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)

A photographer could bear-ly believe his eyes when a bear started waving at him. The friendly animal wandered to the front of his enclosure before sitting back in full view of zoo guests. He then lifts his powerful paw and excitedly waves in an almost human-like way at his new audience. The hilarious encounter was captured by keen photographer Andrey Slepnev, 31, while on a trip to Madrid Zoo, Spain on March 24, 2016. (Photo by Andrey Slepnev/Caters News)

A member of Sisters of the Valley, a non-religious international group founded in 2014 which has pledged to spread the gospel of the healing powers of cannabis, who uses the moniker “Sister Bernardet” online and asked not to give her name for fear of reprisal, smokes a joint at the Sisters of the Valley's farm on the outskirts of a village in central Mexico on September 3, 2023. (Photo by Raquel Cunha/Reuters)

Takahiro Shito, 47, and his wife Sayomi Shito, 46, pray with their children Tomoka, 14, and Kenya 16, and their great uncle Akinori Takahashi, 76, as they pay respects to their daughter Chisato,12, buried in a nearby cemetery, victim of the Okowa Elementary School tragedy, who was killed during last year's tsunami on March 11, 2012 near Ishinomaki, Japan. Teachers at the school weren't trained for tsunami evacuation and didn't to lead the children up the snow covered mountain behind the school after the tsunami warning was sounded. Out of 108 students at the school, 74 died and four remain missing; 10 of the school's 13 teachers were also killed. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)

Google's vice president Alan Eustace looks out of his spacesuit into the stratosphere prior to a record-breaking skydive over New Mexico, in this still image taken from video October 24, 2014, a handout courtesy of the Paragon Space Development Corporation. Eustace was lifted up 135,890 ft (41,420 metres) by an enormous balloon while wearing a specially designed pressurized space suit, the Paragon Space Development Corporation said. Eustace remained in a free fall for approximately 4.5 minutes before landing safely nearly 70 miles (43.4 kms) from his launch point, setting a world record for the highest skydive and breaking the sound barrier in the process. Eustace landed safely on the ground just 15 minutes after he was lifted into the air. (Photo by Reuters/Paragon Space Development Corporation)

Elspeth McLean is a talented painter from Australia’s western suburbia. She is perhaps the most vibrant painter I have even seen, hence her degree and passion in Art Therapy. She has a strong belief that art has the power to bring immense joy into people lives and her vibrant creations accurately reflect that.

From stuffed elephants to picnics under power lines, Leipzig-born photographer Frank Herfort coaxes magical, colour-saturated tableaux from intriguing slices of everyday Russian life. Here: A lonely dog watches the mailboxes in a typical Moscow residential block. (Photo by by Frank Herfort/The Guardian)

These powerful images capture the spear-wielding tribes of Papua new Guinea who believe they are possessed with the spirit of the crocodile. They show how the Kangunaman clansmen scar their backs to resemble reptile scales while the Huli Wigmen wear elaborate headdresses to signal they are ready for battle. (Photo by Trevor Cole/Media Drum World)