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)

Colombia midfielder Natalia Gaitan (3) goes up for a header against Mexico midfielder Nayeli Rangel (7) in Moncton, June 9, 2015. (Photo by Matt Kryger/USA TODAY Sports)

A camel rests at a fuel station in the Judean desert near the West Bank city of Jericho January 11, 2015. Reuters photographers from Mali to Mexico have shot a series of pictures of fuel stations. Whether it is plastic bottles by the roadside in Malaysia or a futuristic forecourt in Los Angeles, fuel stations help define our world. Oil prices steadied above $48 a barrel on Tuesday, recovering from earlier losses as the dollar weakened against the euro. Oil prices have dropped nearly 60 percent since peaking in June 2014 on ample global supplies from the U.S. shale oil boom and a decision by OPEC to keep its production quotas unchanged. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

This plane looks like it's bound for the moon as it shoots across the sky. Photographer Sebastien Lebrigand was impressed he could even see the lights on the jet's wings in this stunning silhouette. (Photo by Sebastien Lebrigand/Solent News)

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)

Participants dance and climb on an art installation as approximately 70,000 people from all over the world gather for the 30th annual Burning Man arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, U.S. August 31, 2016. (Photo by Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

Contestants prepare to go on stage during the Miss International Queen 2015 transgender/transsexual beauty pageant in Pattaya, Thailand, November 6, 2015. Some 27 contestants from 17 countries, all born male, are competing in the week-long event for the crown of Miss International Queen. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A young Chinese girl dressed in Christmas costume, hugs a pedestrian on a street to celebrate Christmas in Nanjing city, east China's Jiangsu province, 23 December 2015. (Photo by Imaginechina/Splash News)