An elephant in Amboseli National Park in Kenya, June 2021. Gurcharan Roopra, 42, a Nairobi-born engineer-turned-wildlife photographer, has dedicated the past four years of his career to photographing these animals. He spends hours in his workshop camouflaging and encasing his equipment with protective gear before laying his camera in the path of lions, elephants, rhino, zebra and buffalo. (Photo by Gurcharan Roopra/Mercury Press)

A man rides a bicycle past a mural portraying Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and slogans to encourage people to cast their vote, in Jalandhar on May 10, 2024 ahead of the fourth phase of voting of India's general election. (Photo by Shammi Mehra/AFP Photo)

A “Rhino Beetle” (Oryctes nasicornis) is seen in Edremit, Van, Turkiye on August 2, 2024. Named “Rhino Beetle” due to the horn on its head, this beetle is commonly found in moist areas across Europe and Turkiye. (Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

The shoemaker in Turkey, the potato seller in Vietnam, and the weaver in Bolivia are among the billions of low-income entrepreneurs who make the world go round. They are also the type of people who can benefit significantly from microfinance. Every year, the Consultative Group To Assist The Poor (or CGAP) hosts a photo contest asking entrants to submit photos based around the idea of microfinance.The purpose of the contest is to give amateur and professional photographers a chance to show the different ways that poor households manage their financial lives and make their lives better through financial inclusion. Photo: South Asia Regional Winner – “Bricks Worker”, Bangladesh. A private enterprise worker is working at a brick field. These small businesses are creating new job opportunities for many poor people. (Photo by Moksumul Haque)

“Double head vulture”. On the day of windy days during raptors migration some people in my country start to catch these tired raptors, so in this day we go to photograph some raptors and we saw these tow tired vultures, so we start to drag them away from the hunters until they reach a good hidden place, to make them safe until they start a new journey. Photo location: Kuwait. (Photo and caption by Mohd Khorshed/National Geographic Photo Contest)

In this September 17, 2010 file photo a little brown bat is photographed in La Crosse Wis. Researchers for the first time found that little brown bats appear to be showing resistance to white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America. (Photo by Peter Thomson/La Crosse Tribune via AP Photo)

A cleaning staff waers protective gear to disinfect a metro carriage as a prevemtive measure against the spreading of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 20, 2020. African countries have been among the last to be hit by the global COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic but as cases rise, many nations are now taking strict measures to block the deadly illness. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/AFP Photo)