A giraffe was captured creating a dust cloud while running in front of a perfect African sunset in Amboseli National Park, Kenya in the first decade of November 2022. (Photo by Edgard Berben/Media Drum Images)

The tusk of a woolly mammoth that lived some 18,000 years ago, from which researchers sequenced the extinct mammal's entire genome, is seen in northeastern Siberia in this photo from 2015. (Photo by Love Dalen/Handout via Reuters)

In this photo taken with a long exposure, a person walks a dog past Christmas lights in a park, Sunday, December 15, 2024, in Lenexa, Kan. (Photo by USA Today)

An activist blocks a highway during a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and calling for the Israeli government to reverse its decision to take over Gaza City and other areas in the Gaza Strip, near the city of Lod, Israel, Tuesday, August 26, 2025. (Photo by Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo)

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)

Multicolored nets are set under olive trees to collect the olives on November 27, 2013 in Castagniers, southeastern France. (Photo by Valery Hache/AFP Photo)

Afghan security stands guard as a tractor eradicates a field of young poppy plants May 25, 2011, in Argu District, Badakshan, Afghanistan. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Many powerful photographs have been made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image... Photo: Two victims amid the rubble of a garment factory building collapse in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 25, 2013. (Photo by Taslima Akhter)