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)

A giraffe appears almost to be doing the splits as it bends to drink at a watering hole on a reserve in Mkuze, South Africa in September 2023. (Photo by Peter Batty/Solent News)

The galactic core of the Milky Way glows brightly in the clear night sky above St Catherine?s Chapel at Abbotsbury in Dorset, UK on August 2, 2024. (Photo by Graham Hunt/Alamy Live News)

An aerial view shows a packed parking lot at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, November 28, 2024, as early Black Friday shoppers arrive at the mall. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

People rush an injured woman to a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, October 26, 2015. A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake in northern Afghanistan rocked cities across South Asia. Strong tremors were felt in Kabul, New Delhi and Islamabad on Monday. In the Pakistani capital, walls swayed back and forth and people poured out of office buildings in a panic, reciting verses from the Quran. (Photo by Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

A picture shows the blood stained floor of a kindergarten following reported shelling in the rebel-held area of Harasta, on the northeastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, on November 6, 2016. At least four children were killed and 19 people injured in the government strike in Harasta, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Photo by Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP Photo)

Young gymnasts practice pull-up on a bar at a gymnasium of a sports school in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province April 11, 2015. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

A family of children share a bath in Japan, circa 1965. (Photo by Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)