Wearing a devil mask, a reveler dances through the streets during the “Diablada de Pillaro”, or the Devils of Pillaro festival, to send out the old year and bring in the new, in the Andean town of Pillaro, Ecuador, January 1, 2024. (Photo by Carlos Noriega/AP Photo)

A volunteer in the Kurdish Community Protection Forces guards wheat fields from fire or looting around the town of Tarbesbeyeh, also known as al-Qahtaniyah in Arabic, in northeastern Syria's Hasakeh Governorate near the Turkish border on May 30, 2024. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP Photo)

Dancers pose for a photo as they prepare during Festival Cilung or “Love the Environment” Festival, where boats made from recycled materials, mostly plastic bottles, sail on the Ciliwung River, one of the most polluted rivers in the world, to raise public awareness about river pollution, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on September 28, 2025. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

Sweden's Sweden's Henrik von Eckermann, riding King Edward, during the Equestrian Team Jumping finals, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, August 2, 2024, in Versailles, France. (Photo by Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP Photo)

A South Korea university student gets her head shaved during a protest against Japan's decision to release contaminated water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, in front of the Japanese embassy, in Seoul, South Korea, April 20, 2021. (Photo by Kim Hong-ji/Reuters)

A man walks down a flooded road in Islip, New York August 13, 2014. More than a foot of rain hit parts of New York's Long Island on Wednesday, enough to set a preliminary state record, triggering flash floods and swamping cars on major roads that were turned into rivers during the morning rush hour. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Tourists visit the Corral Canyon Cave in Malibu, Calif., Friday, May, 6, 2016. The cave, better known by the misleading moniker “Jim Morrison Cave” is now closed to the public until further notice. Large crowds have shown up on a daily basis to see the often vandalized cave and in some cases add to the vandalism with graffiti of their own. (Photo by Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo)

Each year Nikon Small World recognizes the excellence of photography taken under the microscope. The contest showcases the beauty and complexity of life. Anyone interested in microscopy and photography can enter the contest and in its 42nd year, Nikon Small World received 2,000 entries from 70 countries. Here: 11th Place; Scales of a butterfly wing underside (Vanessa atalanta). (Photo by Francis Sneyers/Nikon's Small World 2016)