First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

In this photograph taken on August 9, 2023, children make their way along a street during heavy downpour in Kilinochchi. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Evan Leversage, who is terminally ill with brain cancer, is greeted by a Christmas decorated dog with his mother Nicole Wellwood (L), and his father Travis Leversage (2nd R) in St. George, Ontario, Canada October 24, 2015. Evan Leversage is a seven-year-old boy who has been living with inoperable brain cancer since he was two years old. His family has organized a Christmas celebration in October complete with a full parade, in case Evan does not live to celebrate his last Christmas day on the traditional date of December 25, according to local media. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Reuters)

The work entitled “Trip 1, Trip II, Trip III” by April Pine is pictured before dawn at Sculpture By The Sea at Bondi Beach on October 19, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. This year the outdoor exhibition celebrates its 21st birthday with 104 exhibiting artists from Australia and around the world and runs from the 19th October-5th November 2017. (Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

A Western Lowland Gorilla baby named “Mjukuu”, that was born in October last year, rides on the back of its Mother “Mbeli” in their enclosure at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, May 19, 2015. The baby gorilla was born six days ago, and is the second sired by the zoo's new Silverback, Kibali, who arrived from France in 2012. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

A man lies on the floor during a ritual at the Sorte Mountain on the outskirts of Chivacoa, in the state of Yaracuy, Venezuela October 10, 2015. One long night every year in a mountainous rainforest in Venezuela, hundreds gather to dance on red-hot embers, enter trance-like states, and worship an ancient goddess known as Maria Lionza. Those who travel to the mountain known as Sorte in central Venezuela are practitioners of a cult that is built on local indigenous traditions. (Photo by Marco Bello/Reuters)

An old locomotive train that was used for transporting coal is preserved as a monument at Ny-Alesund, in Svalbard, Norway, October 11, 2015. A Norwegian chain of islands just 1,200 km (750 miles) from the North Pole is trying to promote new technologies, tourism and scientific research in a shift from high-polluting coal mining that has been a backbone of the remote economy for decades. (Photo by Anna Filipova/Reuters)

A woman holds a parasol as she stands in a field of fireweed, or Kochia scoparia, on a sunny autumn day at the Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachi, north of Tokyo, October 26, 2015. Fireweed is a grass bush that takes on a bright red colour in autumn. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)