A house burns as the Butte fire rages through Mountain Ranch, California September 11, 2015. Evacuation orders were expanded to thousands of homes in northern California's Sierras on Friday as the rapidly spreading wildfire roared for a third day through drought-parched timber and brush, threatening mountain communities. (Photo by Noah Berger/Reuters)

More than 1,500 snappers submitted their most hilarious pictures of all creatures great and small, and now 45 have made the cut. From drunken-eyed owls to embarrassed chipmunks and laughing goats – the finalists in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are guaranteed to raise a smile. Here: 'Dancing sifaka'. (Photo by Alison Buttigieg/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards/Mercury Press)

In this October 18, 2015 photo, contestant Carlos Angevil, Miss Gay Vargas, competes in the swimsuit category of the ninth annual Miss Gay Venezuela beauty pageant in Caracas, Venezuela. Miss Gay Venezuela requires contestants be younger than 37 and be at least 1.7 meters (5' 6" feet) tall. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

A man carries the body of his son for burial after he was killed when a rooftop of his house collapsed due to heavy rain in the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan April 27, 2015. A severe storm in northwest Pakistan, dubbed a “mini-cyclone”, has killed 44 people and injured more than 200, officials said, raising their previous death toll. (Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)

In time for Halloween the Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, creative art studio, held the Cotton Candy Machine workshop in Brooklyn, N.Y., demonstrating techniques and tools to create intricate pumpkin art. Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, which focuses on elevating the art of pumpkin carving, were a past winner of the Food Network's Halloween Wars. Their work has been displayed at MOMA, the Whitney Museum and Yankee Stadium. Here: A Tara Bonethrower pumpkin created by the Maniac Pumpkin Carvers at Cotton Candy Machine in Brooklyn, N.Y. on October 18, 2014. (Photo by Siemond Chan/Yahoo Finance)

A detained protester escapes from a police truck after riot police released teargas to disperse the #OccupyHarambeeAve demonstration in Kenya's capital Nairobi November 25, 2014. Kenyan police used teargas to disperse demonstrators shouting “President, Stop the killings!” outside President Uhuru Kenyatta's offices on Tuesday, in the protest over 28 people killed in a weekend attack claimed by Islamist militants. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

A policewoman tries to stop an anti-Occupy protester from breaking a police cordon to charge at pro-democracy protesters during a confrontation in Hong Kong October 13, 2014. Hundreds of unidentified people, some wearing masks, tried to break down protest barriers in the heart of Hong Kong's business district on Monday, scuffling with protesters who have occupied the streets for the past two weeks. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.