Clash of the storms, New Mexico, US by Camelia Czuchnicki. “A clash between two storm cells in New Mexico, US, each with its own rotating updraft. The curved striations of the oldest noticeable against the new bubbling convection of the newer. It was a fantastic sight to watch and it’s the rarity of such scenes that keep drawing me back to the US Plains each year”. (Photo by Camelia Czuchnicki/Weather Photographer of the Year 2016)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

In this photo taken on Friday, July 14, 2017, a student at a paramilitary camp for children calls the rank to attention outside Kiev, Ukraine. As the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine entered its third year, some parents in Ukraine are anxious to make sure their children are ready to fight it, instead of swimming and playing volleyball. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez, right, and Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach wait for the announcer to name the new Miss Universe at the Miss Universe pageant on Sunday, December 20, 2015, in Las Vegas. Gutierrez was incorrectly crowned before Wurtzbach was named Miss Universe. (Photo by John Locher/AP Photo)

There are many types of collections. Some are formed by purposefully collecting certain objects, such as stamps or coins. However, some collections are only a byproduct of an obsession, a quirk of mind. For example, Paul Brockmann got into the habit of buying his girlfriend and later his wife a dress every time they went ballroom dancing. It might seem excessive to some, but it was his way of showing his affection. Overtime, this collection grew to be enormous, counting 55,000 dresses in total. Basic math tells us that either they went ballroom dancing three times per day for every day of their lives, or he bought them in huge bundles every time.

Young Haitian migrants hang out in the Batey La Lima community, an impoverished community surrounded by a massive sugarcane plantation in the coastal city of La Romana, Dominican Republic, Wednesday, November 17, 2021. As the rest of the world closes its doors to Haitian migrants, the country that shares an island with Haiti also is cracking down in a way that human rights activists say hasn’t been seen in decades. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

A Russian Orthodox believers dips in the icy water during a traditional Epiphany celebration in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, January 19, 2022. Thousands of Russian Orthodox Church followers plunged into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark Epiphany, cleansing themselves with water deemed holy for the day. The temperature in St. Petersburg is –1C (30F). (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Performers during the New Year's Day Parade in London on Monday, January 1, 2024. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)