Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

A group of dancers pose for a photo before their performance at the Nueva Esperanza cemetery in the shantytown Villa Maria, in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, November 1, 2016, as part of the Day of the Dead festivities. The holiday honors the deceased and coincides with All Saints Day, and All Souls Day celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2. Dancing, drinking alcohol, and eating with the deceased are part of Day of the Dead celebrations. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)

Los Angeles Kings center Zack MacEwen, left puts Edmonton Oilers center Ryan McLeod int the bards during the second period in Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Friday, April 21, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo)

Honorable Mention: “The Storm”. During I was taking photo with my nephew, the storm came and I caught this beautiful moment. Photo location: Kocaeli, Turkey. (Photo and caption by Aytül Akbaş/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Donny Golden shares a laugh with dancers from the Irish American Society during the 250th annual St. Patrick's Day parade March 17, 2011 in New York City. The parade honors the patron saint of Ireland and marched for the first time in the U.S. on March 17, 1762, fourteen years before the Declaration of Independence.

Decorated veterans take part in the Veterans Day parade in honor of the victory over the Nazi Germany, on May 11, 2011 in Jerusalem, Israel. Hundreds of Jewish World War II veterans from the Allied armies, mostly the former Soviet Union, and Israelis took part in the parade. (Photo by Avi Ohayon/GPO via Getty Images)

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (branded as 9/11 Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Museum) is the principal memorial and museum commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, and the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, which killed six. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, on the former location of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the attacks. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation was renamed the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center in 2007.

This Wednesday, August 31, 2016 photo, provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), shows Syrian boys dive into a hole filled with water that was caused by a missile attack in the rebel-held neighborhood of Sheikh Saeed in Aleppo province, Syria. (Photo by Aleppo Media Center via AP Photo)