Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)

A Muslim woman wearing a Hijab kicks the water in the Mediterranean Sea as a woman wearing a bikini stands nearby at the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel August 30, 2016. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

A man with a glitter beard marches along the San Francisco Pride parade route in San Francisco, California on Sunday, June, 26, 2016. (Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP Photo)

Istanbul-based Ali Gulec is a graphic artist with a difference. His surreal illustrations are like identikit drawings aiming to prosecute the material arts. Working on the margins of what is possible with his medium, Gulec's forms, figures, and situations are remarkable for their clarity and strength of purpose, and maintain an iconographic intensity that would make any rock band bereft of an album cover salivate with admiration.

Iain Blake is an amateur photographer that has gained his popularity on the Internet thanks to his photoset of “Stone Footprints”. By finding the right stones and perfectly arranging them, Iain was able to make a number of very appealing pictures. For some reason, these “footprints” look adorable. It could have something to do with the cartoony appearance that they have. In our opinion, the finest photo out of this whole set is the one with a large footprint and a smaller one on top of it, as if a child has stepped into the footprint left by his or her parent. (Photo by Iain Blake)

Samurai commiting seppuku (hara-kiri) in Japan, circa 1880. (Photo by adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images)

Wildlife photographer Kevin Fleming has covered the world as a photographer for National Geographic and has been recognized America’s Best Observer by Readers Digest. His assignments have taken him into war and famine in Somalia, to the Mediterranean for a re-creation of the voyage of Ulysses and put him on a dogsled crossing the Canadian arctic. Now Kevin is working on his 27th book. Here: Red fox kits look out from a hollow log. (Photo by Kevin Fleming)

A photo taken on July 22, 2017 shows beach- goers dancing at the West Sea Barrage beach outside the coastal city of Nampo, southwest of Pyongyang. The West Sea Barrage beach features as a stopping point for foreign tourists, and is a destination for North Korean work groups from the neighbouring area. The beach lies at the end of an eight- kilometre- long barrage that separates the sea from the Taedong River, which runs through Pyongyang. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)