Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)

“Creepy crawlies have become stunning examples of the natural world in these incredible close-up pictures. Photographer Kutub Uddin, 28, snapped the tiny creatures in a forest near his home of Bognor Regis over the course of the summer. Taken in close-up using special macro lenses and filters, he managed to turn house flies, damsel flies and wasps into gorgeous jeweled works of art. Kutub said: “I found the bugs in the forest near where I live when I was taking pictures”. – Cater News

The combination of two different drawing styles in one picture never ceases to amaze us. The works of Allison Kunath are a vivid example of this technique. The background of her pictures is drawn using watercolors, while the actual image is broken down into rough geometrical shapes. This creates a very striking contrast, thanks to black, bold lines of the image on the forefront drawn over soft, cloudy shades of color. The skill of Allison is clearly seen in the way she manages to draw something as amorphous as a squid without making any curved lines. (Photo by Allison Kunath)

Stunning silhouettes under European cities reveal the size and splendor of the continent’s urban foundations. Photographer and content-manager Anna Arinova, 28, from Moscow, captured the awe-inspiring labyrinths in Russia and Germany. Here: Regenwurmlager, Poland. The Regenwurmlager is an extensive underground fortification area constructed by Germany in 1920s-1940s, now in western Poland, near the city of Międzyrzecz. (Photo by Anna Arinova/Caters News)

The mystifying flow of motion. We can rarely appreciate its beauty. Though there are ways to capture it on film, allowing us to marvel at its complexity. Stephen Orlando is a photographer who takes pleasure highlighting the magnificence of aquatic sports by using the brilliance of light. The beauty of the images that he creates comes not only from the composition of the photo, but also from the way Stephen managed to show the color transitions between each stroke of the kayaker. Even the rapids do not stand in the way of the marvelous dance of light. (Photo by Stephen Orlando)

Taken by photographer, Denis Budkov, 33, the Plosky Tolbachik is one of a cluster of volcanoes located in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia. After taking a lucky group of tourists to the crater of the flat volcano, the Russian photographer managed to get less than 300 metres away from the spurting jets of lava. Photo: The underground entrance to the volcano resembles a scene from the latest Hobbit movie. (Photo by Denis Budkov/Caters News)

Street artist Juandres Vera puts the finishing touches to a giant 3d pavement mural of The Beatles on September 23, 2011 in Liverpool, England. The giant 24m long by 6m wide work, entitled “XXL Liverpool” has been commissioned to celebrate the dual 50th anniversary of The Beatles first gig at The Cavern Club and meeting their manager Brian Epstein. The Beatles drawing kicks off The James Carling International Pavement Art Competition which starts on Sunday and will feature more than 50 of the world's best pavement artists (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Hisakata Hiroyuki, a talented photographer from Japan, has managed to snap a group of mortal tomcats in a variety of high-flying kung fu poses. Using his own rapid-fire reactions, he photographs the lovable cats flying through the air, their legs and paws outstretched, like something out of an action movie. (Photo by Hisakata Hiroyuki/Caters News Agency)