Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

Filipinos riding on makeshift carts cross over an overflowing dam during a downpour in Las Pinas city, south of Manila, Philippines, 05 September 2017. According to the latest forecast from the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) state weather bureau, typhoon signals were raised over Northern Luzon brought by a tropical storm (local name: Tropical Storm Kiko) and warned fisherfolks and small seacrafts not to venture onto the sea due to big waves. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

Palestinian athlete Ahmed Abu Hasira demonstrates his parkour skills during a lockdown amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Gaza City on September 8, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

A woman wearing a protection face mask walks past a mural of a dog in Shanghai, China, 03 September 2020. Daily life in Shanghai is returning to normal while many people still wear protection masks on the street, which are still mandatory in many shopping malls and other public places. (Photo by Alex Plavevski/EPA/EFE)

An Armenian serviceman fires a cannon towards Azerbaijan positions in the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, Tuesday, September 29, 2020. (Photo by Sipan Gyulumyan/Armenian Defense Ministry Press Service/PAN Photo via AP Photo)

An Extinction Rebellion activist takes part in a protest in Berlin, Germany on October 5, 2020. (Photo by Michele Tantussi/Reuters)

A man walks in the street at the start of the new curfew to counter the COVID-19 in the center of Lyon, central France, Saturday, January 16, 2021. All of France will be under a stricter curfew starting Saturday at 6 p.m. for at least 15 days to fight the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo by Laurent Cipriani/AP Photo)

A red squirrel leaps over a gray squirrel after the larger squirrel became annoyed with its territory being encroached upon, Saturday, May 28, 2022, in Freeport, Maine. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)