Tony North; First place, Breathing Spaces; Overall Winner; Blue Tajinaste, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. “Echium thyrsiflorum is endemic to the mountains of La Palma island – from high up, there was a magnificent view of both the caldera below, and the stars above. The Unesco La Palma biosphere reserve encompasses the entire island, with the Caldera de Taburiente containing mountains with a highest peak of 2,426 metres – the Roque de los Muchachos”. (Photo by Tony North/IGPOTY)

The sun sets over the sea looking towards Lands End viewed from Gwenver beach near Sennen Cove on February 7, 2011 in Cornwall, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Shortlisted: “Two big eyes” by Miao Yong (Zejiang province, China). Damselflies look over the leaves. “I was photographing insects in a park near my home when suddenly I found two damselflies in the grass. They kept flying and it was very difficult to focus until suddenly they parked behind a leaf”. (Photo by Miao Yong/2017 Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year)

Aerial view of Taxodium Distichum in full blossom at a maze area of a wetland park on January 6, 2023 in Xiamen, Fujian Province of China. (Photo by Wu Wei/VCG via Getty Images)

A quartet of showgirls in costume sit at an outdoor table and drink from mugs at Disneyland amusement park, Anaheim, California, 1955. (Photo by Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Biologist Kelly Martin records her measurements of Electra, a 5 1/2 foot leatherback turtle nesting on the beach behind the Seminole Golf Club course in Juno Beach. Martin uses a red light which is invisible to turtles. (Photo by Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post)

In this March 17, 2015 photo, Ashaninka Indian men, identified by locals as illegal loggers, tie tree trunks together to move them along the Putaya River near the hamlet of Saweto, Peru. Illegal logging persists unabated in this remote Amazon community where four indigenous leaders who resisted it were slain in September. The Putaya River is the waterway that transports felled trees, cut both legally and illegally, to the city of Pucallpa. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)

Mount Cumbre Vieja erupts spewing a column of smoke and ash as seen from Los Llanos de Aridane on the Canary island of La Palma on September 19, 2021. The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain's Canary Islands today spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said. Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island and has erupted twice in the 20th century, first in 1949 then again in 1971. (Photo by Desiree Martin/AFP Photo)