The battle by Jose Garcia, US. Category: bird behaviour. A great white heron (Ardea herodias occidentalis) fighting a green snake in the Florida Everglades. The fight lasted for nearly 20 minutes with the heron having to release its prey. (Photo by Jose Garcia/2017 Bird Photographer of the Year Awards)

Cooler temperatures begin this week as a polar vortex brings much colder conditions with the chance of snow for Snowdonia, Ogwen Valley, North Wales on 22nd October 2018. The Ogwen Valley and Tryfan Mountain looking splendid in the Autumn sunrise. (Photo by DGDImages/Alamy Live News)

A sushi restaurant staff member holds the cut tail of the auctioned 212-kilogram Bluefin tuna after the New Year's first auction of the Toyosu Market, at the Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera in Tokyo, Japan, 05 January 2023. Yukitaka Yamaguchi, president of wholesaler Yamayuki, and the company operating the Sushi Ginza Onodera restaurants, secured the first tuna auction of the New Year with a bid of almost 257,000 euros (36.04 million Japanese Yen). (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

The band “Baby In Vain” and the dancegroup Corpus perform at the Gloria Stage at Roskilde Festival on July 3, 2019. (Photo by Helle Arensbak/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP Photo)

Seven-year-old Ruby Macis explores the stunning sunflower field at Balgone Estate, East Lothian, UK on August 6 2024, which prepares to open to the public for the second year this week with quarter of a million sunflowers over seven acres. (Photo by South West News Service)

Storm clouds gather over the scene outside the Jewish Community Center in Leawood, Kansas following a shooting, on April 13, 2014. (Photo by John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/MCT)

Second Place Winner: “Thunderstorm at False Kiva”. I hiked out to these ruins at night hoping to photograph them with the Milky Way, but instead a thunderstorm rolled through, creating this dramatic image. – Max Seigal. National Geographic Traveler Director of Photography Dan Westergren, one of this year's judges, shares his thoughts on the second place winner: “This photo combines two different scenes into one: the small kiva in a cliff dwelling and the grand vista of Canyonlands National Park across the valley. I really like the two different color palettes – warm inside and purple outside. This two-for-one scene was caused by the lightning storm outside the dwelling, which lit up the landscape like it was a huge electronic flash. Looking at this picture I can imagine what a wonderful sight it must have been for the ancient people who lived here. It doesn't seem too amazing now in our modern world, but might have been mind-blowing for the prehistoric residents”. Location: Utah. (Photo and caption by Max Seigal/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

In this Tuesday, August 27, 2019, file photo, a climber stops to take pictures of clouds while climbing towards the summit of Mount Fuji to watch the sunrise, in Japan. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo/File)