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)

People use large water guns to spray each other as they celebrate the annual Songkran festival in Bangkok, Thailand on April 14, 2025. Thailand celebrated the Thai traditional New Year, called Songkran in Thai and also known as ëthe water festivalí, on 13 April, with festivities going on on throughout the weekend. During Songkran, people celebrate the New Year by splashing water to each other as a sign of washing away sins and bad luck from the previous year. People across Thailand celebrate the New Year with parties and water related activities throughout the weekend. (Photo by Diego Azubel/Matrix Images)

Max Gold, 20, of NYC, cruises on his skateboard as thousands gather on the National Mall for the March for Science on Saturday, April 22, 2017, in Washington, DC. Activists and scientists descend on the nation's capital to rally for environmental causes and government policies rooted in scientific research as part of the Earth Day and March for Science rallies. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

A girl walks along rice paddy fields during “National Paddy Day”, which marks the start of the annual rice planting season, in Tokha village on the outskirts of Kathmandu on June 29, 2020. Splashing mud and drinking local rice beer, Nepali farmers this week celebrated National Paddy Day to mark the beginning of the rice-planting season, despite some coronavirus lockdown measures still in place. Traditional farming songs and laughter echoed in the air as farmers waded into waterlogged fields to sow green paddy. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

A Haitian National Police officer guards a street in the Petion-Ville neighborhood almost a week after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 13, 2021. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters)

Seen in a long camera exposure, the Caldor Fire burns on Sunday, August 29, 2021, in Eldorado National Forest, Calif. (Photo by Noah Berger/AP Photo)

A traditional high altitude bonfire burns on the occasion of the Swiss National Day on the “Stanserhorn” mountain near Stans, Switzerland, Sunday, August 1, 2021. (Photo by Urs Flueeler/Keystone via AP Photo)

Girls in floral crowns jump across the bonfire while holding hands during the Kupala Night celebration at the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Pyrohiv, Kyiv, capital of Ukraine. (Photo by Ukrinform/Rex Features/Shutterstock)