The contest began in 2007, and since then photographers from more than 70 countries have entered. Photo: Michael O'Neal of San Francisco won first place in the animals category in the 2014 iPhone Photography Awards. (Photo by Michael O'Neal)

Michael Olivant, a Times reader, saw a chance to contribute when a Dalmatian pelican landed on his wife’s head at Lake Kerkini in northern Greece in the first decade of February 2025. (Photo by Michael Olivant/The Times)

A hare runs on a small road as the sun rises in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, June 12, 2023. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Young Icelandic mares graze on a meadow in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, on a foggy Tuesday, September 26, 2023. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Bees fly in front of a beehive in the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, April 8, 2024. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A car drives between trees in a small park in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, April 8, 2024. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Cars drive on an alley between rape fields in the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, April 22, 2024. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Michael Pankratz’s intriguing works focus specifically on the feet of tarantulas – an appendage that many have perhaps never focused on. The extreme close-ups of tarantulas’ “paws” show fine, colourful hairs, and sharp claws. Here: Brachypelma albopilosum, foot detail. (Photo by Michael Pankratz/Caters News Agency)