First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

This stirring collection of photos which offer a glimpse behind the scenes of army life have all been selected as winners in an annual competition. The remarkable pictures in the Army Photographic Competition show Britain's soldiers at work and play. They have been taken by amateur and professional soldier cameramen and include images from operations in Afghanistan, air shows and sporting events. The winners were announced at a ceremony held at the Army Headquarters in Andover in Hampshire. (Photo by Jamie Peters/MoD/Geoff Robinson Photography/REX Features)

A member of the “Avocadoo” club performs a pole dance on a street sign pole in Lodz, central Poland on June 27, 2013. Talk about a traffic stopper: three pole dancers in central Poland have been honing their skills out in the streets, throwing their legs around signposts to the surprise and delight of many a passerby. (Photo by Janek Skarzynski/AFP Photo)

“In Tokyo, there are so many different fashion styles, cultures, and subcultures that it’s hard for even the most devoted fashion freak to keep up. Fashion photos from the streets of Tokyo”. (Photo by TokyoFashion.com; Source: Flickr)

Real-time ASCII (a character-encoding scheme originally based on the English alphabet) Google Street View.

An Sony PS3 is used to view Netflix during the Netflix UK launch in London, England on January 9, 2012. Netflix the leading global internet subscription service for films and TV programmes, launches in the United Kingdom and Ireland, offering instant and unlimited access to a broad range of entertainment for the low monthly price of £5.99 in the UK and £6.99 in Ireland. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Netflix)

A dump truck carrying cleaning workers drives on Havana's malecon as a wave crashes on the sea wall, in Cuba, Tuesday, January 24, 2017. Due to high winds and tides, the sea pushed over the sea wall, flooding low parts of the Vedado neighborhood of Havana. (Photo by Desmond Boylan/AP Photo)