A dog wearing a mask is seen on a street following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Shanghai, China on March 22, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

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)

The rarely seen blue sharks photographed by Saeed Rashid in British waters. Elusive blue sharks have recently been spotted off the south coast of England, having moved to the UKs warmer waters to hunt. The carnivorous sharks have been lurking off the coast of the popular British holiday destination, Penzance, in Cornwall. (Photo by Saeed Rashid/Caters News)

A Palestinian youth throws rubber tyres over a fire during a protest in Gaza on July 26, 2023. (Photo by Saher Alghorra/Zuma Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Harvesting water lilies in Dhaka, Bangladesh in the last decade of August 2023. (Photo by Mostafijur Rahman Nasim/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Spectators using virtual reality glasses at the “Los Ultimos Dias De Pompeia” Exhibition at Matadero on September 06, 2023 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images)

A swan sits on her eggs on nest made of rubbish found in the Danube river in Belgrade, Serbia on Monday, May 10, 2022. (Photo by Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo)

The galactic centre of the Milky Way glows brightly in the clear night sky above the lighthouse at Portland Bill on the Dorset Jurassic Coast, United Kingdom on April 13, 2021. (Photo by Graham Hunt/Alamy Live News)