Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)

Sailors attend a memorial and funeral service for first rank captain Andrei Paliy, Russia's Black Sea Fleet deputy commander, who was killed in the eastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on March 20, in Sevastopol, Crimea on March 23, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)

Capturing the true essence of Christmas, Lapland is the perfect place to take your family for the holiday period. Situated in the arctic regions of northern Sweden, Finland and Norway, there are a villages in each country around where you can enjoy the full festive experience.

An Israeli tank moves into position in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights during fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels in the Druze village of Khader in Syria, Tuesday, June 16, 2015. As many as 20 members of the Druze minority sect were killed last week, the deadliest violence against the Druze since Syria's conflict started in March 2011, sparking fears of a massacre against the sect. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The 100-metre (300-foot), sword-wielding statue of “The Motherland” is seen in the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev March 17, 2014. On a blustery day on the banks of the Dnieper, the statue of “The Motherland”, a Soviet hammer and sickle on her shield, towered overhead, a reminder of the common cause Ukrainians and Russians died for side by side in their millions in World War Two and which Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks Ukraine has betrayed by turning to “fascism” and the West. (Photo by Konstantin Grishin/Reuters)

People are seen in the crowd as Serbian Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra performs during the third day of the Mexican musicial festival Vive Latino, at the Foro Sol in Mexico City, on March 29, 2014. (Photo by Alfredo Estrella/AFP Photo)

In this February 19, 2014 photo, a skate seller puts slices of skate into styrofoam boxes for shipment to customers around South Korea at a fish market in Mokpo, a port city on the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula. The aroma of one of southwestern South Korea's most popular delicacies regularly gets compared to rotting garbage and filthy bathrooms. And that's by fans. The unusual dish is typically made by taking dozens of fresh skate, a cartilage-rich fish that looks like a stingray, stacking them up in a walk-in refrigerator and waiting. Up to a month in some cases. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

A donkey carrying sacks of coal walks through the narrow tunnels of a coal mine, in Choa Saidan Shah in Punjab province April 29, 2014. Coal miners in Chao Saidan Shah use donkeys to transport coal from the depths of the mines to the surface. (Photo by Sara Farid/Reuters)