“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)

U.S. Air Force wounded warrior, Capt. Sarah Evans, jumps rope in a gym in San Antonio, Texas. Evans was diagnosed with cancer while deployed to Afghanistan and was medically evacuated back to the United States where her leg was amputated. (Photo by Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen/U.S. Air Force)

A sign that reads “No more massacres LGBT” is seen to remember the victims of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, near the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, June 14, 2016. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

Children wearing cardboard lion dance masks walk along a street in Beijing on January 13, 2023. China has announced its first overall population decline in recent years amid an aging society and plunging birthrate. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

This photo provided April 14, 2023, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, inspects what it says is the test-launch of Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday, April 13, 2023 at an undisclosed location, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Photo by Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Photo)

Prints of R$ 50 Brazilian reais bills sit on a table for inspection at at the Casa da Moeda, the national mint, in the Santa Cruz suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, March 5, 2013. Brazil is likely to keep its key interest rate at a record low for the third straight meeting, as policy makers are caught between a fragile economic recovery and faster-than-expected inflation. (Photo by Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg)

A young festivalgoer jumps to burst a bubble at Latitude Festival at Henham Park, Britain, July 22, 2021. (Photo by Peter Cziborra/Reuters)

Hamish the polar bear tries out his new enclosure at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park at Branton, Doncaster on November 6, 2020, after moving from the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland. Hamish was the first polar bear to be born in the UK. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Wire Press Association)