A man shakes a wooden disk to keep it on fire during the Schieweschlawe festival in Offwiller, eastern France, Sunday, February 26, 2023. The Schieweschlawe festival is a celtic tradition to drive away evil spirit and celebrates equinox. (Photo by Jean-Francois Badias/AP Photo)

A sparrow feeds its nestlings inside a hole in a building while waiting for food in Lalitpur, Nepal on Friday, March 17, 2023. (Photo by Skanda Gautam/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Vervet monkeys Higgins, left, and Andor fight playfully atop a car in the Park 'N Fly parking lot which lies adjacent to the swampy mangrove preserve where the monkey colony lives, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Dania Beach, Fla. For 70 years, a group of non-native monkeys has made their home next to a South Florida airport runway, delighting visitors and becoming local celebrities. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

Cholita wrestlers stage a performance on the street during the Electropreste celebration, which combines traditional and modern customs, in La Paz, Bolivia on March 12, 2022. (Photo by Claudia Morales/Reuters)

English actress Danielle Harold shot exclusively for the Sun on Sunday, May 7, 2023 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Olivia West/News Group Newspapers Ltd via The Sun)

A visitor checks automatic gun during International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2022 at the Expo Centre in Karachi on November 16, 2022. (Photo by Rizwan Tabassum/AFP Photo)

An artist (R) gives finishing touches to a New Year mural painted on his house in Chennai on December 29, 2022. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP 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)