Tony North; First place, Breathing Spaces; Overall Winner; Blue Tajinaste, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. “Echium thyrsiflorum is endemic to the mountains of La Palma island – from high up, there was a magnificent view of both the caldera below, and the stars above. The Unesco La Palma biosphere reserve encompasses the entire island, with the Caldera de Taburiente containing mountains with a highest peak of 2,426 metres – the Roque de los Muchachos”. (Photo by Tony North/IGPOTY)

A car made from parts taken from used vehicles is shown in street Hefei, Anhui Province in China, on Oktober 21, 2013. The machine, which reaches 60 km/h, is the brainchild of self-taught inventor Zhu Runqiang. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

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Members of the Guard of Honor of the Presidential Regiment from Russia perform during the “Spasskaya Tower” international military music festival at Moscow's Red Square, Russia, September 10, 2015. The festival runs until 13 Sepember. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Model Bella Hadid at The Gilded Lily after party for the release of Bella Hadid Paper Magzine cover on December 16, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Lipson/BFA/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An engineer (L) talks to a driver of a dump truck loaded with gold-bearing soil at the Vostochny opencast of the Olimpiada gold operation, owned by Polyus Gold International company, in Krasnoyarsk region, Eastern Siberia, Russia, June 30, 2015. Polyus Gold International is the largest gold producer in Russia and one of the top 10 gold miners globally by ounces produced, according to the official web site of the company. Olimpiada is Polyus Gold's largest operation. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Mateo Santiago, Field Manager at Tropical Bamboo Nursery and Gardens, photographs rain water collecting in the corpse flower as Garden Manager Melanie Benson steadies a ladder. Santiago crinkled his nose up distastefully when he described its odor, which was at its worse Sunday night. “It smelled like a dead rat”. (Photo by Melanie Bell/Palm Beach Daily News)

An Indian girl smiles under a water splash at a water park as the temperatures reached 38 degree Celsius in Calcutta, eastern India, 12 June 2016. The summer or pre-monsoon season lasts from March to July in eastern India with the highest day temperatures ranging from 38 to 45 degrees Celsius. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA)