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)

Champagne Taittinger Food for Celebration – Dinner with the King and Queen of Sweden. “Sverigemiddagen (the Dinner of Sweden), an annual event held at the Royal Castle in Stockholm, celebrates individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to their local communities. Invited guests are honoured for their achievements and are hosted by the King and Queen of Sweden at a grand dinner”. (Photo by Jonas Borg/Pink Lady Food Awards 2023)

A worker cleans a dragon ahead of the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations at the Boen Tek Bio temple in Tangerang, Banten province, Indonesia February 1, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

A Tibetan girl reacts as she gets ready to perform in a function organised to mark “Losar” or the Tibetan New Year in Kathmandu, Nepal, February 11, 2016. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

This file photo provided on Sunday February 15, 2015 by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels firing locally made shells against the Syrian government forces, in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo by AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center)

Russian soldiers are pictured next to the Reichstag building in this undated photo taken May 1945 in Berlin. Some 70 years on from the Battle for Berlin, instrumental in the end of World War II, Reuters photographer Fabrizio Bensch unearthed pictures by Red Army photographer Georgiy Samsonov, showing his portrayal of a city laid siege. Bensch bought an exactly equivalent FED camera, a Soviet copy of the German-made Leica II, choosing to use black and white film to capture images of the self-same locations he detected his way to in modern-day Berlin. (Photo by Georgiy Samsonov/Reuters/MHM)

A security personnel plays with a girl in the compound of a health and rest centre which serves as a temporary accommodation for refugees from eastern regions of the country in the town of Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, July 30, 2015. More than 400 people who left eastern Ukraine due to a military conflict have arrived at the sanatorium in Korostyshiv since the summer of 2014, according to representatives. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

A girl with Russian national flags painted on her cheeks takes part in celebrations marking the first anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea, in central Simferopol March 16, 2015. Russia marks one year anniversary of annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula this week. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)