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)

Winner of the National Park Foundation's photo contest; Honorable Mention: Fan Favorite. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Three friends enjoy sunrise over the Grand Canyon. (Photo by Peter Blanchard)

A woman carries an umbrella as she walks along a street during snowfall in the Iranian capital Tehran, on February 12, 2023. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

A visitor poses with artist Joyce Pensato's artwork “Mickey for Micky” at the Frieze Art Fair in London, October 14, 2014. (Photo by Luke MacGregor/Reuters)

(L-R) Canadian actor Patrick J. Adams as Michael Ross and American member of the British royal family and a former actress Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane at “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner”, Episode 402 in April 2014. (Photo by Ian Watson/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

A snow moon rears above a sycamore tree at Burrow Hill Cider Farm in Somerset, UK in the last decade of February 2024. (Photo by Jeff Overs/The Times)

Sina prepares for the reopening of the latex fashion shop Savage Wear as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown measures are eased in Berlin, Germany, March 9, 2021. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

Portraits single nominee: Dakar fashion, by Finbarr O’Reilly. Curious residents and a street vendor selling material look on as models Diarra Ndiaye, Ndeye Fatou Mbaye and Malezi Sakho wear outfits by the Senegalese designer Adama Paris in the Medina neighbourhood of Senegal’s capital, Dakar. (Photo by Finbarr O’Reilly/World Press Photo 2019)