A car passes through an area of the boardwalk hit by strong waves in Havana, Cuba, 05 February 2024. The Cuban Institute of Meteorology (Insmet) recorded strong gusts of wind of up to 104 kilometers per hour and strong waves in the west of the island due to a cold front associated with an “extratropical low”. (Photo by Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA)

Palestinian refugees walk home in Gaza City on January 19, 2025, making a V sign with their fingers toward the camera, just before the ceasefire took effect. (Photo by Reuters/Yonhap News)

Shortlisted: “Two big eyes” by Miao Yong (Zejiang province, China). Damselflies look over the leaves. “I was photographing insects in a park near my home when suddenly I found two damselflies in the grass. They kept flying and it was very difficult to focus until suddenly they parked behind a leaf”. (Photo by Miao Yong/2017 Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year)

A young visitor interacts with a baby hippopotamus swimming in its enclosure at the Berlin Zoo on January 1, 2018. Tourists and locals flocked to the zoo in the German capital on the unseasonably warm first day of the year. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP Photo)

Amateur Iranian photographer Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji, 23 likes to learn as much as he can about a site before he photographs it. Then he utilizes a variety of wide-angle and fisheye lenses, as well as occasional panoramic techniques to create beautiful new, often mind-bending images. He usually shoots the architectural wonders of Iran, and hopes that the Iranian government will allow him to travel further from home in pursuit of other iconic architectural treasures. Photo: The Nasir al-mulk or “Pink” mosque in Shiraz, Iran. (Photo by Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganj)

A woman uses protection masks to cover her face as protestors from the Million Mask March and anti lockdown protesters demonstrate, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in London, Britain on November 5, 2020. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Female bodybuilder Joanne Caldwell competes during the IBFA British Finals Night of Champions contest at the Federation Brewery in Gateshead, Britain on October 22, 2023. (Photo by Lee Smith/Reuters)

Dead leaf or almost by Guilhem Duvot. Taken in Nován Stráž, Slovakia. Describe what is pictured? A dead leaf grasshopper. How does this image fit with the theme of the competition? The perfect camouflage – nature is amazing. I saw the grasshopper only because it jumped. (Photo by Guilhem Duvot/Royal Society of Biology)