2013 World Photography Awards: And the FINALISTS are...

The London-based World Photography Organisation recently announced the final shortlists for the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards. The prestigious annual awards contest, judged in six different categories (like Professional, Open, Youth, etc), saw more than 122,000 entries from 170 countries this year -- the highest number of entries to date. The winners are scheduled to be announced in March and April, 2013.

In this second part of a series, we present some of the final shortlists in the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards in the 'Open' category. The photographs are published with permission from the organisers.

See Part 1: 2013 World Photo Awards: STUNNERS from the pros

In this photograph, 14 giraffes are seen fleeing after spotting lions in hunting mode in South Africa.

Photographer's name: Frederick van Heerden, South Africa, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards

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The photographer says, "All my high speed pictures are single shots without any Photoshop manipulation. I only adjust the levels of contrast. Some little sprinkles are cleaned with PS. That's all the processing."

Photographer's name: Markus Reugels, Germany, 2013 World Photography Awards

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Portrait of Elisabetta.

Photographer's name: Paolo Mezzera, Italy, 2013 World Photography Awards

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Milky Way, looking like a giant tree atop the mountain near Ush Konyr plateau, Kazakhstan.

Photographer's name: Elmar Akhmetov, Kazakhstan, 2013 World Photography Awards

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Holi -- the festival of colors -- is undoubtedly the most fun-filled and boisterous of Hindu festivals. It's an occasion that brings in unadulterated joy and mirth, fun and play, music and dance, and, of course, lots of bright colours!

Photographer's name: Anurag Kumar, India, 2013 World Photography Awards

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A view from Sczeliniec to Owls Mountains and Klodzko valley, Poland.

Photographer's name: Pawel Uchorczak, Poland, 2013 World Photography Awards

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Monks look up at the magnificent night sky filled with thousands of lanterns in awe, during the famous Yi Peng lantern festival in Thailand.

Photographer's name: Ng Chai Hock, Singapore, 2013 World Photography Awards

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The photographer says, "I was hanging around the Jaipur's suburbia when I noticed a cloud of birds in the air. I've just instinctively released the shutter. Soul of Sir Hitchcock lives here I thought."

Photographer's name: Maciej Makowski, Poland, 2013 World Photography Awards

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This lady makes small handcrafted objects at Paraty, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The smile of pleasure and a certain shyness that she expressed doing this little straw chicken caught my attention.

Photographer's name: Paulo Mittelman, Brazil, 2013 World Photography Awards

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The southern winter sky shows off its best in this 240 degree view of the Milky Way behind the Quiver Tree Forest near Keetmanshoop, Namibia. Both Magellanic clouds are visible on the left, while the central bulge of our own galaxy contrasts with the warm glow of light pollution from the nearby town.

Photographer's name: Florian Breuer, South Africa, 2013 World Photography Awards

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Two homeless street children were playing in the smoke created from burnt straws at Chittagong, Bangladesh. Suddenly dense smoke covered them and they were trying to protect themselves and escape.

Photographer's name: Kazi Riasat Alve, Bangladesh, 2013 World Photography Awards

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"Of the Tiger and Turtle" in Duisburg, Germany, is a work of art on an industrial landmark. In the background you can see a steel mill.

Photographer's name: Peter Mysticdidge Plorin, Germany, 2013 World Photography Awards

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The last pollen spore preparing to leave a ladybird trying to hold on, because it doesn't want to be alone.

Photographer's name: Hoang Hiep Nguyen, Vietnam, 2013 World Photography Awards

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Underground Station in Stockholm.

Photographer's name: Torsten Muehlbacher, Austria, 2013 World Photography Awards

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Little girl of Turtuk Village, Nubra Valley, Ladakh, India.

Photographer's name: Sandipan Mukherjee, India, 2013 World Photography Awards

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The calm of both human and animal. The photographer says, "The things we miss as we are preparing. My partner was getting her flippers on and I was already prepared and ready to get in, so I swam out to see if I could get this shot. I could have never imagined that in a million years I would have a turtle just cruising by at the moment I stuck my head under. How blessed".

Photographer's name: Nathan Wills, Australia, 2013 World Photography Awards

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