“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)

Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Hashed al- Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitaries hold a position near the village of Tal Abtah, south of Tal Afar, on November 30, 2016, during a broad offencive by Iraq forces to retake the city Mosul from Islamic State group jihadists. (Photo by Ahmad Al- Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Kite-surfers practice in a water reservoir at the shores of the Mediterranean sea close to the southern Israeli kibbutz of Ziqim during stormy weather, on December 20, 2021. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP Photo)

A woman reacts as she poses with a man dressed up as the Star Wars character Chewbacca outside the Dolby Theatre, the site of the 88th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 26, 2016. (Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters)

The Bondi Icerbergs Pool was converted into a giant esky ice chest during the filiming of a Jim Beam commercial at Bondi Icebergs on March 21, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Marianna Massey)

A storm whips through a tented area occupied by Nepalese earthquake survivors as a mother grabs her infant child and runs to find shelter in Kathmandu, Nepal 23 May 2015. Nepalese, who lost their homes in earthquake and fear aftershocks, have been living in temporary shelter in open ground which they had to flee because of the heavy rain and powerful wind. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

Activists from the climate action group Ocean Rebellion perform a stunt outside the Science Museum, in London, United Kingdom on May 19, 2021. (Photo by Hannah McKay/Reuters)

A statue of a Japanese Akita dog named “Hachiko” wearing a face mask is seen near Shibuya Station Wednesday, April 8, 2020, in Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for Tokyo and six other prefectures to ramp up defenses against the spread of the new coronavirus. Hachiko has waited for his owner University of Tokyo Prof. Eizaburo Ueno at the same place by the station every afternoon, expecting him to return home for nearly 11 years even after Ueno's death at work. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)