Hirari Ikeda, a well-known Harajuku street fashion personality, on the street in Shibuya. (Photo by Tokyo Fashion)

Mina Sue Choi (L) from South Korea reacts after winning the Miss Earth 2022 pageant during the coro​nation night in Manila, Philippines, 29 November 2022. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

A fantasy figure promotes a video game at the Gamescom computer gaming fair in Cologne, Germany, Thursday, August 25, 2022. Around 1,100 exhibitors from 53 countries expect tens of thousands gaming enthusiast daily for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic at the world's largest gaming event. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

A woman uses a plastic bad to protect her head amid snowfall in Beijing, China on December 14, 2023. (Photo by Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

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)

A local resident of Red Hook, Betty Walsh, crosses a flooded street in Red Hook August 28, 2011 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. While Hurricane Irene has been downgraded to a tropical storm, it has knocked out power to more than 3 million people and is attributed to 15 deaths as it travels up the Eastern seaboard. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

A representative of Makinarium production, specialized in special visual effects, displays a latex mask for horror movie on a stand inside the Festival Palace during the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 14, 2016. (Photo by Regis Duvignau/Reuters)

Tourists walk behind a faded sign warning of tsunami hazard in Khao Lak, Phang Nga province December 15, 2014. Ahead of the anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, experts and officials say key weaknesses remain across the region in the system designed to warn people of the next disaster, and get them to safety. Thailand prepares to mark the tenth anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, the deadliest on the record, that killed at least 226,000 people in 13 Asian and African countries. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)