Harvesting water lilies in Dhaka, Bangladesh in the last decade of August 2023. (Photo by Mostafijur Rahman Nasim/Solent News & Photo Agency)

In the forests of Viiksimo in Finland, in October 2023, a popular spot for watching wolves and bears, a crow has a rival at its lunch spot. (Photo by Valtteri Mulkahainen/Caters News Agency)

The MS Princess Seaways battles through the waves off Tynemouth pier as gale force winds hit the North east UK on September 25, 2020. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)

A woman poses for a photo shoot with the blossom flowers decorated at Ritan Park during the Spring season in Beijing, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

A wildfire on the Scottish island in the first decade of April 2025. Fire services are calling on people to act responsibly after an “extreme” wildfire warning was issued for the whole of Scotland. (Photo by Police Scotland/PA Wire)

A woman stands in a gift shop in central Rason city, part of the special economic zone northeast of Pyongyang, in this August 30, 2011 file photo. North Korea is a militarized, male-dominated society, but it is women who are making the money as the insular nation allows an unofficial market-based economy to take shape. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

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)