“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)

Visitors make snowmen beside a pool at a hot spring in Hangzhou, in China's eastern Zhejiang province on January 26, 2018. China's central and eastern regions have been hit by heavy snowfalls in recent days, causing disruptions to flight and train schedules. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Pigeons fly out from the mouth of a giant Buddha statue at Wat Nam Daeng Buddhist temple in Chachoengsao province, east of the Thai capital Bangkok, on October 11, 2020. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Keeper Silvia Salvatierra, 59, is kissed by a chimp named “Jony”, 54, who was rescued from a circus, at the Lujan Zoo from where felines, including tigers and lions, will be transferred to a wildlife sanctuary in India, in Lujan, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Agustin Marcarian/Reuters)

A woman reads a newspaper with a front-page report on the crash of the Iranian president's helicopter outside a kiosk in Tehran on May 20, 2024. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was declared dead on May 20 after rescue teams found his crashed helicopter in a fog-shrouded western mountain region, sparking mourning in the Islamic republic. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

An Asian elephant swims in a pool with transparent sides at Fuji Safari Park in Susono city of Shizuoka Prefecture on August 8, 2024. Paddling with chunky legs and using their trunks as a snorkel, the elephants at Fuji Safari Park in Japan are taking a dip in their summer swimming pool – with each graceful movement visible thanks to a special see-through tank. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP Photo)

Three members of English pop group The Tremeloes; Chip Hawkes, Alan Blakley and Dave Munden, kissing their brides; Carol Dilworth, Lyn Stevens and Andree Wittenberg, in Trafalgar Square, London. (Photo by Wesley/Getty Images). 1967

In one of the planet’s most desolate and harsh terrains, the Altai Mountains which run from Siberia in Russia down to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, hunting with eagles is currently only practiced by a handful of Kyrgyz and Kazakhs. This form of falconry, the practice of hunting with the aid of birds of prey, can be traced back as far as 4,000 years in Central Asia. Here: after a successful hunt, a proud hunter rewards his eagle by feeding it the lungs of the prey, which is considered the most highly prized part of the animal. (Photo by Tariq Zaidi/The Washington Post)