Buddhist monks wait for a lantern parade ahead of the upcoming birthday of Buddha at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

Sophie Roberts admires Angel of the Trench by artists Laura and Paul Carey at the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park near Masham, North Yorkshire, UK on October 14, 2025. (Photo by James Glossop/Times Media Ltd)

Paul Dixon is an engineer by day and an astrophotographer by night. He shot this broken boat on Dungeness beach, Kent in the last decade of August 2024, 17 times, stacking the images upon each other before combining them with a similar composite of the Milky Way. (Photo by Paul Dixon/Media Drum Images)

A woman stands on the footbridge over the river Garry near Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain on October 10, 2018. (Photo by Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

Filipino firemen extinguish a burning vehicle during an earthquake preparedness drill in Makati city, south of Manila, Philippines, 22 June 2016. Thousands of people participated in the Metro Manila earthquake drill to prepare residents of nearly 12 million for a feared magnitude-7.2 quake that could kill thousands and displace millions, Emerson Carlos head of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said. Philippines sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area prone to seismic shifts that spark earthquakes and volcanic activity. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA)

“The titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum (from Ancient Greek amorphos, “without form, misshapen” + phallos, “phallus”, and titan, “giant”) is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The titan arum's inflorescence is not as large as that of the Talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera, but the inflorescence of the Talipot palm is branched rather than unbranched”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Kew Gardens employee Lauren Bird Royal examines the flowering of the Titan Arum lily at the Botanical Gardens at Kew on September 30, 2005 in London, England. For the first time in horticultural history, the Titan Arum lily can be seen at all three active stages in its lifecycle – in flower, fruit and leaf.The flowering corm is nearly three metres tall and weighs 91kg and is very rarely seen outside of the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Highly commended birds : Crested guan by Tim Hunt (UK). ‘This photo shows a crested guan in the cloud forests of Costa Rica as it pauses while foraging on a lone branch. Due to the clouds that are so typical for this habitat, I could often only photograph the bird’s silhouette against a grey sky. But then, for a short moment only, the sun broke through the clouds, and I overexposed the image by over two stops in order to blow out the background and allow this beautifully marked bird to stand out’. (Photo by Tim Hunt/GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015)

October winner. “A burst of the aurora borealis over Kirkjufell, taken in September 2016. This shot has been a holy grail for me and was finally captured after many trips”. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: Iceland is a hotspot for aurora photography and this composition of the symmetric, free-standing Kirkjufell and the trident waterfall is much-sought after. If you can time your visit when the aurora “kp” index is high and know the settings for nighttime aurora images, you may end up with a beautiful photograph like this. (Photo by DВ/The Guardian)