“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)

To mark Halloween, 150 teens descended upon a swimming pool in Essex to help mobile network giffgaff recreate the famous Tomatina tomato fight... only this time, with blood and guts. Different takes #giffgaffguts. On October 18, 2013 in Dagenham, England. (Photo by Dave J. Hogan/Stringer for giffgaff)

“Reem Riyashi (1982 – 14 January 2004) was a Palestinian mother of two from Gaza City who killed herself and four Israelis at the Erez crossing on January 14, 2004 in a suicide bombing attack. Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed that the attack by Riyashi was a joint operation mounted as a response to weeks of Israeli incursions into West Bank cities that had left about 25 Palestinians dead”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Reem Saleh Al-Riyashi, the first woman suicide bomber from Hamas, is shown with her daughter, Duha, in the Gaza Strip. She was married and the mother of two young children. (Photo by Getty Images)

A competitor scrambles in the mud under barbed wire during the Tough Guy Challenge 2009 at South Perton Farm on February 1, 2009 in Wolverhampton, England. The biannual event to raise cash for charity challenges thousands of international competitors to run through a gruelling set of 21 obstacles including water, fire and tunnels after a lengthy run at the start. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Men wear masks as they sit in the metro in Prague, Czech Republic, 17 March 2020. According to media reports, the Czech government decided to impose a two-week quarantine in the country on the evening of 15 March, and ban all international travel from 16 March 2020. Currently 383 cases of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the Covid-19 disease, have been officially confirmed in Czech Republic. (Photo by Martin Divisek/EPA/EFE)

A Chinese tourist visits the Mutianyu Great Wall covered in snow on February 23, 2021 in Beijing, China. Affected by the new coronavirus (COVID-19), the number of visitors to Mutianyu Great Wall in 2020 dropped by about 60%. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

A health worker gives a polio vaccine to a girl on a street in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, June 27, 2022. Pakistan launched a new anti-polio drive on Monday, with the goal to vaccinate a million children across Pakistan. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

A child points a water pistol at a statue of Russian President Vladimir Putin riding a tank by French artist James Colomina in a playground in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., August 2, 2022. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)