A walker has left a handprint on a snow- covered tree trunk on Grosser Feldberg mountain in the Taunus mountain range, Germany, 16 January 2017. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/DPA)

With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)

People walk along the Neva River at sunset in St.Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, December 6, 2016. The temperature in St.Petersburg is –9C ( 15.8 °F). (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

An air tanker drops fire retardant on flames as firefighters continue to battle against the Detwiler fire in Mariposa, California on July 19, 2017. The Detwiler fire is currently at 7 percent containment and has burned more than 45,000 acres and destroyed eight structures. (Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP Photo)

Chris Renshaw has recently been awarded the 2015 Africa Geographic “Photographer of the Year” award. Chris tells that his love “for anything wild and adventurous came from a deep rooted attachment to the African continent. This image shows that timing, a bit of anticipation, and luck allowed this incredible moment in time to be captured”. (Photo by Chris Renshaw)

A woman holds a rooster burned during a fire on a hill, where more than 100 homes were burned due to a forest fire but there have been no reports of death, local authorities said in Valparaiso, Chile January 2, 2017. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

Kea are the only true alpine parrots in the world and thrive as cunning opportunists in the freezing conditions of the Southern Alps. Kea are thought to have developed their wide array of food-finding strategies during the last great ice age, where they learned to adapt using their unusual powers of curiosity. (Photo by Tom Walker/BBC Pictures/The Guardian)

Brenda, a Honduran girl who is seeking asylum in the U.S., is carried from the Rio Grande in distress, where she had been bathing across the river from a Brownsville, Texas U.S. Customs and Border Protection tent facility as immigration hearings were being held by video teleconference, in Matamoros, Mexico September 12, 2019. Most of the people living in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge have been sent back under the “Remain in Mexico” program, officially named Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). (Photo by Veronica G. Cardenas/Reuters)