A bakery worker rides a bicycle as he carries fresh bread on his head in Cairo, Egypt, February 9, 2016. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)

A couple sit on the terrase of a cafe in Istanbul as seagulls fly over them on September 10, 2019. (Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP Photo)

Kim Kardashian seen on the streets of Manhattan on September 10, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images)

Icelandic horses play on a meadow in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, as the sun rises on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Photographer Patrick Halls likes to make the people he takes photos of uncomfortable in order to “capture a real emotion”. It is no wonder that for his latest project, he decided to stun his subjects with a taser.

A pair of ice climbers have been snapped in front of a stunning aurora. Mike Stuart and Takeshi Tani were climbing the Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada, when the aurora lit up the nights sky. They were photographed by famed night-time photographer Paul Zizka, who specialises in photographing auroras in some of Canadas most beautiful parks. (Photo by Paul Zizka/Caters News)

Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)