2017 Sony World Photography Best Photos Will Take Your Breath Away

It's that time of the year again when Sony announces the shortlist of the best photos competing in the biggest photography contest in the world. As always, these include best shots not only by professionals but by amateur photographers as well.

It's the tenth Sony World Photography Awards and this year it managed to outpace the record-breaking last year's event and gathered photographers from 49 countries; with the shortlist being drawn from 227,596 images, entered from 183 countries, including – for the first time – Armenia, Cuba, Iceland, and Saudi Arabia.

The winning photographers will be announced on 20 April, with the overall Photographer of the Year scooping a $25,000 cash prize plus some goodies from Sony.

Diamond-Dust. This picture was taken in February in Nagano-ken at an altitude of about 1,700 meters. 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.