Children hitch a ride with a passing tram in Dnipro, Ukraine on March 19, 2024. (Photo by Jack Hill/The Times)

It's often said that pets and their owners can start to look alike, but these adorable photographs take the old mantra to a new extreme. They are the work of Svetlana Valyiskaya (27), from St Petersburg, who snaps pets in everyday poses in her spare time from her job as a commercial photographer. The vibrant costumes and scenes, which Svetlana designs herself, have made the photos a hit in her native Russia – and it's not hard to see why. She said: “I really love animals, they are loyal, faithful and true and always interesting to work with – plus they never criticise the photographs afterwards”. (Photo by Svetlana Valyiskaya/Mercury)

A girl holds up a photo of Pope Benedict XVI which reads “tear his face” during a protest against the World Youth Day 2011 celebrations taking place on August 17, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. Initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985, World Youth Day youth-oriented events for the celebration of the Catholic faith are held every three years in a different country; this time in Madrid from August 16 – 21, with Pope Benedict XVI in attendance. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

A follower of the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda pays tribute for Iemanja, goddess of the sea, in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil December 29, 2017. Hundreds of practitioners of Brazil's Afro-Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda faiths have gathered at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach to honor Yemanja. Worshippers were mostly dressed in white as they launched their offerings to Iemanja: small boats with flowers and bowls with candles and fruits. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

“My goal was to capture the image of a storm that emulated an atomic explosion”, Dobrowner says of this picture. Here: “Monsoon”, Lordsburg, N.M., 2010. (Photo by Roger Hill)

Paint-splattered revellers take a break at the Notting Hill carnival in West London in the last decade of August 2022. (Photo by Andy Hall/The Observer)

A woman pours alcohol from the bottle into her mouth at the Far Hills Race Day at Moorland Farms in Far Hills, New Jersey, October 17, 2015. Young locals in New Jersey catch up with friends from school and college days at the Far Hills Race Day, which started as a fox-hunting event in the early 1900s. Many racegoers first went to the Hunt, as it's known locally, as children, but nowadays it's an alcohol-fuelled party for them. Makeshift bars are set up in cars, with the horses' efforts on the turf sometimes a backdrop to the main event. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters)

Boozed up revellers dressed up in fluorescent colours during the opening day of the 2019 Notting Hill Carnival on August 25, 2019 in London, England. Up to a million people are expected to pack the streets of Notting Hill and surrounding areas over the course of the two day event. The annual celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture takes place each August bank holiday weekend. (Photo by London News Pictures)