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 woman carries her child, both wearing traditional red clothes celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year in Bangkok February 19, 2015. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Belgian photographer Kurt Stallaert has conceived a series of hyper-realistic images entitled “Bodybuilder’s world”. The personal project suggests an imaginary world with a literal “powerful twist”. (Photo by Kurt Stallaert)

City stairways grey, cold concrete which is often dirty. These Street Artists around the world decided to do something about it. What they have done is nothing short of phenomenal. You won’t believe it. You’ve have to see these incredible transformations that took these stairs from dull to beautiful!

Military helicopters fly in formation above a billboard with a picture of China's late Chairman Mao Zedong during a training session for the upcoming parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, on the outskirts of Beijing, July 2, 2015. Troops from Russia and Mongolia will march together with Chinese forces in a parade in Beijing in September to commemorate the end of World War Two, the government and state media said on Thursday, confirming the first two foreign participants. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

Surfers surf at Surf Snowdonia in Conwy, North Wales, September 3, 2015. The surf park, which cost $22.8 million, opened on August 1 and is the world's first commercial artificial surfing lake, according to the company.The pool is 300 metres (980 ft) long and 110 metres (360 ft) wide, containing a total of six million gallons of water. A bi-directional snowplough-shaped wave-generation mechanism, towed on a cable between the two central towers, moves up and down the pool on a three-rail track, generating the waves. (Photo by Andrew Yates/Reuters)

Greece-based illustrator, Charis Tsevis took his fascination with our wired world to develop his series of colorful and detailed wire illustrations. He uses all types of wires, including USB cords and phone cables, and creates form figures, faces and animals by tangling them together. Tsevis says, “All of them have to do with the relationship between the network and the human body and spirit”. Photo: “The Conquering Lion: Plug into the power of Reggae”. (Photo by Charis Tsevis)

“I was on Durga Puja Festival vacation, travelling on a local train. A boy was singing devotional song and begging for alms. He was guised as a Hindu god, Lord Shiva. This is a common view in Indian trains but this boy was charming, bright and did have a melodious voice. My camera was ready hanging on my neck so I took a picture”. (Photo and caption by Arup Ghosh/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)