Sailors pause to take a photo with characters in Times Square during “Fleet Week 2024” in New York City on May 22, 2024. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

Dead leaf or almost by Guilhem Duvot. Taken in Nován Stráž, Slovakia. Describe what is pictured? A dead leaf grasshopper. How does this image fit with the theme of the competition? The perfect camouflage – nature is amazing. I saw the grasshopper only because it jumped. (Photo by Guilhem Duvot/Royal Society of Biology)

A woman eats an ice cream as people sunbathe on the beach in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, January 26, 2024. Spain's weather agency says recent abnormally high temperatures for this time of year are set to continue in many parts of Spain on Friday and over the weekend, with an almost summer-like feeling in many coastal areas as people take to the beaches to sunbathe and some to have a winter swim. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

A model wearing a creation by Luis Benitez poses during an urban shoot as part of Andalucia de Moda (Andalusia Fashion) at the aquarium of Seville, southern Spain, November 11, 2015. (Photo by Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters)

Behaviour winner; Courting Royals: two royal terns in courtship display by Kristian Bell. Another beautiful morning on a beautiful beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida seemed to prompt these two royal terns to commence an intricate courtship dance. The photograph was taken with a Canon 300mm lens and 2x extender. (Photo by Kristian Bell/Deakin University/Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2018)

Alessandra Ambrosio arrives for the screening of “The Dead Don't Die” and the Opening Ceremony of the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, 14 May 2019. Presented in competition, the movie opens the festival which runs from 14 to 25 May. (Photo by Ian Langsdon/EPA/EFE)

Children walk behind their Morrocoye, a terrestrial tortoise native to South America, before a tortoise race held to celebrate the upcoming feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, in the town of San Francisco de Asis, Venezuela, on October 3, 2025. (Photo by /Juan Carlos Hernandez/Reuters)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)