Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

People play with foam at a water park in Yantai, Shandong province, China June 16, 2107. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A volunteer of District Magistrate (DM) office dressed as Yamraj, or Hindu God of death, stops people for not wearing masks, amidst the spread of the coronavirus(COVID-19) disease, in New Delhi, India, September 28, 2020. (Photo by Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

A column of sand and front of clouds are seen by dash cam as the car drives near a tornado in Dragalina, Calarasi county, Romania April 30, 2019 in this still image taken from a video obtained from social media. (Photo by Alexandra Puscasu via Reuters)

Madame Tussauds's wax figure of Audrey Hepburn sits at an empty table to comply with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) social distancing requirements in a dining room at Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn, New York U.S., February 26, 2021. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

A couple shelter under an umbrella during a heavy downpour of rain in Belfast, Ireland on Monday, July 31, 2023. (Photo by Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images)

Catholic faithful attend a Palm Sunday mass at the start of Holy Week in San Lorenzo, Paraguay, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (Photo by Jorge Saenz/AP Photo)

A girl watches as a man jumps to cool off at a swimming pool in the village of Zllakuqan near the town of Klina on July 9, 2024. (Photo by Armend Nimani/AFP Photo)