A woman jumps over a puddle as she crosses a street after a torrential downpour in the South Beach part of Miami, July 18, 2014. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

The 26-foot-tall “Forever Marilyn” statue, was hoisted by crane early this morning in downtown Palm Springs, California on February 25, 2025. This larger-than-life tribute to Monroe's iconic pose from “The Seven Year Itch” is being moved to resolve ongoing legal disputes over its placement. Installed in 2021 near the Palm Springs Art Museum, the statue faced criticism and legal challenges regarding public access and aesthetic concerns. (Photo by Ian L. Sitren/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An osprey flies with a fish in its talons at the Sebastian Inlet State Park in Melbourne Beach, Florida on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An egret in the second decade of April 2025 cools off in the Florida heat by gular fluttering, rapidly vibrating its throat muscles with an open beak. The mechanism helps to dissipate heat through evaporation. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy Live News)

Behind the scenes at Rock it Out, a circus show fusing live music and death-defying stunts in West Thurrock, Essex on April 10, 2025. They will attempt a British first: a double somersault on a rotating wheel. (Photo by Jeff Moore)

Drone photo of a dead humpback whale at Foelle Strand in Loegten Bay, Djursland, Denmark, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix via Reuters)

Paul Dixon is an engineer by day and an astrophotographer by night. He shot this broken boat on Dungeness beach, Kent in the last decade of August 2024, 17 times, stacking the images upon each other before combining them with a similar composite of the Milky Way. (Photo by Paul Dixon/Media Drum Images)