I am 17 years old and an aspiring photographer. Ever since I set my hands on a camera, I knew I had unlocked a new dimension. One where you can expand your imagination and run for endless miles. Photography makes you look at things differently. You notice rain drops and the way the sun kisses the Earth. You breath in every moment of your life. You love to live and live to love. There is no time to waste because there is an urgency to capture each loving gesture, smile, and laugh in both humans and animals. Then every photograph becomes timeless and you smile, knowing that you hold a few split seconds in your hands. I live in a box called a camera with the lens as my window and everyday I sit on my couch watching the world outside through a different perspective. No worries, my dogs are right beside me looking at it the same way.
A baby Black-crowned Night Heron squawks in its incubator while being cared for at City Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center in Washington, DC on May 31, 2017. The heron is one of several that have been brought to CW by the staff at The National Zoo over the past few years. (Photo Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)
A performer from the Academicos do Grande Rio samba school dances during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, early Monday, February 16, 2015. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)
Some 300 girls and women in India still practise open defecation. Over half the country’s population, 800 million people, do not have access to a toilet that meets basic standards. (Photo by Poulomi Basu/WaterAid)
A horse grazes on railway tracks near the old train station on the the Northeast railroad (Ferrovia do Nordeste) in the city of Missao Velha, Ceara state, northeastern Brazil, October 25, 2016. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)
A pine marten – one of a few wild mammals doing well in Britain (although they number just 3,700). A fifth of the country’s wild mammals are at high risk of extinction, research shows. (Photo by Maurice Flynn/The Mammal Society)
Gremio fans celebrate after their team won the Copa Libertadores final match at the Arena do Gremio in Porto Alegre, Brazil on November 29, 2017. (Photo by Diego Vara/Reuters)