Folk dancers perform a traditional “Chhou” dance during the celebrations to mark India's 75th Independence Day at the Red Road in Kolkata on August 15, 2022. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

A pigeon sits on the cap of an Indonesian military personnel during a ceremony marking the country's 80th Independence Day, at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on August 17, 2025. (Photo by Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters)

Contestants compete during their model physique competition to mark International Olympic Day at the Myanmar Convention Center in Yangon, Myanmar, Saturday, June 28, 2025. (Photo by Thein Zaw/AP Photo)

With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)

In this photo made late Saturday, August 9, 2014, in Keelung, Taiwan, a traditional Chinese dance troupe performs during a parade marking the beginning of the Chinese folklore's mid-summer's Ghost Month Festival. Fourteen days into the seventh month of the lunar calendar, August 9, in 2014, marks the traditional Chinese Ghost Month where the gates of the underworld are opened and spirits of the deceased are set free to roam the world of the living. The month long festivities are aimed to please the roaming spirits. (Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)

A wax figure of President William Howard Taft is seated in the front seat with his detached head in the back after it was purchased from an auction of the Hall of Presidents Museum, which closed in November, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. January 14, 2017. (Photo by Mark Makela/Reuters)

A man climbs up a wooden pole to get a prize during celebration of Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, near Rumyantsevo, Moscow region, Russia, February 26, 2017. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

Revellers wearing lanterns parade through the streets during the carnival procession of Basel, Switzerland, 15 February 2016. The traditional Morgestraich starting Monday morning after Ash Wednesday at 4 a.m. marks the kick-off of the Carnival of Basel. (Photo by Patrick Seeger/EPA)