Winner. “This was taken in the South Ari Atolls, Maldives, as the south-west monsoon season was setting in. It features my partner – and dive buddy – Emma after surfacing at the end of the last dive of the day to find 1.5 metre swells and dark monsoon clouds. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: This beautiful portrait of a diver in an ocean swell below a menacing sky stands out this month for its emotional and elemental beauty. It is a reminder that while we may play among nature we are always dwarfed by its power and must be constantly on our guard”. (Photo by Simon Dunn/The Guardian)

A lone protester sings outside the offices of Republican president-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, New York, U.S. November 14, 2016. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Protesters wear masks, the left in the colors of the Kenyan national flag, as they join others carrying mock coffins and red-painted crosses, symbolizing the blood of the 28 non-Muslims singled out and killed in the recent attack on a bus in Mandera by Somali militant group al-Shabab, outside government offices in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, November 25, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

An elephant in Amboseli National Park in Kenya, June 2021. Gurcharan Roopra, 42, a Nairobi-born engineer-turned-wildlife photographer, has dedicated the past four years of his career to photographing these animals. He spends hours in his workshop camouflaging and encasing his equipment with protective gear before laying his camera in the path of lions, elephants, rhino, zebra and buffalo. (Photo by Gurcharan Roopra/Mercury Press)

“Misty Morning”. Every morning, people expect sunny weather. Photo location: Bali, Indonesia. (Photo and caption by Henry Adam/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A caiman in the Pantanal region of Brazil in 2021. They are used to seeing humans, allowing the photographer, Leighton Lum, a close-up shot. (Photo by Leighton Lum/Caters News Agency)

A boy plays with pelicans in Yoff, commune of Dakar, Senegal March 14, 2018. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Naked activists for animal rights, covered in fake blood, perform during a protest against the use of fur and leather, at Catalunya Square in Barcelona, Spain, December 16, 2018. (Photo by Albert Gea/Reuters)