These heartbreaking photo show a confused family of elephants attempting to navigate a railway line built straight through their habitat on October 16, 2012. Taken by Biplab Hazra in Bishnupur, India, the images show the extreme lengths the inhabitants of the town go to to deter elephants from damaging their crops and property. As the images show, villagers often resort to extreme tactics in an effort to drive the elephants out with one shocking photograph revealing firebombs being launched at a mother and calf as they cross the road. Elephants encroaching out of their habitats is an increasingly common occurrence with deforestation in much of India. (Photo by Biplab Hazra/Caters News Agency)

As you look at the set of pictures created by Tom Kondrat during his travels in Iceland, the first thing that comes to mind is the word “loneliness.” These pictures lead you to believe that Iceland is a desolate expanse of icy wasteland. You can almost imagine the strong wind howling in your ears, as it chills you straight to the bone. And as you’re walking down so beaten path, you’re all alone, with not a human soul for miles in any direction. This may prove unbearable for some, yet others find comfort in such places. With no one there to bother them and distract them from their thoughts, they can finally be at peace. (Photo by Tom Kondrat)

“I bought my first dlsr camera in 2009 may. The first part of my life is gone but the other i dedicate to photography. If i try to imagine myself, i saw someone on the road, who walking straight to the light. This kind of light is the photography and the post-processing in my life. My pictures express the feelings, moods what i felt under my trip in the last few years”. – Ildiko Neer

Photo: “Path to the shine”, 2011. (Photo by Ildiko Neer)

These are the amazing panoramic photographs that look like little planets. They were taken by photographer Dan Arkle, 34, from Sheffield, UK. He said: “On a sharp summit, you feel literally on top of the world, with dramatic views in all directions, including straight down. I tried using conventional photography to capture this feeling, but even with a wide angle lens I couldnt get all the view in the image”. Here: “Taken at the tiny summit of Cima Piccola in the the Tre Cima group in the Dolomites, Italy. The large peak is Cima Grande Some remote peaks have a summit register, and my climbing partner Steve can be seen signing this in the bottom of the picture”. (“Little Planets” Project. Photo and comment by Dan Arkle)

In this Monday, July 20, 2015 photo, Bill Lattin, the Southern California Timing Association president and Speed Week race director, stands in the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. A small city of tents, trailers and thousands of visitors appears almost every August in the Utah desert to watch cars, motorcycles and anything with wheels rocket across gleaming white sheets of salt at speeds of 400 mph. But wet weather has forced the cancellation of Speed Week for the second straight year and revived a debate about whether nearby mining is depleting the Bonneville Salt Flats of their precious resource. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

Artists perform during a “Yandu Story” Show performance, in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China, 20 September 2022. The story dates back to some 100 years when – according to the organizers – two prominent local families, Gu and Ling, were committed to get out of a predicament, but parted due to different development concepts and ended in a turmoil. The large-scale immersive series of performances took more than a year of careful planning and consists of two parts: a daytime performance and a 90-minute night performance, they added. (Photo by Alex Plavevski/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Nature – first prize, stories. Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story. The photographer’s daughter, Merel, cowers after Dollie flies past and perches on the balcony before entering the house in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands on 6 April 2020. “She’s still frightened when Dollie suddenly lands on the balcony railing. I hide my smile behind the camera, as I try to comfort her by saying they won’t hurt you. “I thought he was going to attack me”, she replies. As the nesting pigeons keep coming back to our place, slowly my girls have started to appreciate them – perhaps not as much as I do, but it’s a start”. (Photo by Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2021)