“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

The golden monkey (Cercopithecus kandti) is a species of Old World monkey found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa, including four national parks: Mgahinga, in south-west Uganda; Volcanoes, in north-west Rwanda; and Virunga and Kahuzi-Biéga, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is restricted to highland forest, especially near bamboo.

A portrait of French WWI soldier Edouard Marius Ivaldi is displayed on a tablet, in this illustration picture, alongside his battlefield grave memorial, a wooden cross with a battlefield helmet in Champagne, eastern France, November 3, 2015. (Photo by Charles Platiau/Reuters)

Komodo Judo by Andrey Gudkov. Finalist, Amphibians & Reptiles. Two large male Komodo dragons hissing angrily at each other in Indonesia’s Komodo national park. Komodo dragons can grow up to 8ft. (Photo by Andrey Gudkov/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015)

Photographer Mihaela Noroc travelled the world from Ethiopia to the US and from Guatemala to France in search of natural and authentic beauty. She introduces some of the inspiring women she met on her journey. Here: Ecuador. “More and more tribes of Amazonia are starting to adopt modern clothes for everyday life. But they are still keeping their traditional clothes for important events. I photographed this young woman in her wedding outfit”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)

A Pomeranian dog sits in a rolling pet carrier in Hong Kong, China on September 4, 2019. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

Replicas of Joseph Stalin uniforms are offered to tourists who can rent them and wear them for a picture outside Stalin's bunker in Samara, Russia, on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. Stalin's secret WWII bunker has become the unlikely meeting point for thousands of cheerful fans who have arrived to the city during the World Cup days. (Photo by Luis Andres Henao/AP Photo)

Students participate in a wet t-shirt contest at the MTV Beach Bash party put on by Global Groove at the Bahia Mar Hotel during the annual ritual of Spring Break March 26, 2008 on South Padre Island, Texas. The South Texas island is one of the top Spring Break destinations and attracts students from all over the country. (Photo by Rick Gershon/Getty Images)