Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey attend the “Jurassic World Rebirth” New York Premiere at Lincoln Center on June 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

A wounded Afghan policeman is carried away from the site of an explosion in Kabul May 24, 2013. Several large explosions rocked a busy area in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday with Reuters witnesses describing shooting in the area. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

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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)

Artist Ali Khalifa, center, draws graffiti at his old Kadhimiya district of Baghdad that needed municipal services, Iraq, Wednesday, June 2, 2021. (Photo by Hadi Mizban/AP Photo)

A man wears a sweater covered in Irish themed pins as he stands with thousands of spectators to watch the 254th New York City St. Patrick's Day parade up 5th Avenue in the Manhattan Borough of New York, March 17, 2015. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)

A bride gets tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a nucleic acid testing site, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China on November 15, 2022. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A Hindu devotee lies on the banks of river Ganges she worships the Sun god during the religious festival of Chhath Puja, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kolkata, India on November 20, 2020. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A woman looks on December 10, 2020 at a metal monolith that has popped up on a riverbank of the Vistula in the Polish capital Warsaw, the latest in a string of similar objects that have recently appeared in Europe and the US. Similar-looking objects were found in the United States, Romania and Britain. (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP Photo)