Jasmine Paolini hits a forehand during her first-round US Open match on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Ray Giubilo)

38 year old Prabhat Sinha, from Assam, carries a load of coal weighing 60kg's, supported by a head-strap, as he ascends the staircase of a coal mine on April 16, 2011 near the village of Khliehriat, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

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)

“Red Land: Sunset Cloud Village is one of the most picturesque places in Red Land, China. As its name indicates, it's best to see before sunset. The reddish brown soil turns redder after rainfall and after farmers plow the land”. (Photo and comment by Peng Jiang/National Geographic Photo Contest via The Atlantic)

To mark Halloween, 150 teens descended upon a swimming pool in Essex to help mobile network giffgaff recreate the famous Tomatina tomato fight... only this time, with blood and guts. Different takes #giffgaffguts. On October 18, 2013 in Dagenham, England. (Photo by Dave J. Hogan/Stringer for giffgaff)

“The young adult humpback could have a plot waiting for it at a whale graveyard hidden in bushland at Garrigal Garigal National Park”. – Janet Fife-Yeomans via AdelaideNow

Photo: People gather on the beach to see the carcass of a male sub-adult humpback whale that washed up at New Port Beach overnight at Newport Beach overnight on August 1, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne)

A demonstrator carries a placard reading “One more day of reflection” as she dances with others at Sol Square on May 21, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. A growing number of angry Spaniards have, encouraged by youth groups and social media campaigns, taken possession of the Sol square setting it up with tents and kitchens ahead of Sundays regional and municipal elections held in Spain. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

A relative of a victim of the Ukraine International Airlines PS 752 plane that crashed after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport reacts at Boryspil International Airport, outside Kiev, Ukraine on January 8, 2020. (Photo by Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters)