A gaggle of goslings huddle together under the protective wing of a parent along the bank of the Deschutes River as a heavy downpour passes through Bend, Oregon, late Wednesday, April, 20, 2106 afternoon. (Photo by Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin via AP Photo)

The pictures made by Elizabeth Gadd are so beautiful, tranquil, and mesmerizing, that they wash over your soul in a wave of sadness. The same sadness that you feel when hearing a wonderful piece of music. The same sadness that enters your soul when you worry to death about your loved one, but everything turns out to be just fine. These aren’t just pictures… The pieces of art that Elizabeth, a 21-year-old self-taught photographer makes, are windows into fairytales; portals into other dimensions. Works so surreal, that it makes you wonder if the scenes that you are seeing were actually shot on this planet; that they are not figments of Beth’s imagination. (Photo by Elizabeth Gadd)

“The Net thrower”. The fisherman are conducting activities on Situgunung Lake. Photo location: Situgunung lake, Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia. (Photo and caption by Dody Kusuma/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A 15-year-old girl denied a horse from her parents has turned to a cow to fulfil her riding dreams. Teenager Regina Mayer, from southern Germany, is able to ride her cow, Luna. She has even trained her bovine pet to soar over a beer-crate hurdle like a regular show jumper. Why, you may well ask, when most cow-owners are surely content to let the creatures chew and lactate and sit down to indicate the imminent arrival of rain? Well, Regina's parents wouldn't let her have a horse.

Young Legong dancer portrait, Ubud, Bali on October 25, 2023. While the childrens' parents are out working, in pursuits including farming, fishing and clothes making, their offspring spend the long sunny days making their own fun, and as these pictures show not a minute is wasted. (Photo by David Lazar/Animal News Agency)

Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator’s Lower College Lawn in Scotland on October 21, 2019. The messy display is the culmination of a weekend of festivities where first years say thank you to their more senior student “parents” for mentoring them. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)

A worker shows crayfish during an event celebrating the harvest season of crayfish in Xuyi County of Huai'an, east China's Jiangsu Province on May 18, 2022. Crayfish is one of the renowned specialties in Xuyi County. (Photo by Li Bo/Xinhua/Alamy Live News)

A general view of the landslide-hit Miancu Village on July 3, 2011 in Maixian County, Sichuan Province of China. Eight people are still missing after a dormitory building of a chemical plant was hit by a rain-triggered mudslide in Maoxian County on Sunday morning. Rescue efforts are underway. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)