Tony North; First place, Breathing Spaces; Overall Winner; Blue Tajinaste, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. “Echium thyrsiflorum is endemic to the mountains of La Palma island – from high up, there was a magnificent view of both the caldera below, and the stars above. The Unesco La Palma biosphere reserve encompasses the entire island, with the Caldera de Taburiente containing mountains with a highest peak of 2,426 metres – the Roque de los Muchachos”. (Photo by Tony North/IGPOTY)

Lush green rice terraces sprawl over 2,200 hectares of mountainside ready to be harvested. These stunning images, captured by photographer Saravut Whanset, show the incredible terraces throughout the course of the day, including at sunrise and sunset. Workers tend to the fields, with each terrace between 1 and 1.5 metres wide, while wooden huts stand on stilts on the mountainside. The beautiful panoramic pictures were taken in Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam, with the fields located at the foot of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, 1,000 metres above sea level. (Photo by Saravut Whanset/Solent News and Photo Agency)

A fisherwoman repairs the fishing nets at a fishing port during the annual summer fishing ban, which covers the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the waters north of 12 degrees north latitude in the South China Sea, on June 8, 2022 in Wenling, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Liu Zhenqing/VCG via Getty Images)

North Korean cheerleaders arrive at a rest stop, or service station, as their bus convoy carrying a 280- member delegation on its way to the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympic games, makes its way past Gapyeong on February 7, 2018 More than 200 young North Korean women arrived in South Korea to root for athletes from both sides of the peninsula at the Winter Olympics. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

More than 400 people stripped off and ran into freezing waters to celebrate the autumn equinox – and raise money for charity at Druridge Bay, Britain, September 25, 2016. It was the largest turnout the North East Skinny Dip has ever seen in its five-year history, and it was also the first time it has ever rained on the morning of the event. Revellers gathered from 5.30am on Sunday at Druridge Bay, in Northumberland, before baring all in the North Sea. (Photo by David Charlton Photography)

An Israeli soldier leaves the battlefield after an army exercise on at the Shizafon army base, in the Negev Desert north of the southern city of Eilat on January 31, 2012 in Shizafon, Israel. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Mary Ellen Mark was an American photographer known for her photojournalism / documentary photography, portraiture, and advertising photography. She photographed people who were "away from mainstream society and toward its more interesting, often troubled fringes". Here: Amanda and her cousin Amy, Valdese, North Carolina, 1990. (Photo by Mary Ellen Mark)

Lightning illuminates a thundercloud as a storm front hits the North Sea region near Westerhever, northern Germany, on August 11, 2014. (Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/AFP Photo/DPA)