Grand title winner: Environmental photographer of the year. The Bitter Death Of Birds by Mehdi Mohebi Pour. This photo shows the efforts of the environmental forces to collect the bodies and prevent the spread of this disease. The Miankaleh wetland is being destroyed by changes in the climate and it is my duty as a photographer to highlight these problems and create a record for history. I want to prevent the complete destruction of the wetland and the potential environmental disaster by showing the issues and threats to these beautiful natural places. (Photo by Mehdi Mohebi Pour/Environmental Photographer of the Year)

Night lovers; Hormozgan province, Iran. “In this picture, you can see the Milky Way rising on a fascinating spring night on the Persian Gulf coast. The stunning cliffs of this area make every viewer imagine and even talk to them! The light pollution from a faraway city was quite strong, so it was a challenging post-processing process. I’m a nightscaper who tries to achieve an artistic look in my images, and in this image, I tried to convey and capture the magic of this location”. (Photo by Mohammad Hayati/Milky Way Photographer of the Year)

The Royal Observatory just announced its Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2013 winners. Australian photographer Mark Gee was chosen among a thousand amateur and professional photographers around the globe to win the top title. His work is part of an exhibition of the winning photographers, which opened on Sept. 19 at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The Royal Observatory shared with us the winners and notable mentions of the competition. Their descriptions of the prizewinners can be found below the images.

“Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London with 1,074,300 residents (2011 census), an increase of 96,000 over the previous decade. The city lies within the West Midlands conurbation, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a population of 2,440,986 (2011 census) of which the Birmingham built-up area was 1,085,810. Its metropolitan area is the United Kingdom's second most populous with 3,683,000 residents”. – Wikipedia. (Photo by Adrian Saker)

London-based, award winning, Scottish, documentary and street photographer Dougie Wallace, “Glasweegee” grew up in Glasgow. He has lived in east London for 15 years but spends a lot of time travelling abroad in search of subjects.

P.S. Unfortunately, the author doesn't make comments on the photos, therefore it's necessary to guess where there are events: in Thailand, India, Russia or France. On the other hand, photos are very fine in itself, therefore it's absolutely unimportant. Seriously – the magnificent photographer. Enjoy!

“If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it”. – Herodotus. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. – Plato. Photo: Mandalay, Burma. (Photo by Steve McCurry)