Nature – first prize, stories. Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story. The photographer’s daughter, Merel, cowers after Dollie flies past and perches on the balcony before entering the house in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands on 6 April 2020. “She’s still frightened when Dollie suddenly lands on the balcony railing. I hide my smile behind the camera, as I try to comfort her by saying they won’t hurt you. “I thought he was going to attack me”, she replies. As the nesting pigeons keep coming back to our place, slowly my girls have started to appreciate them – perhaps not as much as I do, but it’s a start”. (Photo by Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2021)

“Attacking Howler Monkey”. Due to a major tropical rainstorm my wife and I were forced to stay overnight in a Howler Monkey Rescue center in Panama. I used the time to explore the area and to take photos of the monkeys. Just after the rain finally stopped, I ran into this monkey that tried to mock attack me. I quickly took a couple of photos before retreating to a (more) safe distance. (Photo and caption by Christian Mueller-Planitz/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

“Early morning in Mandawa, rural Rajasthan: it was the morning of Diwali and the streets were swept by smiling women in brightly coloured sarees as I took an early morning cup of chai. Celebrations started later, when darkness fell”. (Photo by Hamish Scott-Brown/Guardian Witness)

Farmers arrange bunches of water lilies after harvesting them from the wetlands in Barishal, Bangladesh on March 21, 2023. Floating through 10,000 acres of canal, farmers use their little boats to fetch the flowers. (Photo by Joy Saha/Cover Images)

Jonny Joo, 23, visits derelict malls, stations, towers and other places because they remind him of Silent Hill – a psychological horror video game which was made into a film. “When I first started exploring places, so many would remind me of the game. It was a world I was kind of obsessed with because of how dark and eerie it looked”, Joo said. His book, titled “Empty Spaces”, will feature 116 images and is being released this week. Photo: A glass-walled corridor at Cleveland's abandoned aquarium in Ohio. (Photo by Jonny Joo/Barcroft Media)

Photographer Frank Relle takes long-exposure images of houses in New Orleans. Says Relle, “The city at night comes alive for me. I imagine stories about the people’s lives inside the homes based on the evidence on the outside. My photographs become a portrait without the person. The night obscures details and the lack of information gives possibility”. Photo: “Telemachus”. Farragut Street, New Orleans, La. Nov. 2006. (Photo by Frank Relle)

“Bombay’s once ubiquitous Premier Padmini taxis were introduced in the 60s and are dwindling at an alarming rate. This follows a decree banning vehicles over 25 years old from the streets to be replaced with “modern alternatives”. In a few years these iconic workhorses will be gone from Bombay’s streets altogether. It is important to capture this before it disappears and I see the road wallah's cabs as the time capsules that allow me to do this”. – Dougie Wallace, Bombay India, March, 2013. (Photo by Dougie Wallace)