A curious grey seal investigates photographer Brian Matthews at Lundy Island off the north Devon coast, July 2024. *Photo by Brian Matthews/Solent News)

A hot-air balloon flies over Metropolitan Park during the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Leon, state of Guanajuato, Mexico, on November 16, 2024. (Photo by Henry Romero/Reuters)

The drag artist Wet Mess performs Testo – a show about testosterone – at the Here & Now Showcase, Edinburgh international festival fringe in 2024. (Photo by Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian)

British “Love Island” host Maya Jama in the last decade of December 2024 starts the party with a tray of drinks during a surprise DJ set at Soho’s The Box. (Photo by Maya Jama/Instagram)

People take pictures of their reflections in the decorations of a Christmas tree, at a Christmas fair in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, December 14, 2024. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

A woman helps another to wade through a waterlogged road during heavy rain following tropical storm Dana, in Kolkata, India, Friday, October 25, 2024. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

This photograph shows the famous Lyonnais fresco by CiteCreation with a tag depicting the Abbe Pierre with the word “rapist” next to it, in Lyon central-eastern France, on September 30, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Pachoud/AFP Photo)

Keen diver Yusuke Fukami fulfilled a personal dream by snapping a cartoon-like Costasiella sea slug while in Bali in the last decade of December 2024. (Photo by Yusuke Fukami/South West News Service)