A person wearing a mask of Elmo walks around Times Square during the pass of the snowstorm on January 31, 2021 in New York City. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency order due to the arriving storm that's expected to wallop New York, where airports are expected to cancel the majority if their flights. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/VIEWpress)

A passenger plane approaches to land as Nepalese people sit in a long-distance bus to travel back to their villages in order to celebrate the Dashain festival, at the Koteshwor bus station in Kathmandu, Nepal, 10 October 2024. Many Nepalese people travel to their home towns to celebrate Dashain Festival with their families. The festival is a major annual religious event in Nepal, celebrated as a national holiday. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

Photographer Patrick Halls likes to make the people he takes photos of uncomfortable in order to “capture a real emotion”. It is no wonder that for his latest project, he decided to stun his subjects with a taser.

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

For most ironing is one of those boring chores we tend to put off doing – but for one teenager ironing has become something of an extreme sport. Kevin Krupitzer, 17, has turned the mundane into the insane by taking his ironing board to the most extraordinary of locations, from the edge of cliff to on board a canoe. The daring teenager travels around his hometown of Gilbert, Arizona in search of the weirdest places to iron. And he has even climbed to the top of a 120ft high rock, dubbed the Totem Pole in Queen Creek Canyon, AZ in pursuit of his bizarre hobby. (Photo by Kevin Krupitzer/Caters News)

These stunning light art pictures of skateboarding skeletons were created by Darren Pearson from Los Angeles. He works as a full time illustrator by day and by night he explores the varying landscapes of California in search of the perfect scene for his light-sculptures. Pearson makes complex light-effect photographs, none of which are photoshopped. He describes the work as location-based light art. Photo: A light skateboarder grinding a rail. (Photo by Darren Pearson/Caters News)

National Geographic invites photographers from around the world to enter the 2013 National Geographic Photography Contest. The grand-prize winner will receive $10,000 (USD) and a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual National Geographic Photography Seminar in January 2014. Photo: “We just want to move to search to the Leopard at that morning but we found a group of giraffes come toward a small lake and start drinking it was a nice moment when the Giraffe finish from drinking and leave a letters “S” with motion in the air”. (Photo and caption by Majed Ali/National Geographic Photography Contest)