Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

A U.S. Army soldier with the 10th Special Forces Group and his military working dog jump off the ramp of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment during water training over the Gulf of Mexico as part of exercise Emerald Warrior 2011 on March 1, 2011. (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez/U.S. Air Force)

People enjoying the hot weather on Brighton beach in Sussex, England on August 7, 2020. (Photo by Stephen Lock/i-Images)

A passer-by takes a selfie with an extra newspaper reporting on President-elect Joe Biden's win in the U.S. presidential election, in Tokyo Sunday, November 8, 2020. The headline reads: “Mr. Biden Assured to win”. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

A skater jumps through a ring of fire at the La Bodega Skate facilities as part of one of the Vans contests to showcase the top street skaters in Europe on September 16, 2023 in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. (Photo by Juan Carlos Toro/Getty Images)

Esther Abad free diving in Cenote Chukum, in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico on June 13, 2022. (Photo by Wojciech Dopierala/Mercury Press)

Crystal ice cubes at Jingyuetan National Forest Park attract tourists in Changchun City, northeast China's Jilin Province on January 10, 2024. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers ride their camels as they take part in a rehearsal for a road show ahead of the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump, in Ahmedabad, India, February 21, 2020. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)