“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)

Vincent Yu is a multiple award winner who won Honorable Mention in the 2013 Photographer of the Year category for Pictures of the Year International. Photo: A statue of Hotei Buddha sits in the debris in the tsunami-destroyed town of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan Friday, April 1, 2011. (Photo by Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

A dog, at the behest of his owner, rides a skatebaord on April 3, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. The dog's owner, who looked like he might be homeless, coaxed the dog to ride the skatebaord and asked passersby who stopped to watch for money. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Revelers dance at the Old Settler's Music Festival in Driftwood, Texas, U.S. on April 22, 2017. (Photo by Mohammad Khursheed/Reuters)

A fisherman carries his catch to sell on the beach in Libreville, Gabon, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Mike Hutchings/Reuters)

Hindu women perform a ritual known as Aarti around a Shivling (a symbol of Lord Shiva) on the last day of Jaya Parvati Vrat festival in Ahmedabad, India, July 10, 2017. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

A member of Venezuelan brotherhood “Dancing Devils” wears a horse mask while his nephew looks at him during their annual Corpus Christi celebration with a call for the end of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Naiguata, Venezuela on June 3, 2021. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)

Nefertara, a supporter of pop star Britney Spears, wears an outfit inspired by the singer as she holds a picture of Britney that she painted, during a gathering on the day of a conservatorship case hearing at Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 29, 2021. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)