Todd Bretl specializes in underwater photography, and is able to capture striking photos of aquatic life big and small. His photos of sharks are particularly striking; though he rarely faces hostility from the animals, he tries not to spend too much time looking through his viewfinder and many shots are framed by educated guesses and impeccable timing. What follows are photographs taken over the past several years on trips to the Bahamas and Isla Guadalupe, an island off the coast of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. (Photo by Todd Bretl)

A miner with a donkey makes his way through the low and narrow tunnel leading out of a coal mine in Choa Saidan Shah in Punjab province, April 29, 2014. Workers at this mine in Choa Saidan Shah dig coal with pick axes, break it up and load it onto donkeys to be transported to the surface. Employed by private contractors, a team of four workers can dig about a ton of coal a day, for which they earn around $10 to be split between them. The coalmine is in the heart of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous and richest province, but the labourers mostly come from the poorer neighbouring region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (Photo by Sara Farid/Reuters)

An enormous crocodile mauls a young hippo calf carcass near Lower Sabie on May 11, 2014, in Kruger National Park, South Africa. An enormous crocodile tosses around a young hippo calf caught in its lethal jaws. The giant reared out of the water revealing a young hippo calf between its teeth. The huge beast then span, jumped and splashed in the water with the small carcass. Amateur photographer Roland Ross captured these incredible photographs near Lower Sabie in Kruger Park, South Africa. (Photo by Roland Ross/Barcroft Media)

A woman squeezes between two public buses in downtown Lima, March 17, 2014. Bogota and two other Latin American capitals – Mexico City, and Lima in Peru – were named as the three capitals with the least safe transport systems for women in the Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of more than 6,550 women and gender and city planning experts. Women in Latin America say they face a wide range of daily threats on public transport, and not enough is done to ensure their safety. (Photo by Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)

Roped up climbers leave the summit of Breithorn at 4,164 metres (13,661 feet) on the ridge marking the border with Switzerland (left) and Italy in the Alpine resort of Zermatt August 4, 2014. Switzerland will vote on November 30 on an initiative from the group Ecopop which proposes a cap on the number of immigrants. The group says it is motivated by concerns about a lack of living space exerting too much pressure on the land and natural resources, rather than by opposition to foreigners. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

An Andean man and a woman, depicting Inca's legendary characters Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, pose for a portrait in a Uros island at Lake Titicaca before a re-enactment in Puno November 5, 2014. The Uros islands are a group of 70 man-made totora reed islands floating on the lake, which according to Peru's tourism board iPeru is the world's highest navigable lake at over 4,000 meters above sea level. The Uros people fish and hunt, but tourism is their main source of livelihood. (Photo by Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)

A resident looks into a newly-built giant trash can, partially buried underground, next to a street in Taiyuan, Shanxi province November 6, 2014. The trash can, which has a diameter of 1.9 meters and a depth of 2.8 meters, could contain approximately 10 cubic metres of garbage. It was built to replace an open-air garbage dump site, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Noriaki Iwashima gestures as he lies in a coffin to try it out during an end-of-life seminar held by Japan's largest retailer Aeon Co in Tokyo October 24, 2014. Funeral arrangements are normally left to those who have been left behind but the latest trend in Japan, which literally translates to “End of life” preparations, is for the ageing to prepare their own funerals and graves before they set off on their journey to the great beyond. With a population that is expected to shrink by nearly 30 million people over the next 50 years, the market for funerals, graves and anything related to the afterlife is still very much alive. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)