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)

Runner-up. “The heavens opened and the streets around Shibuya, Tokyo, were suddenly drenched in even more colour and movement. I was taking photos (my friend was holding the umbrella) when I noticed this woman at the crossing. I’m pleased with the futuristic feel of the image”. (Photo by Katherine Bridgestock/The Guardian)

A 19th century bicycle safety lock is displayed in an old frame in the Museum of Domenico Agostinelli in Dragona, near Rome October 30, 2014Italian collector Domenico Agostinelli, 74, has a passion that has led him over the past 60 years to pick up and collect things of all types, from antique art to everyday objects of the past and present. His collection includes a 65-million-year-old dinosaur egg, meteor fragments, a car that once belonged to American mob boss Al Capone, a lock of hair of Italian national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, toys, weapons, musical instruments of all kinds and many more. (Photo by Tony Gentile/Reuters)

The brutalist war memorials found throughout the former Yugoslavia were weird enough when they were built in the 1960s and 70s. Today, separated by the end of an architectural movement and the disintegration of the country, they seem almost alien. Belgian photographer Jan Kempenaers treats them purely as artistic objects in his book, “Spomenik”, named for the Serb-Croat word for monument. Known for photographing geographical oddities, Kempenaers was captivated by the spomenik after seeing them in an art encyclopedia. After hearing that many had been destroyed or abandoned, he set out to record what was left. (Photo by Jan Kempenaers)

“The Eton wall game is a game similar to football and Rugby Union, that originated from and is still played at Eton College. It is played on a strip of ground 5 metres wide and 110 metres long next to a slightly curved brick wall, erected in 1717”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The “Collegers” and the “Oppidans” of Eton College take part in the “Wall Game” as boys in their traditional school uniform watch from on top of the wall on November 17, 2007 in Eton, near Windsor, Berkshire, England. The first recorded “Wall Game” took place in 1766 with competition between the two houses at the boarding school remaining as fierce as ever on the annual St. Andrew's day event. The object of the game is to get the ball to either end of the wall and score a goal, which has not happened since 1909. As well as scoring a goal the players can win points with a “shy”, where the ball is held against the wall and touched by the hand and awarded one point. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

“This quirky collection of photos proves that a little imagination is the key to a good a picture. By simply using a collection of keys and a strip of chalk, photographer, Stanislav Aristov, 32, is able to re-create everyday scenes and objects. Stanislav wanted to show that even the simplest of items can help change your view on the world. After acquiring a large selection of keys from friends and family as well as local charity shops, Stanislav then went about scrawling anything from a key shaped rain drops to a key-eyed crab”. – Caters News. Photo: A man walking his dog in a park made using chalk and keys. (Photo by Stanislav Aristov/Caters News)

Fresa, 5, stands inside the dog shelter “Santuario Milagros Caninos” on the outskirts of Mexico City August 29 2014. Fresa underwent reconstructive surgery after her previous owners hacked off half of her snout with a sharp object, possibly a machete, according to surgeon Jesus Paredes. After neighbours found Fresa wandering on the streets, they handed her over to a shelter where Paredes performed a three-hours intervention to enable her to breathe again through her nostrils, to remove her protruding jaw and reconstruct the lips with flaps of skin and mucous. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

Two women cry in grief after armed assailants in a motorcycle shot their loved one in a main thoroughfare on July 23, 2016 in Manila, Philippines. The victim was an alleged drug peddler a claim disputed by his wife and maintained her husband is nothing more than a pedicab driver plying his trade when he was shot in front of her. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared a war on crime and drugs after winning the presidential elections on May 9, 2016. President Duterte has recently been living up to his nickname, “The Punisher”, as Philippine police have been conducting night time drug raids on almost a daily basis. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images)