October winner. “A burst of the aurora borealis over Kirkjufell, taken in September 2016. This shot has been a holy grail for me and was finally captured after many trips”. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: Iceland is a hotspot for aurora photography and this composition of the symmetric, free-standing Kirkjufell and the trident waterfall is much-sought after. If you can time your visit when the aurora “kp” index is high and know the settings for nighttime aurora images, you may end up with a beautiful photograph like this. (Photo by DВ/The Guardian)

Women wearing Dirndl, a traditional Alpine folk dress, run to get a place in a tent for the opening of the 185th Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany, 22 September 2018. The Oktoberfest lasts until October 7 and is the world's largest beer festival. The beer festival typically draws over six million visitors. (Photo by Karl- Josef Hildenbrand/DPA/Alamy Live News)

A float depicts British Prime Minister Theresa May looking at her Brexit-baby during the traditional Rose Monday parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, Shrove Monday, February 12, 2018. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

Anand Varma, a U.S. photographer working for the National Geographic, won the First Prize in the Nature Category, Stories, of the 2015 World Press Photo contest with his series of pictures, which includes this one of spores of a fungus landing on an ant, penetrating its exoskeleton and entering its brain, compelling the host to leave its normal habitat on the forest floor and scale a nearby tree, in this picture taken January 22, 2014 and released by the World Press Photo on February 12, 2015. (Photo by Anand Varma/Reuters/National Geographic/World Press Photo)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin speaks during a rally after Putin claimed victory in the presidential election at the Manezhnya Square March, 4, 2012 in Moscow, Russia. Exit polls showed Putin had over 60 percent of the vote according to state television in an election that has been alleged to be marred by widespread violations. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Epsilon/Getty Images)

Run by the Society of German Nature Photographers (Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen), the prestigious annual contest celebrates the best wildlife photography from members in Germany. Here: Landscapes, second place: Florian Smit, “Rainforest” (Danum valley, Borneo). (Photo by Florian Smit/2019 GDT Nature Photographer of the Year)

The Grevy’s Illusion by Yaron Schmid, USA: a Grevy’s zebra staring at the camera in Lewa, Kenya. Third place – wildlife. (Photo by Yaron Schmid/The Nature Conservancy Global Photo Contest 2019)