Two office workers wearing summer kimonos Yukata look at paper lanterns as they visit on the eve of Mitama Matsuri, a summer festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, 13 July 2015. About 300,000 people visit the shrine decorated with about 30,000 lanterns during the three-day summer festival aiming at comforting souls of dead, especially for the war dead. The festival is after Japan's Buddhist custom to honor and comfort souls of family's ancestors. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA)

A PSE&G utility worker watches the Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds conduct “a collaborative salute” to honor those battling the COVID-19 pandemic with a flyover of New York and New Jersey, Tuesday, April 28, 2020, in this view from Jersey City, N.J. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP Photo)

A woman walks the grounds in costume as revellers celebrate Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, on October 28, 2023. Every year on the last Saturday before November 2nd, Hollywood Forever Cemetery welcomes members of the community to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, which reunites and honors beloved ancestors, family, and friends. (Photo by David Swanson/AFP Photo)

A boy plays with a dragon-shaped puppet as he walks with his parent at Sydney CBD ahead of the Lunar New Year on February 09, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is celebrated around the world, and the Year of the Wood Dragon in 2024 is associated with growth, progress, and abundance, as wood represents vitality and creativity, while the dragon symbolizes success, intelligence, and honor. (Photo by Roni Bintang/Getty Images)

A young Ukrainian woman wears an ear of grain braid during a traditional Ukrainian celebration of Kupalo Night, in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, June 22, 2024. Ukrainians in Warsaw jumped over a bonfire and floated braids to honor the vital powers of water and fire on the Vistula River bank Saturday night, as they celebrated their solstice tradition of Ivan Kupalo Night away from war-torn home. (Photo by Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo)

Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

A group of dancers pose for a photo before their performance at the Nueva Esperanza cemetery in the shantytown Villa Maria, in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, November 1, 2016, as part of the Day of the Dead festivities. The holiday honors the deceased and coincides with All Saints Day, and All Souls Day celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2. Dancing, drinking alcohol, and eating with the deceased are part of Day of the Dead celebrations. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)

National Beard and Moustache Championships 2015 Just for Men National Beard and Moustache Championships Presented by Hanes X-Temp, 2nd annual event honoring the best facial hair in America, with beardsmen from all over the world invited to compete. Categories include the Dali Moustache and the Full Beard Freestyle The World Beard and Moustache Association (WBMA) Championships have been held biennially since 1995 with the next competition due in 2017 in Kings Theatre, New York, NY, USA on November 7, 2015. (Photo by Dennis Van Tine/ABACAPress)