Brad Snead walks past melting ice on the Cook Inlet beach, Saturday, March 26, 2011, in Kenai, Alaska, while looking for agates. (AP Photo/Peninsula Clarion, M. Scott Moon)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

People board a train at the West Railway Station on January 7, 2012 in Beijing, China. China's railways are bracing themselves as millions of migrant labourers are set to leave cities for their native villages to celebrate the Chinese New Year. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

People ride a Ferris wheel as fireworks illuminate the sky over Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by David Cheskin/Press Association)

German field telegraph operators at work in Warsaw. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1st October 1914

Russian soldiers write home while serving on the Eastern Front during World War I, circa 1915. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A surfer heads out at Coldingham Bay an inlet in the North Sea on February 15, 2012 in Coldingham, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)