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)

Photograph of model Aly Dunne dressed in Gianfranco Ferre' design taken by Italian photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri in Milan, Italy, 1992. (Photo by Gian Paolo Barbieri/Fondazione Gian Paolo Barbieri/29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery/Handout via Reuters)

An alpaca Satsuki looks at a pet dog at a park while Alpaca Fureai Land's staffs walk the alpaca during early morning in Tokyo, Japan on June 21, 2023. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Alexis Tauaneai and Keele Browne of the St George Illawarra Dragons tackle Annessa Biddle of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks during a rugby league match at WIN Stadium in New South Wales, Australia on August 25, 2024. (Photo by James Gourley/AAP)

American actress and singer Selena Gomez shared the first pictures from her Bachelorette party in the last decade of August 2025. The 33-year-old actress and singer shared photos on Instagram marking the occasion. (Photo by Instagram)

The Smilovichi Felting Factory in Belarus was founded in 1928, when Smilovichi was a small Jewish settlement of craftsmen. Five of those craftsmen organized a small artel (a cooperative association of craftsmen who all live and work together), which produced warm boots called “valenki” for cold weather. Photo: Belarusian workers works at a felt boot factory in Smilovichi, some 35km from Minsk, Belarus, 16 January 2012. (Photo by Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA)

Opposition protesters take to the streets of Moscow. Mass meeting in Bolotnaya Square on December 10, 2011 in Moscow, Russia.

Photo by: Stas Sedov and Dmitry Chistoprudov; Source: AirPano

An Egyptian passenger sits on the locomotive of a train as it leaves Cairo train station in Egypt, Wednesday, October 14, 2015. (Photo by Amr Nabil/AP Photo)