“Early morning in Mandawa, rural Rajasthan: it was the morning of Diwali and the streets were swept by smiling women in brightly coloured sarees as I took an early morning cup of chai. Celebrations started later, when darkness fell”. (Photo by Hamish Scott-Brown/Guardian Witness)

“A Balinese man shows off his pride and joy, a fighting cock, while on a cigarette break after a morning’s work in nearby fields”. (Photo by Coltrane Koh/The Guardian)

Ten finalists capture the theme of “through young eyes” in this young photographers’ competition that aims to engage youth around the world in wildlife conservation. Here: Heavy bodied jumping spider by Md Rashuidul Rabby, age 23, from Bangladesh. (Photo by Md Rashuidul Rabby/WWD2017)

Professional conceptual category winner. Greetings from Mars, by Julien Mauve, France. Mauve says: “I have always wondered what it would be like to discover a totally different world ... and to photograph it for the first time as if I was Ansel Adams. So I came up with this project, which is about space exploration and discovery. But it’s also about our behavior in front of landscapes and how we create pictures that will share our personal story with the world”. (Photo by Julien Mauve)

National Geographic invites photographers from around the world to enter the 2013 National Geographic Photography Contest. The grand-prize winner will receive $10,000 (USD) and a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual National Geographic Photography Seminar in January 2014. Photo: “We just want to move to search to the Leopard at that morning but we found a group of giraffes come toward a small lake and start drinking it was a nice moment when the Giraffe finish from drinking and leave a letters “S” with motion in the air”. (Photo and caption by Majed Ali/National Geographic Photography Contest)

Andrey Pavlov is a photographer and he takes photographs of ants in stunning poses along with certain props that make the images even more fantasy-like. You’ve probably never seen ant photographs like these before.

You rarely get the opportunity to get up close and personal with a tiny insect. Indonesian photographer Nordin Seruyan helps us to look past the creepy-crawlies of insects and focus on their delicate beauty. In brilliant color and sharp focus, Seruyan captures the insects in his garden. From butterflies and mantises to beetles and snails, the creatures of Southeast Asian get your full focus. (Photo by Nordin Seruyan)