Visitors look at the work titled “In Bed”, 2005 by Australian-born artist Ron Mueck at Triennale di Milano on January 09, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Giuseppe Cottini/Getty Images)
Julian Rodriguez, of Everson, Wash., holds his two-gram packet of recreational marijuana outside Top Shelf Cannabis, Tuesday, July 8, 2014, in Bellingham, Wash., on the first day of legal sales in the state. (Photo by Ted S. Warren/AP Photo)
A woman jumps over a puddle as she crosses a street after a torrential downpour in the South Beach part of Miami, July 18, 2014. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
A girl struggles with winds from approaching Typhoon Matmo along the eastern coast of Keelung, northeastern Taiwan, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (Photo by Wally Santana/AP Photo)
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 March 15, 2012 file photo, a Chinese woman poses for photos near a sculpture depicting a Chinese yuan note at an art district in Beijing, China. China devalued its tightly controlled currency on Tuesday, August 11,2015, following a slump in trade, triggering the yuan's biggest one-day decline in a decade. The central bank said the yuan's 1.3 percent fall was due to a change aimed at making its exchange rate controls more market-oriented. But any change raises the risk of tensions with China's trading partners. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)