The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)

A pregnant woman poses on June 19, 2018 in Vertou, western France. France had an estimated population of 68.4 million by January 1, 2024, representing a further year-on-year increase of 0.3 percent, limited by a marked drop in the birth rate, the INSEE national statistics bureau of France reported on January 16, 2024. In 2023, 678,000 babies were born in France, 6.6 percent fewer than the previous year, the lowest number of births in any year since 1946. Over the same period, there were 631,000 deaths, down 6.5 percent on 2022, a year marked by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and episodes of extreme heat. (Photo by Loic Venance/AFP Photo)

«Mignon 2». A.E.G., Berlin, Germany, 1905. Despite its unusual appearance, the Mignon typewriter is of a very clever design, giving a smooth and fast operation for typing. (Photo and caption by Martin Howard/Martin Howard Collection)

A rose lies on a plastic sheet covering a victim of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 plane which was downed on Thursday near the village of Rozsypne, in the Donetsk region July 18, 2014. International prosecutors investigating the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 say the missile that hit the plane was fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed rebels. They said the missile launcher was brought into Ukraine from Russia. All 298 people on board the Boeing 777 died when it broke apart in midair flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The JIT investigation's findings are meant to prepare the ground for a criminal trial. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)

Russia's Darya Klishina prepares for the women's long jump qualification during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, August 16, 2016. She might be feeling the pressure of being all alone, but Darya Klishina could yet still win Russia's only athletics medal at the Rio 2016 Games. (Photo by Matt Dunham/AP Photo)

Israeli soldiers play the parts of wounded civilians during a drill simulating a toxic spill from an attack on a train in Beersheba, southern Israel, 13 January 2016, as Home Front medical teams, fire fighters and police carry out rescue operations. The large scale drill is the concluding exercise of the Fourth International Conference on Healthcare System Preparedness and Response to Emergencies and Disasters and includes some 200 of the world's experts on health system readiness from around the world. The conference is dealing with all types of medical emergencies from terrorist attacks to natural disasters. (Photo by Jim Hollander/EPA)

People sit on a cart with a camel tied to it during “Temeenii bayar”, the Camel Festival, in Dalanzadgad, Umnugobi aimag, Mongolia, March 6, 2016. On the steppes of the Gobi Desert, the crowd urges on Bactrian camels laden down with all that's needed to build and live in a traditional Mongolian tent. Guinness World Records classes the 15 km race thatÕs part of the two-day festival as the largest camel race in the world, drawing 1,108 participants. The winning camel romped home in 35 minutes and 12 seconds, according to the records website. (Photo by B. Rentsendorj/Reuters)

Have you ever tried painting with light? Yes, you’ve heard us right. It is not a figure of speech, and it is actually possible to draw with light if you have a good camera and a tripod. All you have to do is to set your camera on a tripod in a dark place (preferably at night in some park), set exposure time to the max, turn on a single bright light (the screen of your mobile phone will do), and you can start painting. Darren Pearson is a photographer who specializes in making such drawings. The level of intricacy with which he creates his paintings is astounding, considering the fact that making such a drawing is like painting with a blindfold on.