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)

An Israeli soldier looks through her cell phone as she enjoys the Ranunculus flowers in a field in the southern Israeli Kibbutz of Nir Yitzhak, located along the Israeli- Gaza Strip border, during the Jewish holiday of Pesach (Passover) on April 12, 2017. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP Photo)

Britain's Princess Elizabeth clasps her hands in sympathy as Sergeant Jean Bayliss faints at her feet during an inspection of the guard of honour of the Women's Royal Army Corps at Shrewsbury Castle, Shropshire, on July 6, 1949. (Photo by AP Photo)

A girl salutes to visitors before a show at the Mangyongdae Children's Palace in central Pyongyang, North Korea May 5, 2016. Pyongyang held a gala of song and dance performances by local school children on May 5 for visiting delegations of foreign journalists and tourists at the Mangyongdae Children's Palace. The event included orchestral, choir, and acrobatic performances, many of them with political undertones. The Seventh Worker's Party Congress commences on May 6, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Eleonora Brunacci and Mariano Di Vaio walk the red carpet ahead of the “Racer And The Jailbird (Le Fidele)” screening during the 74th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on September 8, 2017 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

A robot named “Robovie-II”, developed by Japanese robotics research institution ATR, moves around at a grocery store during a shopping assisting experiment by utilizing the robot in an ubiquitous network technology platform in Kyoto, western Japan January 6, 2010. (Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)

Australian rapper Amethyst Amelia Kelly, known professionally as Iggy Azalea is seen on the set of Extra TV on July 10, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)