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)

Fireworks light up over Victoria Harbour to celebrate the 75th anniversary of China's National Day, in Hong Kong, China on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Lam Yik/Reuters)

People stand in front of a black ribbon, symbolising remembrance and mourning, being projected onto the Sydney Opera House on February 9, 2023 in solidarity with Turkey and Syria after a massive earthquake devastated the two countries. (Photo by David Gray/AFP Photo)

A drunk racegoer lays on the ground as her friend tries to wake her up during the Emirates Melbourne Cup Day held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne Australia, on November 4, 2014. (Photo by Asanka Brendon/Rex Features)

A woman crosses an open sewer as she makes her way to her house in a Christian slum in Islamabad December 4, 2014. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Hot air balloons take to the skies as they participate in the mass assent at sunrise on the second day of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta on August 11, 2017 in Bristol, England. More than 130 balloons have gathered for the four day event, now in its 39th year and now one of Europe's largest annual hot air balloon events, being hosted in the city that is seen by many as the home of modern ballooning. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Indian men stand around sword fish for sale at a harbour a harbour in Chennai on June 5, 2016, as fishermen return with their catch after a 45-day fishing ban on the east coast of India. Authorities in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu had imposed a 45-day ban on fishing by mechanised vessels to protect marine life, with only “country boats” operating within five nautical miles off the coast. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

Hundreds of people pack the Canaveral national seashore's Playalinda Beach as a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, carrying a U.S. Navy communications satellite, lifts off from Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Friday, June 24, 2016, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The satellite is designed to significantly improve ground communications for U.S. forces on the move. (Photo by Craig Rubadoux/Florida Today via AP Photo)