Honorable Mention: “The Storm”. During I was taking photo with my nephew, the storm came and I caught this beautiful moment. Photo location: Kocaeli, Turkey. (Photo and caption by Aytül Akbaş/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Sometimes i feel like photographers have uncovered a special secret. A crazy, amazing, and beautiful secret. The key to truly living. All i want is to be alive”. – Karrah Kobus

Photo: “All my life i lived in a bubble”. (Photo by Karrah Kobus)

“I bought my first dlsr camera in 2009 may. The first part of my life is gone but the other i dedicate to photography. If i try to imagine myself, i saw someone on the road, who walking straight to the light. This kind of light is the photography and the post-processing in my life. My pictures express the feelings, moods what i felt under my trip in the last few years”. – Ildiko Neer

Photo: “Path to the shine”, 2011. (Photo by Ildiko Neer)

Mount Etna erupts near Sicily, Italy on March 15, 2021. This is the thirteenth time in twenty-eight days. During the early evening of 14 March and the night between 14 and 15 March a strombolian activity at the Southeast Crater gradually increased, leading to a paroxysmal event which had its peak around 01:00 am, ash blown by the wind touched the south-southeast slope of the volcano reaching also Catania, the event ceased completely around 3:45, photo taken from Milo near Catania on March 15, 2021. (Photo by Salvatore Allegra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Yogis and street performers have been simulating levitation with nifty contraptions forever. They appear to be held aloft via nothing but their preternatural mental prowess. But are really enjoying the benefits of basic physics just like the rest of us when we use a chair. However, just because it’s perfectly explainable doesn’t mean it isn’t nifty. I’m especially impressed by this 2-person version and am still trying to work out how exactly the chair they’re using is shaped at the base.

In this handout image provided by NASA, the space shuttle Endeavour is seen on launch pad 39a as a storm passes by prior to the rollback of the Rotating Service Structure (RSS) April 28, 2011, at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. During the 14-day mission, Endeavour and the STS-134 crew will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and spare parts, including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank and additional spare parts for Dextre. Launch is targeted for April 29 at 3:47 p.m. EDT.

A love story with two log choppers. “In 1993, I was working on a project about life in the Olomouc region of Czechoslovakia. One day, I came to the village of Dlouhá Loučka-Křivá and went into a courtyard where I saw two old people, a husband and wife, sawing firewood for winter. They were working quietly, concentrating. I watched them fetch a beam from a wrecked barn, but they didn’t discuss how they planned to carry it to the saw. The woman faced one way, the man the other. When they realised, the woman eventually turned and followed her husband. The picture I took is the picture of many relationships – when each partner wants something different, but they have to come to an agreement, pull together eventually”. (Photo by Jindrich Streit)