Shortlisted: “Two big eyes” by Miao Yong (Zejiang province, China). Damselflies look over the leaves. “I was photographing insects in a park near my home when suddenly I found two damselflies in the grass. They kept flying and it was very difficult to focus until suddenly they parked behind a leaf”. (Photo by Miao Yong/2017 Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year)

A red squirrel and a woodpecker having an “argument” over some nuts in a woodland near Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway in Johnsfield, England in September 2020. (Photo by Karen Crawford/South West News Service)

In this September 19, 2019 file photo, an aircraft passes the rising sun during take off at the international airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Germany’s top court has ruled that the government has to set clear goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions after 2030, arguing that current legislation doesn’t go far enough in curbing climate change. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo/File)

“The Dragon and The Hopper”. Eyrean earless dragon (Tympanocryptis tetraporophora) standing tall on a very hot rock in western Queensland. For a short time it was joined by a hopper, who jumped off before becoming lunch. (Photo by Harrison Warne/Nature Conservancy Australia 2021 Photo Contest)

Nyaueth by Peter Zelewski – £2,000 third prize winner. This was taken near London’s Oxford Street as part of Zelewski’s series Beautiful Strangers. Zelewski explains: ‘The aim of Beautiful Strangers is to challenge the concept of traditional beauty with a series of spontaneous street portraits of everyday citizens who show character, uniqueness and a special inner quality’. (Photo by Peter Zelewski/Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2015)

Getting her tongue pierced was “exciting and scary” says a teen who succumbed to pressure from her best friend in Austin, Texas, February 22, 2008. This image is featured in National Geographic's exhibition “Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment”, on view at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, Jan. 22 - Mar. 22, 2015. (Photo by Kitra Cahana/National Geographic)

“Artist Paula Swisher has come up with a quirky way of lessening the stress of household bills - by doodling highly intricate birds on each one. Swisher, 37, has drawn hundreds of birds in her lifetime and puts her love of ornithology down to the nature walks she went on as a youngster. Looking for work during the recession, she began sketching birds on the inside of books, seeing the practice as a creative way to mutate the pages into something fresh. But now she's made the transition from books to bills – while admittedly making a playful commentary on the predatory banking businesses”. – Caters News. (Photo by Paula Swisher/Caters News)

A man poses as his acquaintance takes pictures on a street in the town of Vyborg, Russia on January 28, 2024. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)