A passenger jeepney commutes through a flooded street in Manila on September 5, 2024, caused by heavy rains due to the southwest monsoon influenced by Tropical Storm Yagi which hit the main island of Luzon on September 2. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)

An Afghan burqa-clad woman carries a child as she walks along a road in Herat on October 1, 2023. (Photo by Mohsen Karimi/AFP Photo)

Model Nikita Dragun gets her hair and makeup touched up backstage at The Blonds fashion show at Spring Place on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Brittainy Newman/AP Photo)

Ice Age – Tibet, China. “This is the Chinese version of the blue ice lake, Pumoungcuo, at an altitude of 5,070 metres (16,600 feet). This lake in Tibet freezes every winter. At night, under the low temperatures of -20C, you can listen to the sound of the ice cracking while capturing the most beautiful winter sky. The blue ice surface and dazzling Orion constellation create a fantasy landscape. I felt so happy to have the stars as my companion on this magical night”. (Photo by Daniel Zafra Portill/Milky Way Photographer of the Year)

Devotees of the small farming village of Bibiclat celebrate the Feast of Saint John the Baptist while covered in banana leaves and mud on June 24, 2025 in Aliaga, Philippines. Known as the “Taong Putik” (mud people), the ritual happens yearly in this small farming village as their own version of expressing their faith and celebrating the feast of Saint John the Baptist whom the survivors of the Japanese occupation in 1944 in their area prayed to for rain to save their fellow villagers. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

A young Ukrainian woman wears an ear of grain braid during a traditional Ukrainian celebration of Kupalo Night, in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, June 22, 2024. Ukrainians in Warsaw jumped over a bonfire and floated braids to honor the vital powers of water and fire on the Vistula River bank Saturday night, as they celebrated their solstice tradition of Ivan Kupalo Night away from war-torn home. (Photo by Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo)

A woman attempts to get past a police blockade during a protest on Women's Day, in Manila, Philippines on March 8, 2023. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

October winner. “A burst of the aurora borealis over Kirkjufell, taken in September 2016. This shot has been a holy grail for me and was finally captured after many trips”. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: Iceland is a hotspot for aurora photography and this composition of the symmetric, free-standing Kirkjufell and the trident waterfall is much-sought after. If you can time your visit when the aurora “kp” index is high and know the settings for nighttime aurora images, you may end up with a beautiful photograph like this. (Photo by DВ/The Guardian)