“The Independence day”. While on storm chasing expeditions in the Tornado Alley in USA I have encountered many photogenic supercell storms. This photograph was taken while we were approaching the storm near Julesburg, Colorado on My 28th, 2013. The storm was tornado warned for more than one hour, but stayed an LP storm through all its cycles and never produced a tornado, just occasional brief funnels, large hail and some rain. Photo location: Julesburg, Colorado, USA. (Photo and caption by Marko Korošec/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Guanaco on a Ridge”. An extremely unwary guanaco seemingly poses for a photograph atop a ridge in Patagonia's Torres del Paine National Park. Photo location: Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile. (Photo and caption by Arti Panchal/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Pashtun refugee boy in Kabul”. This photo shows a young Pashtun boy in a refugee camp in Kabul. Photo location: Afghanistan. (Photo and caption by Christina Feldt/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Oryx at the Dune Top”. In the afternoon, it was so hot at the bottom of the dune that the oryx ran to the dune top for coolness. When getting to the top , the oryx stopped and posed for me to capture a shot. Photo location: Sossusvlei, Namibia. (Photo and caption by Bo Fu/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“El Tigre”. Freediving with the Tiger Sharks of the Bahamas. Photo location: Grand Bahamas. (Photo and caption by Eusebio Saenz de Santamaria/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Welcome to India”. The beauty of India is boundless and penetrates every facet of the country. I captured this portrait in Jaipur as this beautiful young lady welcomed as into a hotel. I shot this through the glass of the front door to create a spiritual feeling to the image. She did the rest. India is one of the most welcoming places I have ever been. Photo location: Jaipur, India. (Photo and caption by Ryan Rapaport/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“The Mass Games”. Tens of thousands of performers take part in the Arirang Mass Games held each year in Pyongyang. Each pixel in the backdrop is a schoolchild holding a book of coloured pages, turned on command to display patriotic images telling the history of the nation. Thousands of dancers form the foreground, all moving in perfectly choreographed uniformity. Photo location: May Day Stadium, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (Photo and caption by Nicola Chilton/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Penguins at Saint Andrews Bay”. I was very excited to see thousands of King Penguins in this beautiful setting. Photo location: Saint Andrews Bay, South Georgia Island. (Photo and caption by Robert McRae/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Masai Mara Sunset”. Sky touching the ground, animals running around – Masai Mara is one true dream. Photo location: Masai Mara, Kenya. (Photo and caption by Burcu Basar/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Muay Thai Boy”. This little Thai boy gave me an unexpected “tough” look as soon as I readied my camera for this shot. He was dressed up for the village Sport Day in Pa Sang, Lamphun, where various schools annually come together to compete in athletic events for one day. There is a sense of strength and endurance that is instilled so deep in the hearts of the Thai people, and for a mere second, I could see it blooming in his eyes. Photo location: Lamphun, Thailand. (Photo and caption by Lauren Moffett/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“The Fog”. Submerged in fog, a holy man stands on a raised platform above the Ganges River in Varanasi. Photo location: Varanasi, India. (Photo and caption by Zack Vitiello/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Priest, Gheralta”. The church of Abuna Yemata is hidden in a cave atop a 200m vertical cliff. Such are the churches of Gheralta, Ethiopia, carved out of the sides of mountain tops where the priests can reside closer to the heavens and away from the worries of the lands below. With my camera bag on my back I sweated my way up the cliff to find the priest proud in his Sunday best, standing on a ledge only 2 meters wide. The magic of the location and moment enabled us to grow comfortable with each other very quickly and I took several photographs before battling with my vertigo on the way back down. Photo location: Ethiopia. (Photo and caption by Chris Roche/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Courage”. Although the swimming distance is short, it is not easy to make the first step to walk into the freeze water. Photo location: Haerbin, China. (Photo and caption by Lee Jackson/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Kyoto Train Station”. Photo location: Kyoto, Japan. (Photo and caption by Don Jacobson/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“No Man's Land”. The high plateau that is Mt Kinabalu, is a playground for some of the worlds most adventurous climbers. Yuji Hirayama has been on four expeditions to this magical and sometimes extreme area of Borneo. Here he climbs a new route on St Andrews Peak at over 4000m. Photo location: Mout Kinabalu, Borneo. (Photo and caption by Eddie Gianelloni/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“My Japan”. Osaka, Umeda Sky Building. Photo location: Osaka, Japan. (Photo and caption by Sandro Tedde/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Who are you?” The curiosity of an Albatross in his home, that usually is uninhabited by humans. Southern Royal Albatross (Diomedea epomophora). Red List IUCN Vulnerable. Sub Antarctic islands are the first lands after the “Ice Desert”, we take a visual journey that describe the unique wildlife of those archipelago and the everyday life on board of Tiama, a special sealing vessel, where researchers and photographers look for evidences of relationship between climate changes and wildlife decline, looking for little and big changes in this apparently untouched microcosms. Photo location: Campbell Island, Sub-Antarctic Islands, New Zealand. (Photo and caption by Roberto Isotti/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“The running man”. Shot on Oahu's north shore during a month long stay documenting the winter surfing i named this shot “The running man” after the famous 80's cult dance move for obvious reasons. Photo location: Pipeline, Hawaii. (Photo and caption by Jack Dekort/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Cooking varenyky for the family”. Hutstul Vasylyna Semenyuk cooks varenyky (locally called “pyrohy”), a national Ukrainian and Hutstul meal, for her whole family in the summer kitchen in the mountains above Verkhovyna town, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine. Hustuls is an ethno-cultural group that for centuries lived in the Carpathian mountains, on the territory of Ukraine and northern Romania. Due to unemployment a lot of adults are leaving for Western Europe and Russia to seek jobs, earn money and send it home to their close relatives. Photo location: Verkhovyna, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine. (Photo and caption by Alex Furman/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Farmer”. 79-year-old J.G. wipes sweat from his face after farming in his garden in North Georgia. After retiring from Eastman Kodak in 1990, J.G. started farming weekly on his 15 acre property in Georgia. Though he could make extra money selling the vegetables he grows, he'd rather give it to those in need. Photo location: Free Home, Georgia, USA. (Photo and caption by Branden Camp/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Liv the Life You Love”. During a recent trip to London, my sister, Liv Rebeles, on Jerome Street in Shoreditch, paused to inhale the boundless sources of inspiration around her. A self-made entrepreneur from Texas, she now resides in Los Angeles, California, where she has started her own e-commerce website specializing in affordable, young women's fashion. Photo location: Shoreditch, London. (Photo and caption by Sonia Rebeles/National Geographic Photo Contest)