Travel winner in the Professional competition of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards. 'Roads of Grains.' (Ricardo Teles, Brazil) More than 100,000 photographers from 166 countries submitted photos into the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards. The subjects range from a series of beautiful Israeli landscapes to a pride of lions stalking across the Serengeti. Now, after several months of narrowing down the selection, the World Photography Organization has revealed American photographer Sara Naomi Lewkowicz as the winner of L’Iris d’Or/Sony...

A salt mine in the Nullarbor Plain of southwestern Australia. (Emma Phillips) Australian photographer Emma Phillips was in search of something new to photograph, when she stumbled upon salt mines in the Nullarbor Plain, a semi-arid region in western Australia. “I had decided that I wanted to take some pictures of industry in Australia, but I’d been finding it difficult to get access to certain industrial plants,” Phillips told weather.com. “I was in the desert on a trip through Australia...

Moldavian photographer Sasha Leahovenco captured photos of people from an indigenous tribe in the Chukotka region of Russia. (Sasha Leahovenco) What is it like to live at the end of the earth? Photographer Sasha Leahovenco battled sub-zero temperatures to photograph isolated reindeer herders, who are located so far from civilization they had never had their pictures taken before. Leahovenco, who grew up in Moldova, traveled to remote Chukotka, Russia to photograph the indigenous people and share his photos with the...

Abandoned Crying Baby Hospital in the Northern region of Italy. (Gaz Mather/Caters News Agency) British urban explorer Gaz Mather primarily photographs abandoned buildings in the U.K., but he discovered a whole new world of deserted, decaying buildings when he traveled to Italy. “After exploring the U.K. for a few years it was only a matter of time before I had to venture further afield and Europe was the next destination,” Mather told Caters News Agency. The Manchester-based photographer trekked to...

1906: San Francisco in ruins, seen from Lawrence Captive Airship, 2000 feet above San Francisco Bay. George Lawrence used aerial kites to photograph San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. His photos appeared in newspapers around the world made him famous. (George R. Lawrence/Library of Congress) In 1906, weeks after a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, photography pioneer George R. Lawrence captured stunning images of the city in ruins from thousands of feet in the air. One of the photographs (first...

A Vietnamese motorbike cyclist carries hula hoops This image is featured in Hans Kemp's photo series, 'Bikes of Burden.' (Hans Kemp) Maneuvering a motorbike through a crowded city may seem difficult, but add carrying a load of hundreds of fresh eggs, baskets of pig entrails or rolls of barbed wire and the task sounds downright impossible. Dutch photographer Hans Kemp documented these incredible (and sometimes, dangerous) feats in Vietnam for his “Bikes of Burden” photo series. Kemp first discovered the...

Lord Howe Island, Australia Some travel destinations will always be more popular than others but one of the greatest adventures of traveling is discovering little-visited (but vibrant) hotspots. Here, we feature some of the world's hidden pockets of incredible landscapes and spectacular scenery. Lord Howe Island is a World Heritage-listed paradise located 660km off the east coast of Australia and is only less than two hours' flight from Brisbane or Sydney. It, however, remains one of Australia's last, great paradises....

Resorts around the world boast of unique swimming poolsbut many believe the ultimate (and most dangerous?) infinity pool is located high on the edge of one of the world's most majestic natural wonders--Victoria Falls at the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. With a width of 5,604 feet and a height of 354 feet, Victoria Falls is considered the largest waterfall in the world, forming one of the world's largest sheets of water. But that doesn't prevent hundreds of adventurers a...

Algae grows in a Florida swamp. (Karen Glaser) Until recently, photographer Karen Glaser was based in Chicago, but her work brought her far from home to the murky depths of Florida's swamps and springs. A scuba diving instructor suggested that Glaser trek to the Sunshine State to photograph manatees. Glaser, however, was also captivated by the unique environment which the majestic animals habitate. "My senses are on overload each and every time I am in these waters," Glaser told weather.com....

Is it possible for something as destructive as mining to create beauty and new life? Mining has undoubtedly devastated some communities and natural environments, but with new methods of land reclamation being developed every day, there might be a silver lining. The northeastern Chinese city of Qingdao, once an infamous mining region, has been transformed into an ecological wonder filled with pavilions, clean energy technology and gardens for the 2014 International Horticultural Expo, reported CNN. But it's not just the...

Looking at the rocks, sand and sidewalks beneath our feet, you might get the impression that the earth is permanently fixed in place, immobile and unchanging. But in fact the ground is changing all the time, from earthquakes and volcanoes reshaping regional geology to the continental drift that has brought our continents together and apart again and again throughout geologic history. The United States has seen its fair share of geologic upheaval – mountain ranges in the east and west,...

'Yacht 3' (Laurent Maes) Belgian photographer Laurent Maes captures incredible high-resolution images of ships from above in his “Shipshape” photo series. The photos are so crisp that when they are zoomed in, details of each freighter or yacht can be seen clearly. “Aerial views of this type have been done before, but never with this level of precision,” Maes explained to weather.com. “The very high definition of pictures allows them to be printed at sizes up to 10 feet.” (MORE:...

'The Playground.' Seaside Sanitarium (Seaside Regional Center) in Waterford, Connecticut. (Robert C. Marsala) There's something especially eerie about a hospital that has been reclaimed by nature and left to the elements. Once pristine, sterile, and bustling with activity, these once-grand structures are now crumbling in ruins and decay.In his reports from abandoned cities such as Chernobyl, Ukraine and Varosha, Cyprus for his best-selling book "The World Without Us," Alan Weisman wrote that structures crumble as weather does unrepaired damage and...