Second place, Nature: double trapping. Picture taken in the Brazilian Pantanal ... when I downloaded the CF did not want to believe it ... The nature knows we always give magnificent events but sometimes extraordinary. (Photo by Massimiliano Bencivenni/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

Looking for love by Tony Wu, USA. Highly commended, Animal Portraits. “Accentuating his mature appearance with pastel colours, protruding lips and an outstanding pink forehead, this Asian sheepshead wrasse sets out to impress females and see off rivals, which he will head-butt and bite, near Japan’s remote Sado Island. Individuals start out as females, and when they reach a certain age and size – up to a metre (more than 3 feet) long – can transform into males. Long-lived and slow-growing, the species is intrinsically vulnerable to overfishing”. (Photo by Tony Wu/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Happiness on a Rainy Day by Fardin Oyan, Bangladesh. Winner of the young environmental photographer of the year. Many children in Bangladesh love to bathe and play in the rain. The country, which is flat and occupied by the huge Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, is exposed to floods, especially during monsoon season. (Photo by Fardin Oyan/2018 Ciwem environmental photographer of the year 2018)

Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)

“Tasty Nature” by Dipesh Bhatt. “The blue banded bee (Amegilla cingulata) is pointing this sheath towards the flowers in preparation for sipping nectar”. Taken in Gujarat, India. (Photo by Dipesh Bhatt/2016 Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year competition)

“An Oscar nominated documentary maker and war photographer who learnt his trade at Cardiff University has been killed while covering the conflict in Lybia. Tim Hetherington is understood to have died in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in the Libyan city of Misrata. Earlier this year the 40-year-old was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category at the Academy Awards for the war documentary Restrepo which he co-directed”. – WalesOnline

Photo: Tim Hetherington arrives at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards – Nominated Docs! Reception on February 23, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

A) 1st place WINNER – Roy Rimmer. “This rat was in an outdoor set I made, the set up is two meters long and a meter wide made of Perspex,it has a plywood front with holes cut in for my camera and flash guns, I placed two rusty paint cans in the set up and the rat would leap from one can too the other, I had to use flash to freeze the action”.