“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)

Yu Jietao, 26-year-old wood carver, sits in his homemade wooden car along a street in Guangfeng county of Shangrao, Jiangxi province, China February 9, 2015. The car can travel as fast as 30 km (18.6 miles) per hour, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A girl gets her hands decorated with traditional henna patterns at a roadside stall ahead of Eid-al Fitr to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Karachi, Pakistan, July 17, 2015. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Hindu devotees sit for prayer with burning incense and light oil lamps during the Rakher Upobash, a religious fasting festival, at a temple in Narayanganj district on the outskirts of Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, on November 7, 2020. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Pakistani passengers ride on crowded train returning from their hometown and villages after celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday to mark the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, to Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, July 11, 2016. (Photo by K.M.Chaudary/AP Photo)

Men make sweets at a small traditional factory in preparation for Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 21, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

Residents make decorations mosque-shaped lamps to enliven the holy month of Ramadan in Pekanbaru, Riau Province on April 28, 2022. Muslims throughout the world are marking the month of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, during which devotees fast from dawn till dusk. (Photo by Afrianto Silalahi/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman prays during a gathering with other devotees for the ritual prayers for Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Destiny), one of the holiest nights during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, outside the Imamzadeh Saleh mosque in Tehran, on April 10, 2023. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)