At 10,582 square kilometres, the Bolivian salt flats – otherwise known as Salar de Uyuni – are the largest on the planet and contain between 50 and 70% of the world’s lithium reserves. After exploring Chile and Argentina, photographer Joel Santos decided to travel to Bolivia in January 2017 to check the salt flats off his bucket list. With an electrical storm rolling in, Joel and his two travelling companions were the only souls left on the vast flats and captured the eerie flats without a person in sight. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

Revellers throw tomatoes at each other during the annual “Tomatina”, tomato fight fiesta in the village of Bunol near Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, August 31, 2022. The tomato fight took place once again following a two-year suspension owing to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Alberto Saiz/AP Photo)

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)

Players, Sophie Powell, Cara Gainer and Gabriella Cowley and their caddies look on as a fire nears the 10th hole during day three of The Rose Ladies Series on The West Course in the first ever ladies professional event at Wentworth Golf Club on August 07, 2020 in Virginia Water, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

In collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Allegheny College art students repurpose used street signs as art materials to create the PennDOT Road Sign Sculpture Garden in Meadville, Pennsylvania, USA on August 19, 2017. (Photo by Brian Cahn/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

People canoe through a flooded forest in Soomaa national park, Estonia, February 7, 2016. In this Estonian region hit by floods every spring the natural disaster is used to attract visitors and organise canoe tours through flooded territories. The floods are called Fifth Season by local people. (Photo by Ints Kalnins/Reuters)

American singer and songwriter Kacey Musgraves performs onstage during the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards at Barclays Center on September 12, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by John Shearer/MTV VMAs 2021/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS)

The six-months-old female koala cub holds on to the back of zoo keeper Lena at the zoo in Duisburg, Germany, 23 October 2015. The yet unnamed baby weighs 580 grams. (Photo by Roland Weihrauch/EPA)