“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)

An employe of Russian Space Training Center hangs out to dry space suits of Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA's U.S. flight engineer Kathleen Rubins, and Japanese space agency's flight engineer Takuya Onishi, right, after their undergoing training near in Noginsk, 60 km (38 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. The training was intended to simulate the capsule landing on water. Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Japanese space agency's flight engineer Takuya Onishi, and NASA's U.S. flight engineer Kathleen Rubins are being trained for a future mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Australian skateboarder Arisa Trew arrives for the 2024 Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony, in Madrid, Spain, 22 April 2024. (Photo by Kiko Huesca/EPA)

Contestants perform during the semifinals of the first Miss Colonia pageant hosted by the Factoría nightclub in Veracruz, Mexico, Sunday, March 5, 2023. The nightclub held the pageant as part of annual Women’s Day events and the only requirement for contestants was to prove residency in working-class areas of the city, known as “colonias”. Prizes originally covered utility bills and property taxes, but when the event attracted more sponsors the prizes expanded to include cash, travel, dental work, spas and makeovers. (Photo by Felix Marquez/AP Photo)

Silver Medalists Thomas Daley and Noah Williams of Team Great Britain celebrate as they pose following the Diving medal ceremony after the Men’s Synchronised 10m Platform Final on day three of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Aquatics Centre on July 29, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Aspland/The Times)

Japan fans pose for a photo outside the ground ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2023, Pool D match at the Stade De Nice, France on Sunday, September 17, 2023. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

A Romanian honor guard soldier stands still as three military aircraft carriers are crossing the sky during a ceremony held at the Unknown Soldier Memorial, in Carol I Park, on the occasion of the Heroes' Day commemoration, in Bucharest, Romania, 10 June 2021. (Photo by Robert Ghement/EPA/EFE)

A reconstruction of the first Neanderthal in the Netherlands, nicknamed Krijn, is on display in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, The Netherlands, 06 September 2021. Krijn's face has been worked on for years by the brothers Adrie and Alfons Kennis. (Photo by Bart Maat/EPA/EFE)