A couple watches office and residential buildings from the observation deck of Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest broadcasting tower, in Tokyo, Japan, August 18, 2021. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)
Shakar Rustami (L) and Zulaikha Amini, organizers of the“'Smart Way” book and painting exhibition stand in front of painting in Kabul, Afghanistan, 21 August 2023. Young female artists in Kabul held a painting exhibition to express the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women and girls. The exhibition also featured books displayed by students to promote reading culture. Some of the girls called for the Taliban to lift the restrictions against women and girls. Many female students turned to painting and drawing after schools and universities closed. (Photo by Samiullah Popal/EPA/EFE)
An Israeli spectator watches a giant T-Rex balloon during the Purim parade festival in Petah Tikva, Israel, Thursday, March 24, 2016. The Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)
Students training to be flight attendants hold books on their heads, chopsticks in their mouths, and papers in between their knees, as they take part in a standing posture practice at a vocational school in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, China May 4, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)
Natalia Williams dressed as Corpse Bride Emily and Tony Knight as a Mandalorian, arrive at the Bradford Unleashed Comic-Con, an entertainment and comic book convention in England on March 8, 2020. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)
Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)
Neil Zeller's snaps were taken across Canada, where he photographs the northern lights dancing across a dark night sky. In one stunning shot, Zeller, 42, even manages to capture a flash of lightning beneath a storm cell while an aurora gives off a magnificent green glow. The photographer, from Calgary, Alberta, describes himself as a night person, and became interested in night photography about 10 years ago. (Photo by Neil Zeller/Caters News)
Winner. “This was taken in the South Ari Atolls, Maldives, as the south-west monsoon season was setting in. It features my partner – and dive buddy – Emma after surfacing at the end of the last dive of the day to find 1.5 metre swells and dark monsoon clouds. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: This beautiful portrait of a diver in an ocean swell below a menacing sky stands out this month for its emotional and elemental beauty. It is a reminder that while we may play among nature we are always dwarfed by its power and must be constantly on our guard”. (Photo by Simon Dunn/The Guardian)