“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)

A fantasy figure promotes a video game at the Gamescom computer gaming fair in Cologne, Germany, Thursday, August 25, 2022. Around 1,100 exhibitors from 53 countries expect tens of thousands gaming enthusiast daily for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic at the world's largest gaming event. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

A reveller surfs on top of the crowd during the Wacken Open Air 2022 heavy metal festival in Wacken, Germany on August 4, 2022. (Photo by Thilo Schmuelgen/Reuters)

Shortlisted: The Life: A narrow strip, Río Tinto, Huelva, Spain. A narrow strip of road divides ochre-coloured and fresh waters. Trees wait on the fresh side of the road opposite the toxic waters of a nearby mine reservoir. (Photo by Roberto Bueno/CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2021)

Raquel Poti poses for photographers during the “Amigos da Onça” street party on the second day of Carnival on February 10, 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Cave Diver, Anhumas Abyss, Bonito, Brazil: The Anhumas Abyss is an underground cavern with a crystal-clear lake below, more than 260 feet (79 m) deep. A visitor must enter through a narrow opening at the top of the chamber and rappel into the cave. Snorkeling and scuba diving in the lake reveal amazing scenery. Distinctive, conical limestone stalagmites and stalactites occupy the lake and the surrounding area, some reaching 65 feet (20 m) high. (Photo by Marcio Cabral/Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2017)

The first four finalists are selected during the 66th Miss Universe pageant at Planet Hollywood hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 26, 2017. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Reuters)

A local farmer Theophilus Mwendwa runs through a swarm of desert locusts to chase them away in the bush near Enziu, Kitui County, some 200km east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya, 24 January 2020. Large swarms of desert locusts have been invading Kenya for weeks, after having infested some 70 thousand hectares of land in Somalia which the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has termed the “worst situation in 25 years” in the Horn of Africa. FAO cautioned that it poses an “unprecedented threat” to food security and livelihoods in the region. (Photo by Dai Kurokawa/EPA/EFE)