Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez, right, and Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach wait for the announcer to name the new Miss Universe at the Miss Universe pageant on Sunday, December 20, 2015, in Las Vegas. Gutierrez was incorrectly crowned before Wurtzbach was named Miss Universe. (Photo by John Locher/AP Photo)

Miss India Manushi Chhilar (C) reacts as she wins the 67 th Miss World contest final next to France Aurore Andrée Raphaëlle Kichenin (R) and Miss Kenya Magline Jeruto (L) in Sanya, on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan on November 18, 2017. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP Photo)

Today is what is known as the equilux and it happens when day and night are equal and occurs a few days before the spring equinox, and a few days after the autumn equinox. What appears to be a floating leaf is actually a stray sticking to a wet car windshield in a park in Scaggsville, Maryland on September 25, 2024. Today sunrise was at 7:02am and sunset took place at 7:02pm. The green and orange colored leaf (about half for each color) seems to represent the transition from Summer to Fall. (Photo by Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Brasil's Flavia Saraiva competes on the Balance Beam in the Women's Team Final during the 52nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, in Antwerp, northern Belgium, on October 4, 2023. (Photo by Lionel Bonaventure/AFP Photo)

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)

Dhofar Region, Oman. Much of Oman is desert, but the Arabian Sea coast in the Dhofar region represents a startling difference in climate. This coastal region catches the monsoon rains, or khareef, during the summer months. Drenching rains fall primarily on the mountainous ridge that separates the lush, fertile areas along the coast from the arid interior, recharging streams, waterfalls and springs that provide plentiful water supplies in the fertile lowlands for the remainder of the year. Image taken by Landsat 5 on April 2, 2005. (Photo by USGS/NASA)

Honourable mention, Behaviour category. Toss the scorpion – Indian roller playing with its kill by Susmita Datta. The image was taken during an early morning safari drive at Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in India. (Photo by Susmita Datta/PA Wire/Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2017)

A cat sits in front of a retro car owned by retired mechanic Mikhail Krasinets at an open-air museum of Soviet-era vehicles in the village of Chernousovo, Tula region, Russia on September 27, 2018. In the remote village of Chernousovo, retired mechanic Mikhail Krasinets tends to more than 300 ramshackle, Soviet-era cars, remnants of a once vibrant auto industry that crumbled with the fall of the Soviet Union. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)