“Secrets of the Whales”. Skerry’s photographs celebrate the lives and culture of whales, illuminating recent research and their diverse behaviours. His latest work focuses on four key species: sperm whales, humpbacks, orca and beluga whales. Humpback whales bubble-net feeding off the coast of Alaska. They work cooperatively to feed on herring by blowing a perfect ring of bubbles underwater to form a net encircling the fish. The whales then swim up through the centre of the bubble net with their mouths open. (Photo by Brian Skerry/National Geographic Photo/Visa pour l'Image)

A woman holds Kalashnikov assault rifle during a training session with members of the Georgian Legion, a paramilitary unit formed mainly by ethnic Georgian volunteers to fight against Russian forces in Ukraine in 2014, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, February 19, 2022. Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine have ordered a full military mobilization amid growing fears in the West that Russia is planning to invade the neighboring country. The announcement on Saturday came amid a spike in violence along the line of contact between Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russia rebels in recent days. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

A man being tested for the COVID-19 novel coronavirus reacts as a medical worker takes a swab sample in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on April 16, 2020. China has largely brought the coronavirus under control within its borders since the outbreak first emerged in the city of Wuhan late last year. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

Ranger trainees and trainee dogs simulate an ambush against rhino poachers at the Paramount Group Anti-Poaching training and K9 (canine) academy on November 26, 2014 in Magaliesberg, South Africa. One of the largest of its kind in Africa, the Academy will address the ever increasing need for training of Conservation Officers in anti poaching activities, wildlife contraband detection, specialist K9 solutions and Ranger K9 handler training – all of which have proven success rates in combatting and apprehending poachers and their activities. (Photo by Gianluigi Guercia/AFP Photo)

A general view of atmosphere at the annual VOLT Festival in Sopron, 208 kms west of Budapest, Hungary on August 16, 2016. (Photo by Rockstar Photographers)

Members of kibbutz Nirim celebrate Shavuot, a Jewish holiday marking both the giving of the Torah and the wheat harvest, at the kibbutz near the border of the besieged Gaza Strip on June 1, 2025, for the first time since the October 2023 attacks by Palestinian militants. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP Photo)

“The Sunsetter”. An EF-4 tornado rips through the open space of farmland near Rozel, Kansas. This tornado moves slowly but powerful towards the setting sun an gets its beautiful color right before sunset. Storm Chasers are spotting on the left side. Photo location: Rozel, Kansas. (Photo and caption by Dennis Oswald/National Geographic Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A reveler wearing sheepfur costume is seen in front of a bonfire on which they burn a coffin symbolizing winter during the closing ceremony of the traditional carnival parade in Mohacs, 189 kms south of Budapest, Hungary, 07 February 2016. The carnival parade of people, the so-called busos, dressed in such costumes and frightening wooden masks, using various noisy wooden rattlers is traditionally held on the seventh weekend before Easter to drive away winter, and is a revival of a legend, which says that ethnic Croats ambushed the Osmanli Turkish troops, who escaped in panic seeing the terrifying figures during the Turkish occupation of Hungary. (Photo by Tamas Soki/EPA)