SWNS is the UK’s largest independent press agency, and each year the SWNS newswire supplies websites, newspapers and magazines around the world with some of the most fascinating, captivating and powerful photographs you could ever hope to see. As usual, we are asking the public to vote for their favourite from a selection of the […]
SWNS is the UK’s largest independent press agency, and each year the SWNS newswire supplies websites, newspapers and magazines around the world with some of the most fascinating, captivating and powerful photographs you could ever hope to see.
As usual, we are asking the public to vote for their favourite from a selection of the 100 most captivating images, as chosen by the SWNS picture editors.
The image that appears to show waves in the shape of a sea monster, Seaham, County Durham, Dec 8, 2024. A photographer has captured a picture of stormy waves that look like a monster on Sunday (8 Dec). Martyn Dunbar braved the elements at Seaham Harbour in County Durham to shoot turbulent conditions caused by Storm Darragh. But it was only when he got home to review his pictures that he saw the otherworldly sight. Martyn, 51, said: “After walking down to the beach at Seaham Harbour, and tucking myself in behind a rock to shelter from the storm I started to take handheld images with my Nikon 4 and sigma sport 150-600mm. I spent half a hour capturing various images of the waves breaking next to the lighthouse. The conditions were absolutely dreadful. When I got them home and loaded them into Lightroom I adjusted the lights and shadows and denoised the image in DXO. I couldn’t believe the shape of the image I captured, it looked like a sea monster.” An online comment about the image read “sure does look like a dragon”.
SWNS Group Picture Editor Jon Mills said “We are very grateful to all the talented photographers who trust us with their pictures. A great news photograph can be many things, but its core quality is that it tells you a story that lives in your memory.”
“Many of the pictures in the following gallery are stunning images of this beautiful world, some show moments of intense emotion and others touch on the tragedy that is a very real part of our modern society. Together they represent a fraction of the stories we worked on this year but in our view they are the 100 most compelling images we’ve run on our service, as chosen by our picture editors.”
Vote for your favourites by visiting the gallery below, and ticking the heart icon next to each photo that you like; you can vote for more than one. The image that gets the most love will be crowned ‘SWNS Picture of the Year 2024’.
The Thermonator flamethrowing robot dog. A company have unveiled a robot dog companion – with flamethrower attached. Throwflame say the Thermonator is the first-ever flamethrowing quadruped robot dog. The Ohio-based firm have announced the $9,420 (£7,610) bot is available for purchase by the general public and government agencies for the first time. The Thermonator can be remotely operated by wifi or bluetooth to fire jets of fire up to 30ft. Able to avoid obstacles and leap through the air, the device has laser sighting and can operate for an hour.
