A black-winged stilt patrols a reservoir in Jezreel Valley in Israel early April 2023. Their eggs are a golden colour mottled with brown. (Photo by Itamar Procaccia/Solent News)

A) 1st place WINNER – Roy Rimmer. “This rat was in an outdoor set I made, the set up is two meters long and a meter wide made of Perspex,it has a plywood front with holes cut in for my camera and flash guns, I placed two rusty paint cans in the set up and the rat would leap from one can too the other, I had to use flash to freeze the action”.

Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.

Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)

Fumie Takino, 89, founder of a senior cheer squad called Japan Pom Pom, and other members pose for commemorative photos before filming a dance routine for an online performance in Tokyo, Japan, April 12, 2021. “It's dancing; moving your body is nice”, Takino said. “And the costumes are unbelievably showy. Some people join just so they can wear them”. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A cosplayer dressed as Batman wearing the Hellbat suit crosses the road during Day 1 of New York Comic Con at Javits Center on October 07, 2021 in New York City. Comic Con has returned this year after being cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

People socialising in Soho, central London on July 11, 2020, after the lifting of further coronavirus lockdown restrictions in England. Revellers are urged to remember the importance of social distancing as pubs gear up for the second weekend of trade since the lifting of lockdown measures. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images)

Mini-pigs perform during the presentation in Balashikha, Russia on December 19, 2018. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Australian performers illuminated with real clocks titled “The Time Minder” attend a media preview of the Night Festival in Singapore on August 23, 2017. Singapore's arts and heritage district will be transformed into Singapore largest outdoor performing arts festival to celebrate its 10th year edition Night Festival from August 24 to 26. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)