Firework display from the top of the Sky Tower to welcome the New Year on January 1, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Clash of the storms, New Mexico, US by Camelia Czuchnicki. “A clash between two storm cells in New Mexico, US, each with its own rotating updraft. The curved striations of the oldest noticeable against the new bubbling convection of the newer. It was a fantastic sight to watch and it’s the rarity of such scenes that keep drawing me back to the US Plains each year”. (Photo by Camelia Czuchnicki/Weather Photographer of the Year 2016)

A Belarussian border guard checks a passenger's passport in a train after it arrived from Lithuania, at the railway station Gudogai, Belarus, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Filipinos riding on makeshift carts cross over an overflowing dam during a downpour in Las Pinas city, south of Manila, Philippines, 05 September 2017. According to the latest forecast from the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) state weather bureau, typhoon signals were raised over Northern Luzon brought by a tropical storm (local name: Tropical Storm Kiko) and warned fisherfolks and small seacrafts not to venture onto the sea due to big waves. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

To an outsider, their passion is at times illegal and often on the verge of life and death. But climbing rooftops of high-rise buildings and exploring abandoned facilities is in the blood of these young Muscovites. The small group calls itself “Rudex”, which stands for “roof and decay exploration”, and is akin a Western youth craze known as urbex or “urban exploration” of man-made structures. Here: Urban explorer Vad Him of Rudex team jumps whilst on a rooftop in Moscow, Russia, August 14, 2017. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

A gory fight to the death between snarling dogs and captured wild boars. Gathered around a bamboo-walled arena, Indonesians in this remote part of Java island seem eager to watch the blood-curdling contests, known locally as “adu bagong” (boar fighting). Not surprisingly, animal rights activists are up in arms against the regular spectacle, which began in the 1960s when wild pig numbers in this area in West Java soared and they were hunted to protect crops. Here: Women share a joke as they walk to a paddy field in Cikawao village of Majalaya, West Java province, Indonesia, October 12, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

Myanmar national award second-place winner: Kyaw Win Hlaing. “Mount Bromo is an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia. The name Bromo derives from the Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu creator god”. (Photo by Kyaw Win Hlaing/Sony World Photography Awards 2018)