Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

A general view of the Vintage and Rare Guitars shop on Denmark Street on April 20, 2011 in London, England. Denmark Street, in the Soho area of central London, traces its musical connections back to the 1890s and is famous for its connection to contemporary British music after recording studios started setting up there in the 1960s. Many world-renowned recording artists, including: Jimi Hendrix, The s*x Pistols and Elton John have played and recorded in the street. The Rolling Stones recorded their first album in 1964 at the street's Regent Sounds Studio's. Known as London's 'Tin Pan Alley' Denmark Street is regarded as one of, if not the, best music streets in Europe and contains numerous specialist music shops, with many boasting of a long and prestigious musical history.

“The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury is a British performing arts festival, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km²), had over 385 live performances and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over 80 stages and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000. In 2011 UK Music published a report stating that Glastonbury Festival contributes over £100 million annually to the UK economy” – Wikipedia

Photo: Festival goers dance in the mud in front of the Pyramid stage at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, at the 2004 Glastonbury Festival, 26 June 2004. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The Arcaid awards highlight the best architectural photographs of the year – pictures of everything from giant arenas to tiny huts. The shortlisted photographs will be exhibited at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin, from 16 to 18 November, with an overall winner announced during the event’s gala dinner. Here: The stage for Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute, Ghana. Architect: (applied) Foreign Affairs. Nominated in the Sense of Place category. The open-air auditorium of this arts institute in Apam, Ghana, is built from ultra-strong curved bamboo. (Photo by Julien Lanoo)

A couple of roving film fangirls have recreated some of their favorite TV and movie moments by traveling to the exact locations and capturing them using their iPad. Tiia Öhman and Satu Walden have travelled thousands of miles across North America and Ireland to recapture the magic of their best loved scenes. However, instead of featuring their movie heroes, the pair, from Cardiff, have replaced them with an iPad or a phone screen displaying the action. Here: a scene from the film Die Hard With A Vengeance, and its location in real life 72nd Street Subway, New York. (Photo by Tiia Öhman/Caters News)

In his series “Ballerinas of Cairo”, photographer Mohamed Taher documents Egyptian dancers making the city streets their stage – pirouetting, leaping and posing their way through their country’s sprawling capital. The photos are, at first glance, stunning snapshots of a city’s vibrant culture in motion. (Photo by Mohamed Taher/Ballerinas of Cairo)

The 8th annual Miss International Queen beauty pageant was held in Pattaya in Thailand. The twenty-one contestants from fifteen countries were all born male, so the Miss International Queen 2012 pageant is not an average beauty pageant.

Photo: Panvilas Mongkol, a contestant from Thailand, waits for the start of the final night of Miss International Queen 2012 transgender/transsexual beauty pageant in Pattaya November 2, 2012. Some 21 contestants from 15 countries, all of them born male, compete in the week-long event for the crown of Miss International Queen 2012. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)