Shortlisted: “Two big eyes” by Miao Yong (Zejiang province, China). Damselflies look over the leaves. “I was photographing insects in a park near my home when suddenly I found two damselflies in the grass. They kept flying and it was very difficult to focus until suddenly they parked behind a leaf”. (Photo by Miao Yong/2017 Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year)

Blizzard in the High Peak, Derbyshire, by John Finney: “After a difficult journey in the snow, I made my way from Mam Tor down onto the Great Ridge. As the clouds got darker, I placed the tripod and camera at just the right angle to avoid snow getting onto the lens, and used a flash gun and a relatively slow shutter speed to highlight the fast motion of the blizzard”. Classic view, adult class – winner. (Photo by John Finney/Landscape Photographer of the Year)

A camel is pictured in front of the Saturn tracking complex at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 9, 2018. An astronaut and cosmonaut are due to travel to the ISS on October 11 aboard a Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

“The fantastic landscape of Bagan in Myanmar features hundreds of temples and pagodas as far as the eye can see. Experiencing this sight at dawn from the basket of a hot air balloon will remain engraved in my memory for ever. Mick Ryan, judge – What a magical photograph and place. The Buddhist temples and pagodas fill the plains of Bagan in Myanmar at sunrise… the golden hour providing beautiful light to illuminate the retrogression of the temples and balloons toward a misty, mountainous distance. An excellent, exotic photograph that makes you want to book a flight”. (Photo by Alastair Swan/The Guardian)

U.S. Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003, which will be used as a temporary Iraqi police headquarters. (Photo by Jerry Lampen/Reuters)

A displaced Pakistani girl collects recyclable goods from a garbage to earn living for her family in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, January 19, 2016. (Photo by B.K. Bangash/AP Photo)

This aerial photograph taken on January 27, 2024 shows a camel in the desert of Samawa in Iraq's southern province of al-Muthanna. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)