This strange coral-looking specimen is actually a mushroom. The photo, “Beautiful Destroyer”, was taken in the Panamanian tropical rainforest where the mushroom produces nitrogen, an element vital to soil health. (Photo by Sarah A. Batterman)

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)

Camp director and “duck walk” inventor (Rodin Gilbert Flores, 2nd R) teaches aspiring beauty queens how to “duck walk” at a beauty boot camp in Manila in this picture taken on March 8, 2015. From wading in muddy Philippine rice paddies, former housemaid Janicel Lubina now struts down runways for the country's top designers, and is poised to be crowned among the world's most beautiful. Lubina is a star recruit in one of Manila's beauty pageant boot camps, where shy, lanky teenage girls from remote farming provinces are transformed into poised Barbie dolls who can preach about world peace in six-inch heels. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Participants wait backstage during the Miss Wheelchair India beauty pageant in Mumbai November 26, 2014. Seven women from across India participated in the country's second wheelchair beauty pageant, which aims to open doors for the wheelchair-bound in modelling, film and television, according to organisers. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

Italian-American actress and model Julia Fox and American actress Chloe Fineman attend the Marshall Columbia x Cash App Pink Party during NYFW on September 7, 2023. (Photo by Deonté Lee/BFA.com)

American actress Megan Fox and American rapper Machine Gun Kelly are seen at the annual “Casamigos” Halloween party on October 27, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

A girl walks down the runway during a class at a modelling academy in Caracas, Venezuela, on September 20, 2014. Venezuela's famed models and aspiring beauty queens are struggling to doll themselves up. In a country that glorifies voluptuous women and opulent beauty pageants, even basics like deodorant are now at times tricky to find as strict currency controls have led to a scarcity of dollars for imported goods. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

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)