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)

“These are the mind-blowing artworks of one professor who has dedicated his professional life to studying and generating a series of dizzying optical illusions. Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, from Ritsumseikan University, in Kyoto, Japan, has spent more than a decade creating his collecting of stomach-churning works. His designs have been used by the likes of Lady Gaga, who ran the Kitaokas work, entitled Gangaze, as the CD cover for her album Art Pop, in 2013”. – Caters News. (Photo by Akiyoshi Kitaoka/Caters News)

A child blowing confetti from her hands during a Carnival parade in Cyprus' coastal city of Limassol, Sunday, March 13, 2016. Limassol's long-established parade is Cyprus' biggest and most famous, drawing revelers from across the east Mediterranean island. This year's parade drew huge crowds as people sought lighthearted reprieve from the bailed-out country's recession. The parade marks the start of the 40-day fasting period of Lent in the run-up to the Orthodox Christian Easter. (Photo by Petros Karadjias/AP Photo)

Palestinian barber Ramadan Odwan styles and straightens the hair of a customer with fire at his salon in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip February 2, 2017. In Ramadan Odwan's barbershop in Gaza, hair isn't just blow-dried, it's blowtorch-dried. “People have gone crazy about it, many people are curious to go through the experience and they are not afraid”, he told Reuters. “People here love adventures”. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

In the build-up to Halloween those hunting for a real-life ghost town need look no further than this haunting spot. Bodie, California, USA – which requires special access to photograph at night – is one of the best preserved ghost towns in America, still featuring the abodes of the former miners who inhabited it more than 100 years ago. Here: Bodie, California, a real-life ghost town. (Photo by Matthew Christopher/Caters News Agency)

A Buddhist monk uses a traditional needle to tattoo the body of a man at Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Pathom province on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, March 18, 2016. Believers from across Thailand travel to the monastery to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and to pay their respects to the temple's master tattooist. They believe the tattoos have mystical powers, ward off bad luck and protect them from harm. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

A woman (L) places flowers at a grave next to a mummified body during exhumation works at the General Cemetery in Guatemala City, April 15, 2015. If a lease on a grave has expired or not been paid, grave cleaners will break open the crypts to remove and rebury the bodies. Any remains that have not been claimed are packed into plastic bags, labeled and stored in mass graves. Bodies that have been stored in the upper crypt are exposed to dry and sunny conditions which means they do not decompose and instead become mummified. (Photo by Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)

This photo taken on January 30, 2020 shows officials in protective suits checking on an elderly man wearing a facemask who collapsed and died on a street near a hospital in Wuhan. AFP journalists saw the body on January 30, not long before an emergency vehicle arrived carrying police and medical staff in full-body protective suits. The World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the new coronavirus, as China reported on January 31 the death toll had climbed to 213 with nearly 10,000 infections. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)