Aerial photography platform SkyPixel received 27,000 entries to its 2016 competition. Here are the winning shots plus some of our favourites. Here: Dam near perfect. Second prize in the same category was of the Huia Dam in Auckland, New Zealand. Hong Kong-based SkyPixel was launched in 2014. (Photo by Brendon Dixon/SkyPixel)

People wearing Christmas hats bath in a pool of watermelon peel during a Christmas service at a hot spring in Luoyang, Henan province, China, December 24, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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)

A model presents a creation made with chocolate by professional designers and pastry chefs during a Chocolate Fashion Show at the Salon Du Chocolat in Beirut, Lebanon November 12, 2015. (Photo by Jamal Saidi/Reuters)

Participants in the Notting Hill Carnival celebration are seen in west London over he Summer Bank Holiday weekend on August 28, 2023. The Notting Hill Carnival is Europe's largest street festival, which celebrates Caribbean culture, is expected to attract over 1 million revellers on bank holiday monday. (Photo by Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)