A man set wood on fire to prepare for worshippers to walk barefoot over burning coals during the Nine Emperor Gods festival at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, October 7, 2024. (Photo by Vincent Thian/AP Photo)

An ethnic Lisu man dances barefoot on hot charcoal embers to celebrate the annual Knife Pole Festival in Luzhang township of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province, China, March 29, 2018. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

People visit an art installation “Alley of Flying Umbrellas” in central St. Petersburg, Russia, May 15, 2015. Art installation inspired by “Umbrella Sky Project” of Portuguese town of Agueda and was made of 500 colored umbrellas. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA)

An airplane house is pictured in the village of Miziara, northern Lebanon May 12, 2015. Miziara prides itself on building residential homes that resemble ancient Greek temples and Egyptian ruins, one is even built in the shape of an Airbus A380. (Photo by Aziz Taher/Reuters)

Potters colour earthen lamps at a workshop ahead of the Hindu festival of Diwali in Amritsar October 15, 2014. Earthen lamps are sold in large numbers during Diwali, the annual Hindu festival of lights, as people use them to decorate their homes. (Photo by Munish Sharma/Reuters)

A Santa Claus puppet holding a Christmas tree is pictured against the sun in Berlin November 23, 2014. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

David Guttenfelder was born in Iowa and graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in cultural anthropology. He has worked for the AP since 1994 based in Kenya, the Ivory Coast, India and Japan. He is currently AP’s chief Asia photographer and his feature work has been used prominently in editorial publications throughout the world including Time and National Geographic. Photo: U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, fire mortars at known enemy firing positions from a base in the Pech River Valley in Afghanistan's Kunar province, Saturday, October 24, 2009. (Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP Photo)

Marine biologist Simon Pierce, who studies whale sharks, happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture amazing photo off Cancun, Mexico. (Photo by Simon Pierce/Mercury Press/Caters News)