancient spectres which have haunted the landscape for centuries”. The Scarecrow Exhibition is at Geddes Gallery, London, from 25 to 30 March. (Photo by Colin Garratt)

A house that was slammed off its foundation by Hurricane Isabel sits precariously on the beach one month after it hit Rodanthe, North Carolina October 18, 2003. (Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters)

Olaf Niess catches swans on the river Alster near the town hall in Hamburg, Germany, 17 November 2015. The Alster swans are moving to their ice-free winter quarters on the Eppendorf Muehlenteich millpond until spring. (Photo by Bodo Marks/EPA)

A man walks past an advertisement sign promoting a bank in Seoul in this September 3, 2009 file photo. South Korea is expected to release GDP dara this week. (Photo by Lee Jae-Won/Reuters)