Competitors ride a home-made vehicle without an engine on a downhill track in the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Santiago, Chile, November 27, 2016. (Photo by Jonathan Faus/Reuters)

“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)

A passenger plane comes into land over a field containing horses at Heathrow Airport on August 11, 2014 in London, England. Heathrow is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest in the world. The airport's operator BAA wants to build a third runway to cope with increased demand. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Hot air balloons in flight over Melbourne, Australia on January 24, 2022. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

This view shows giant hot air balloons of various shapes being lifted to begin flights from the Metropolitan Park over the city of Leon during the 2025 International Balloon Festival (FIG) in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico on November 15, 2025. (Photo by Mario Armas/AFP Photo)

A photographer takes pictures near an inflated Master Yoda character hot air balloon during the 33rd annual QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning at Solberg Airport Friday, July 24, 2015, in Readington, N.J. The festival which runs through Sunday, July 26, 2015, will feature as many as 100 balloons, including many large, shaped balloons of Darth Vader, an American Flag, a giant whale, a Panda Bear, and a baby dinosaur. (Photo by Mel Evans/AP Photo)

The Pioneer Team, a civil aerobatic team from Italy, let off pyrotechnics from their Pioneer 330 aircraft during the Malta International Airshow off SmartCity Malta, outside Valletta, Malta, September 24, 2016. (Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

Crews inflate hot air balloons during the 39th annual New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning at Solberg Airport Friday, July 29, 2022, in Readington, N.J. The festival, which runs through Sunday, July 31, will feature as many as 100 balloons. (Photo by Julia Nikhinson/AP Photo)