Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

Ukraine's Hanna Antonova competes during the 2015 World Pole Dance Championships held in Beijing, Sunday, April 12, 2015. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Pawel Karpinski and Nadine Kinczel of Poland dance as they compete during IPC Wheelchair Dance Sport European Championships in Lomianki near Warsaw, November 9, 2014. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Two dancers pass each other as they compete in a heat during the All Scotland Championships in Irish Dancing at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. The championships attract over 2000 dancers from more than 300 dance schools, from countires such as North America, South Africa, Australia and Russia. (Photo by David Moir/Reuters)

A competitor jumps from the Old Bridge during Red Bull Cliff Diving Competition in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina on August 15, 2015. (Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Miss Netherlands, Ona Moody walks onstage during The 71st Miss Universe Competition National Costume Show at New Orleans Morial Convention Center on January 11, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Josh Brasted/Getty Images)

An iguana in Bali helped Julij Kopilović, age eight, from Slovenia, earn second runner-up in Amazing Animals. (Photo by Julij Kopilović/National Geographic)

A participant jumps during the Red Bull Jump and Freeze competition at the ski resort of Gudauri, Georgia, March 20, 2016. (Photo by David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)