It's often said that pets and their owners can start to look alike, but these adorable photographs take the old mantra to a new extreme. They are the work of Svetlana Valyiskaya (27), from St Petersburg, who snaps pets in everyday poses in her spare time from her job as a commercial photographer. The vibrant costumes and scenes, which Svetlana designs herself, have made the photos a hit in her native Russia – and it's not hard to see why. She said: “I really love animals, they are loyal, faithful and true and always interesting to work with – plus they never criticise the photographs afterwards”. (Photo by Svetlana Valyiskaya/Mercury)

Most probably, every person who has read the Harry Potter books imagined themselves as a wizard. Wouldn’t it be cool to perform all sorts of magic or to whizz around on a broom? Well, actually, if you think about it, whizzing around on a broom might not be such a good idea after all… Just think of all the bugs you’re going to come across! Such an encounter might prove fatal for the bugs. However, you will most likely lose all your desire to ride the Nimbus 2000, once a few dozen bugs will smash into your face! (Photo by Halno)

An altar is pictured after it was decorated by the Antar family with some 3,000 traditional cheese and corn buns called “chipas”, in celebration of Kurusu Ara in Asuncion May 3, 2015. Kurusu Ara, the Day of the Cross, is a Catholic festival that is combined with local Gurani culture and falls annually on May 3. Paraguayans typically celebrate the festival with chipas, used to decorate religious shrines and altars. The chipas are later distributed to attendees. The buns at the top are arranged to read, “March 3 live”. (Photo by Jorge Adorno/Reuters)

Farhad Moshiri, an Iranian artist working a lot with carpet media using it as a mean to joke about consumerism culture, was one of the participants of the group show Love Me Love Me Not of Yarat! pavilion curate by Dina Nasser-Khadivi (read on her curating Lalla Essaydi's Harem here) at Venice 2013 Art Biennial. The installation consists of more than 500 carpets depicting celebrities-covered magazines from all over the world.

We all have our own ways of passing time on our daily commutes. Some people read, others try to sleep, and many listen to music or play on their phones. But one creative commuter has a simple and highly entertaining way that hopefully more people will embrace. By placing a face from a newspaper in front of a person at just the right angle, they transform other commuters into recognizable celebrities while keeping the unbeknownst participant obscured.

Meet Booboo, the 2-year-old guinea pig. Her hobbies included eating chicory and posing for pictures. Described optimistically as ‘spirited’ by owner Megan, she can generally be found knocking about with her guinea pig crew, Titi and Teddy. But don’t worry, these gangsta guineas are lovers not fighters (didn’t the chicory give you a clue?). In fact, they’re pretty cerebral, often to be found quietly reading a book, or staring contemplatively into the distance next to a sprig of lavender, that kind of thing.

As these Cafe Taina Coffee ads explicitly assert, there are "times when sleeping is not an option."
Executed by Giovanni + Draft FCB, this animated advertising campaign captures two situations in which awareness is of necessity: when you're trapped in a jail cell with a large creepy inmate, and when a fellow castaway is equally prepared to resort to cannibalism as you are. It's very lucky that the cartoon characters in the Cafe Taina Coffee ads had a bag of the grind handy, or one tired blink may have been their last.

While vacationing on the Maldives Islands, Taiwanese amateur photographer Will Ho stumbled onto an incredible stretch of beach covered in millions of bioluminescent phytoplankton. These tiny organisms glow similarly to fireflies and tend to emit light when stressed, such as when waves crash or when they are otherwise agitated. While the phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms have been known for some time, biologists have only recently began to understand the reasons behind it. Photo: Bioluminescent phytoplankton washes up on Maldives beach. (Photo by Will Ho)