Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

A couple walks across the Francis Scott Key Bridge as the setting sun lights up the clouds in Washington, Friday, October 30, 2020. (Photo by J. David Ake/AP Photo)

The extremely rare Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud formation lurking in the skies over Northumberland in North East England on December 5, 2023. The distinctive formation gets its name from scientists Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz who studied the physics behind the rare cloud. (Photo by Ian Davison/South West News Service)

Photo taken on October 11, 2020 shows a golden monkey at Dalongtan Golden Monkey Research Center in Shennongjia National Park of central China's Hubei Province. With the efforts of local authority and improvement of the environment in the past many years, the number of golden monkeys in Shennongjia area reached nearly 1,500 nowadays. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Pauline Torres carries belongings from her flooded Merced, Calif., home on Tuesday, January 10, 2023. (Photo by Noah Berger/AP Photo)

Taylor Swift, right, and Brittany Mahomes react during the third quarter of an NFL AFC division playoff football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, January 21, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

Frank A. Rinehart, a commercial photographer in Omaha, Nebraska, was commissioned to photograph the 1898 Indian Congress, part of the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. More than five hundred Native Americans from thirty-five tribes attended the conference, providing the gifted photographer and artist an opportunity to create a stunning visual document of Native American life and culture at the dawn of the 20th century. Photo: Little Bird, Arapahoe, 1899. (Photo by Frank A. Rinehart)

People celebrate Nowruz, considered as the harbinger of spring, awakening of nature and brotherhood, with traditional costumes and at Gobustan National Park in Baku, Azerbaijan on March 21, 2022. People from different regions of Azerbaijan attended celebration with colorful dresses and various music groups performed. (Photo by Resul Rehimov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)