This was the first year of the Royal Society Publishing photography competition, a competition meant to “celebrate the power of photography to communicate science”. The competition is sponsored by Proceedings of the Royal Society B and Biology Letters and honors the 350th anniversary of the scientific journal.

The winning photo, Tadpoles overhead by Bert Willaert, is an underwater photograph of tadpoles in the clear water of a Belgium canal.

Images that placed and received special awards will be on display on November 26 at the Royal Society in a show titled Life through a Lens.