Runners dressed in Christmas-themed outfits compete during a charity Santa run in Shanghai, China, November 29, 2015. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

New Jersey based artist, Joe Iurato creates art using hand-cut paper and spray paint to make small wood cutout figures and placed in public spaces. According to Iurato, “a puddle can become a lake, a small crack in a cement wall can become a magnificent climb, a planter box can become a place for a child to play, and a shadow might be a tangible space for a few seconds a day”. Photo: “Small World”. (Photo by Joe Lurato)

A) 1st place WINNER – Roy Rimmer. “This rat was in an outdoor set I made, the set up is two meters long and a meter wide made of Perspex,it has a plywood front with holes cut in for my camera and flash guns, I placed two rusty paint cans in the set up and the rat would leap from one can too the other, I had to use flash to freeze the action”.

Five-year-old Julian Becker and his 165 pound pet Newfoundland Max have been best buds around all their lives. To commemorate the friendship and to keep Julian's father, a Naval officer who is often away, in the loop, Julian's mom Stasha began taking photos. Photo: Hats off (or on) to Julian for sharing his blanket with his good buddy. Not that the furry beast needs it... (Photo by Stasha Becker/Rex Features)

This extraordinary series of close-up photos turns mundane insects into terrifying beasts from another world. The bugs are captured in intricate detail by photographer Javier Ruperez, using a special lens, revealing just how complex the tiny creatures are. (Photo by Javier Ruperez/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A seal playfully tries to bite the camera, taken on February 2016 in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. A group of friendly seals get up close and personal with the camera. The pod of brown fur seals, also known as “cape fur seals”, were shot in Plettenberg Bay in South Africa by dive tour operator Rainer Schimpf. The playful creatures prove they are not camera shy in the slightest as they they swim upside down, grin widely and attempt to bite the camera lens. (Photo by Rainer Schimpf/Barcroft Media)

For more than 2,000 years, women from the Baiga tribe in the highland district of Dindori, in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, have been tattooed. Sumintra, 25, from Bona village, has the markings across her forehead, legs and arms. The women who work as tattoo artists are knowledgable about the different types of designs and pigments preferred by various tribes, and their meanings are passed to them by their mothers. The tattooing ‘season’ begins with the approach of winter. (Photo by Ronny Sen/WaterAid/The Guardian)