Here we look at 15 shortlisted photographs from the competition.
PHOTO: MASAYASU SAKUMADiamond-Dust. This picture was taken in February in Nagano-ken at an altitude of about 1,700 metres. In Japan, February is the coldest season in a year. Diamond dust can be seen only a few times during cold season. So, it took four years to make this work since I started taking diamond dust. Orange circle is diamond dust. Diamond dust usually looks white, but it turns into orange just for the morning sunrise. I expressed the diamond dust as a silent forest fairy.
PHOTO: AMI VITALEFrom the series Pandas Gone Wild. Is a panda cub fooled by a panda suit? That’s the hope at Hetaoping Wolong Panda Centre, where captive-bred bears training for life in the wild are kept relatively sheltered from human contact, even during a rare hands-on checkup.
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN VIZLJacks at Cabo Pulmo. Mexico, Baja California, Sea of Cortez. A big school of Jacks forming a ceiling found at the protected marine area of Cabo Pulmo.
PHOTO: LARS SIVARSNYCLightII. A Manhattan sunset. Shot from Queens across the East River. Part two in a New York Trilogy which I call "NYC Light."
PHOTO: PIER MANEWalking on water. The Solomon Islands are special well beyond pristine reefs and world-class diving. It is one of the last frontiers where local tribes and indigenous populations are scattered throughout the archipelago, and proudly conduct a life where what is taken from Mother Nature is only that which is needed as a means of subsistence. I wanted a different shot than the usual underwater reef scene to capture the cultural essence of this incredible far-flung destination and its inhabitants. This is a place where it seems kids learn to paddle before they walk. I noticed canoes following my bubbles, a great opportunity to capture villagers, their canoe, the reef, and a stunning sunset as the backdrop.
PHOTO: JAN RYSERBlack rhinoceros at night. The waterhole at Okaukuejo in the Etosha National Park in Namibia, is visited by black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) on a regular basis. This animal stood in the water at night for quite some time before drinking. The calm water allowed for reflections. The position of the flash, some 30 metres from the camera, helped reveal the structures of the body surface. The photo was taken in April 2016.
PHOTO: PLACIDO FARANDALady in Red. I shot this picture with my drone during a summer vacation. My wife and I spent several days in Montenegro on the Adriatic Coast, and this shot is from the cove Veslo, located at the eastern part of Luštica peninsula. This is a perfect spot where you get the feelings of coziness, privacy, and relaxation, and this is what I wanted to be reflected in my work. Unspoiled and rugged at the same time, but also a beautiful and authentic landscape is what I found here, and I hope this is what transcends through this image. Model: Nevena Mirković.
PHOTO: TAVEPONG PRATOOMWONGMetropolis. A reflection of the tree on the woman's hair in Midtown.
PHOTO: JOHNNY KRUEGERWhite breasted marten. A white breasted stone marten leaping over some roots, picture taken in Czech Republic in beginning of 2016.
PHOTO: TIM TOPPLEThe Cub. My daughter at home (mid-2016), oblivious and lost in a dream moment. It’s one of the more serene images from an ongoing project where I aim to capture the fleeting micro-events that form a part of family life.
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN VIZLSilkie shark at Roca Partida. Ever since I was a kid, as far back as I can remember, I was attracted to the sea. I dreamed about what lay beneath the waves, and how would it look if suddenly all the water vanished, leaving all the animals and living creatures in stasis. In this way, I could walk within the ocean and see them all, suspended for a moment in time and space. To this day I carry within me that dream, and very gratefully realise it through my photography. Each image is a visualisation of that sublime moment whereupon the beautiful marine life around me is frozen majestically in its natural environment.
PHOTO: ANN RICMoody. DNF, Fujisan Marathon.
PHOTO: YULIA GRIGORYANTSFrom a series titled Inhabitants of the Empty. Syuzanna, age 9, sits in a “shelter” made of old rusty car parts in front of the abandoned building. She lives in Gyumri, Armenia. Ten days earlier, Syuzanna's father committed suicide, people said, because of his debts. In 1988, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck northern Armenia. The quake killed at least 25,000 people in the region. Thousands more were maimed and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city bore much of the damage. Large-scale war in the early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union, an energy shortage, and a blockade that left landlocked Armenia with just two open borders exacerbated the region's already prevalent social and economic problems. A quarter century later, Gyumri has the country’s highest poverty rate at 47.7 percent. The city has lost nearly half of its population since 1988, due in part to the migration of the labour force. A few thousand families are still living in makeshift shelters, waiting for help. Many of them are not eligible for new housing, since they are not considered to be direct victims of the earthquake. Twenty-five years later, they are still waiting for urgently needed improvements to their dwellings. During the Soviet era, these huge twin dormitory buildings on the outskirts of Gyumri accommodated around 60 families each. Today, there are just four families living here, among decaying walls and corridors.
PHOTO: MAXIMILIAN CONRADGreen monster. May 16, 2016, a tornado warned high precipitation supercell storm is rolling over the town of Stratford, Texas. Its structures and colour seem unreal and belong to the most dramatic I have ever witnessed in many years. I only had a few moments to find a decent spot to capture this amazing view. There was a bigger gap in the traffic along the highway so I had enough time to take a few photos. The image is a panorama of two images, further editing includes primarily colour and local contrast enhancements, highlight recovery, foreground brightened up, and adding vignette.
PHOTO: FRANCESCO RUSSOBeyond dreams. The plain of Castelluccio Landscape in flowering. Sibillini Mountains National Park, Italy.
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