Tony North; First place, Breathing Spaces; Overall Winner; Blue Tajinaste, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. “Echium thyrsiflorum is endemic to the mountains of La Palma island – from high up, there was a magnificent view of both the caldera below, and the stars above. The Unesco La Palma biosphere reserve encompasses the entire island, with the Caldera de Taburiente containing mountains with a highest peak of 2,426 metres – the Roque de los Muchachos”. (Photo by Tony North/IGPOTY)

The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is seen in the sky over Muonio in Lapland, Finland on January 18, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Kuznetsov/Reuters)

A picture taken with a drone shows a painting made of flowers, titled “Summer Flower Bed”, by the artist Elita Patmalniece at Kronvalda park in Riga, Latvia, 19 July 2023. (Photo by Toms Kalnins/EPA)

France's paralympic triple jumper Arnaud Assoumani poses in front of The Louvre Pyramide, designed by Ieoh Ming Pei, in Paris on April 20, 2024, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games. The Louvre was originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century, became one of the main residences of the kings of France later and actually is one of the largest museum in the world. (Photo by Franck Fife/AFP Photo)

Participants in costumes arrive at the Notting Hill Carnival in London, Britain, 29 August 2022. The Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street carnival in Europe and returned to London after two year break due to the coronavirus pandemic with more than a million people expected to attend the two-day celebration of Caribbean heritage on 28 and 29 August. (Photo by Tolga Akmen/EPA/EFE)

A Ukrainian man stands in protest in front of gunmen in unmarked uniforms as they stand guard in Balaklava, on the outskirts of Sevastopol, Ukraine, Saturday, March 1, 2014. (Photo by Andrew Lubimov/AP Photo)

An arm holding a giant gun appears to explode through a wall, while elsewhere a man walks a tiger on a leash. These breathtaking pencil drawings are the work of 31-year-old artist Ben Heine, who lives and works in Rochefort, Belgium. The “anamorphic illusions”, part of the artist's “Pencil Vs Camera” series, appear slightly distorted unless viewed from the exact same perspective in which they were created. Photo: Visual artist Ben Heine at work in his studio while he creates one of his “anamorphic illusions” in Rochefort, Belgium. (Photo by Ben Heine/Barcroft Media)

A “jungle nymph” is measured during the annual weight-in ZSL London Zoo on August 21, 2014 in London, England. The height and mass of every animal in the zoo, of which there are over 16,000, is recorded and submitted to the Zoological Information Management System. This is combined with animal measurement data collected from over 800 zoos and aquariums in almost 80 countries, from which zoologists can compare information on thousands of endangered species. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)