Winner. “This was taken in the South Ari Atolls, Maldives, as the south-west monsoon season was setting in. It features my partner – and dive buddy – Emma after surfacing at the end of the last dive of the day to find 1.5 metre swells and dark monsoon clouds. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: This beautiful portrait of a diver in an ocean swell below a menacing sky stands out this month for its emotional and elemental beauty. It is a reminder that while we may play among nature we are always dwarfed by its power and must be constantly on our guard”. (Photo by Simon Dunn/The Guardian)

A performer dressed in costume prepares to participate in the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in Sydney, Australia, March 5, 2016. The Sydney Mardi Gras parade began in 1978 as a march and commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Riots of New York. It is an annual event promoting awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues and themes. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

A woman tour skates on the frozen lake of Orlangen, south of Stockholm, Sweden, on December 23, 2016. Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice particularly popular in the Nordic countries. (Photo by Tobias Roestlund/AFP Photo/TT News Agency)

“Kilauea Rules”. The most extreme place we put ours kayakers to paddle till now. Photo location: Big Island, Hawaii. (Photo and caption by Alexandre Socci/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A picture shows the full moon during a “blood moon” eclipse over the temple of Apollo in Corinth on July 27, 2018. The longest “blood moon” eclipse this century began on July 27, coinciding with Mars' closest approach in 15 years to treat skygazers across the globe to a thrilling celestial spectacle. (Photo by Valerie Gache/AFP Photo)

Muslims women walk to the prayer hall of a mosque for a mass prayer during Eid al-Adha celebrations at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on June 17, 2024. (Photo by Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters)

In this Wednesday, July 23, 2014 file photo, Omaha photographer Lane Hickenbottom photographs the night sky in a pasture near Callaway, Neb. With no moon in the sky, the Milky Way was visible to the naked eye. More than one-third of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way because of man-made lights, according to a scientific paper by Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute's Fabio Falchi and his team members, published on Friday, June 10, 2016. (Photo by Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle via AP Photo)

Soldiers are reflected in a puddle during a military parade during the celebrations for Romania's National Day in Bucharest December 1, 2014. (Photo by Radu Sigheti/Reuters)