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)

An aerial view of a man standing on Lake Tuz, Turkiye's second largest lake, during sunset in Ankara, Turkiye on April 22, 2024. The lake, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List with its unique natural structure, welcomes many local and foreign tourists every year as it provides 70 per cent of the country's salt needs. (Photo by Hakan Nural/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (R) and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (L) visit Seppeltsfield Winery in Barossa Valley, Australia, 10 November 2015. The royal couple are on a 12-day tour visiting seven regions in New Zealand and three states and one territory in Australia. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/EPA)

A trapped car is pushed along a flooded street after typhoon Soudelor hit Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, August 9, 2015. The typhoon battered China's east coast on Sunday, killing eight people and forcing authorities to cancel hundreds of flights and evacuate more than 163,000 people. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Early morning storms over the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya on August 26, 2016. (Photo by Action Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A 6-week old Fennec fox, the smallest species of foxes, and a native to the Sahara desert in Africa, looks as its mother eats in the Ramat Gan Safari Park near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, November 6, 2016. Sagit Horowitz, the safari spokeswoman said four Fennec foxes were born about six weeks ago. (Photo by Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)

A sharia executor, know as algojo, during a public caning punishment in Jantho, Aceh Besar Regency, Indonesia, 17 November 2017. Ten people were sentenced to public caning for adultery in Aceh, the only province in Indonesia which implements sharia law. (Photo by Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA/EFE)

Turkish police detained dozens of demonstrators participating in an LGBT pride march in Istanbul, Turkey on June 26, 2021. Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and blocked attempts by protesters to gather in large numbers after a government decision to ban pride events in recent years. (Photo by Diego Cupolo/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)