Praia du Forte, Bahia. “This was the lead picture for a National Geographic story on Bahia, because it was both mysterious as well as a “geography” picture showing where the slaves arrived from Nigeria. Beach pictures seem like they should be easy to take, but for me they are actually quite difficult. Too easy to fall into cliche. When I saw the kid coming on the horse, I quickly ran to see if I could make something with a woman in a bikini that was not a bikini shot”. (Photo by David Alan Harvey/The Guardian)

College students wearing traditional Punjabi attires celebrate the “Teej” festival in Amritsar on August 4, 2023. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

Hindu girls dressed as Radha and Lord Krishna during the Janmashtami festival, pose for a picture as the Hindu community celebrates the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna in Dhaka, Bangladesh on September 6, 2023. (Photo by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)

Linda Cerruti, Lucrezia Ruggiero, Marta Iacoacci, Isotta Sportelli, Sofia Mastroianni, Giulia Vernice, Enrica Piccoli and Francesca Zunino of Team Italy compete in the Mixed Team Technical Final on day five of the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships at Aspire Dome on February 06, 2024 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Winner of the National Park Foundation's photo contest; Honorable Mention: Fan Favorite. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Three friends enjoy sunrise over the Grand Canyon. (Photo by Peter Blanchard)

“The Tibetan Mastiff also known as Do-khyi (variously translated as “home guard”, “door guard”, “dog which may be tied”, “dog which may be kept”), reflects its use as a guardian of herds, flocks, tents, villages, monasteries, and palaces, much as the old English ban-dog (also meaning tied dog) was a dog tied outside the home as a guardian. However, in nomad camps and in villages, the Do-khyi is traditionally allowed to run loose at night and woe be unto the stranger who walks abroad after dark”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A man displays a Tibetan Mastiff he raised during the Tibetan Mastiff exposition on April 7, 2007 in Langfang of Hebei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

“The arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in cold environments. It has a deep thick fur which is brown in summer and white in winter. It averages in size at about 85.3 cm (33.6 in) in body length, with a generally rounded body shape to minimize the escape of body heat. – Wikipedia. (Photo by Trond Eriksen)

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)