People dressed in costumes have a break while marching during the Vijanera Festival, in the small village of Silio, northern Spain, Sunday, January 3, 2016. The Vijanera masquerade, of pre-Roman origin, is the first carnival of the year in Europe symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and involving the participation of crowds of residents wearing different masks, animal skins and brightly coloured clothing with its own complex function and symbolism and becoming the living example of the survival of archaic cults to nature. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

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)

Listed as endangered on the IUCN red list of threatened species, a humphead wrasse, or Napoleon fish, swims in an aquarium during an event in Tokyo's shopping district of Ginza on August 5, 2019. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)

Belgium's Crown Princess Elisabeth poses with dancers and youth after a ceremony on the occasion of her 18th birthday, outside the Royal Palace in Brussels, Belgium on October 25, 2019. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron performs at the Shrine Africa in Lagos on July 3, 2018. French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Abuja for a meeting with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari, in his latest attempt to forge closer ties with English- speaking Africa. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP Photo)

This month’s selection of travel imagery mixes quiet moments and superlative views. The overall 2018 prize is a West Greenland trip with Wild Photography Holidays. Here: “This was taken on a safari in Kruger national park, South Africa. The scene was like something straight out of a storybook: a wild baboon, impala and elephant crossing the road together, all lined up neatly in a row”. (Photo by Will Clarke/The Guardian)

A woman wearing a mask reacts at her garden which locates next to chimneys of coal-fired power plant in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, China, January 28, 2015. Beijing introduced tougher regulations this year to combat pollution, keen to overhaul China's unwanted image of smog-choked cities, fouled waterways and heavy-metal tainted soil. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A villager watches as Mount Sinabung volcano erupts, in Kuta Tengah village, Karo Regency in Indonesia's North Sumatra April 1, 2015. The Indonesian volcano was dormant for 400 years before erupting in 2010. (Photo by Y. T. Haryono/Reuters)