Of the epic landscape, the California-based photographer said: “It was an incredible moment and I'm just glad I decided that day to pick up my camera and give it a go because I don't know if I will ever get the chance again”. (Photo by Nolan Nitschke/Caters News)

While vacationing on the Maldives Islands, Taiwanese amateur photographer Will Ho stumbled onto an incredible stretch of beach covered in millions of bioluminescent phytoplankton. These tiny organisms glow similarly to fireflies and tend to emit light when stressed, such as when waves crash or when they are otherwise agitated. While the phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms have been known for some time, biologists have only recently began to understand the reasons behind it. Photo: Bioluminescent phytoplankton washes up on Maldives beach. (Photo by Will Ho)

Pakistani Christian Maria Akbar, 15, checks herself in the mirror, after having her make up done by hairdresser Razia Rehmat, 39, in preparation for Christmas holiday, at a hair salon, in a slum that hosts Christian families, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, December 24, 2014. (Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo)

Dog Xiaoniu dressed in clothes walks across a street with its owner (not pictured) in Shanghai, December 19, 2014. According to local media, Xiaoniu accompanies its owner to the food market everyday and is able to walk with its hind legs for up to about an hour. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A child looks up to his partner as she stands above the crowd with the support of an elaborate rig of hidden metal rods, during the Bun Festival parade at Cheung Chau island in Hong Kong on May 22, 2018. Thousands of local residents and tourists flocked to an outlying island in Hong Kong to celebrate a local bun festival on Tuesday despite the recording-breaking heat. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

A “colacho” (a person dressed up as a devil) chases people during “El salto del Colacho”, the baby jumping festival in the village of Castrillo de Murcia, near Burgos on June 3, 2018. (Photo by Cesar Manso/AFP Photo)

This month’s selection of travel imagery mixes quiet moments and superlative views. The overall 2018 prize is a West Greenland trip with Wild Photography Holidays. Here: “This was taken on a safari in Kruger national park, South Africa. The scene was like something straight out of a storybook: a wild baboon, impala and elephant crossing the road together, all lined up neatly in a row”. (Photo by Will Clarke/The Guardian)

Ice swimmer Klaudia prepares to swim in a filled up water kettle in an ice cave inside the Nature Ice Palace, with a hight of 3,250 meters (10,663 feet) above sea level, at Hintertux Glacier near Hintertux, some 480 kilometers (298 miles) western of Vienna, Austria, 28 July 2018. (Photo by Christian Bruna/EPA/EFE)