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)

Racegoers shelter from the rain as they attend on the second day of the Grand National Festival horse race meeting at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, north-west England, on April 14, 2023. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)

The opening of sculptor Carole Feuerman solo outdoor public art show, Sea Idylls, on Park Avenue in NYC on April 27, 2023. The hyperrealistic sculptures in conjunction with Les Galeries Bartoux and Patrons of Park Avenue line the median. (Photo by Milo Hess/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A member of the Army Service Corps “Tornadoes” of the Indian Army participates in a full dress rehearsal to celebrate India's Republic Day on January 24, 2024 in Bengaluru, India. India celebrates its Republic Day on January 26. (Photo by Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images)

Personnel from Maharashtra Home Guards, a volunteer force practice yoga near the Gateway of India monument as they mark International Yoga Day in Mumbai, India, Friday, June 21, 2024. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

Runners use headtorches as they compete in Centurion South Downs Way 100 ultramarathon, at Firle Bostal near Lewes, south of London on June 9, 2024. The Centurion South Downs Way 100, is an ultramarathon, predominantly off road course, covering a distance of 100 miles (160,9 kilometres) and that takes the competitors along the South Downs Way from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Sussex. (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP Photo)

Devotees of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) celebrate Holi, the Hindu spring festival of colours, at a temple on the outskirts of Amritsar on March 13, 2025. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

Undated handout photo issued by Andrew H Williams/WPR of resident Rosemary Lester at Sherwood Grange care home in Kingston Vale, south west London, focusses her attention during a nude life drawing class. Issue date: Monday July 25, 2022. (Photo by Andrew H Williams/Care UK/PA Wire)