Shooting star by Tony Wu, US/Japan. Winner, underwater. The electrifying reproductive dance of a giant sea star. As the surrounding water filled with sperm and eggs from spawning sea stars, Wu faced several challenges. Stuck in a small, enclosed bay with only a macro lens for photographing small subjects, he backed up to squeeze the undulating sea star into his field of view. The dancing posture of spawning sea stars rising and swaying may help release eggs and sperm, or may help sweep the eggs and sperm into the currents where they fertilise together in the water. Kinko Bay, Japan. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Icelandic horses feed on hay during a snow storm at a stud farm in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, December 14, 2022. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Visitors pass an exhibit for Sculpture by the Sea, along the coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama in Sydney, Australia on October 24, 2025. The annual event is Australia’s largest annual outdoor sculpture exhibition. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Barbie cosplayer arrives for San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, on July 20, 2023. (Photo by Chris Delmas/AFP Photo)

A woman holds Kalashnikov assault rifle during a training session with members of the Georgian Legion, a paramilitary unit formed mainly by ethnic Georgian volunteers to fight against Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, February 19, 2022. Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine have ordered a full military mobilization amid growing fears in the West that Russia is planning to invade the neighboring country. The announcement on Saturday came amid a spike in violence along the line of contact between Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russia rebels in recent days. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

A woman reacts as she uses a selfie stick to take a photo of herself at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Selfie sticks are gaining popular in China, and many people are using them at popular tourist destinations. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

A relative of a victim of the Ukraine International Airlines PS 752 plane that crashed after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport reacts at Boryspil International Airport, outside Kiev, Ukraine on January 8, 2020. (Photo by Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters)

A soldier under Russian command restrains a colleague after he fired his weapon into the air and screamed orders to turn back at an approaching group of over 100 unarmed Ukrainian troops at the Belbek airbase, which the Russian troops are occcupying, in Crimea on March 4, 2014 in Lubimovka, Ukraine. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)