“My children are not only my little darlings but off-shoots of myself. When I look at them, I have a strange feeling – as if I am watching myself re-living my life. What I want to show is their “living form”. – Hideaki Hamada. Photo: “Rainy days and mondays #1”. (Photo and caption by Hideaki Hamada)

A Wallcreeper (aka Tichodroma muraria) flies to a flower on January 28, 2024 in Leshan, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by Zhou Zhiyong/VCG via Getty Images)

Cameron Shonnard backflips a jump at Squaw Valley in Olympic Valley, California, December 5, 2015. An El Nino is forecasted for California, and regular precipitation has been welcomed after years of drought. (Photo by Max Whittaker/Reuters)

Two men play golf with a tennis ball as a snowstorm sweeps through Times Square, Tuesday, March 14, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Mark Lennihan/AP Photo)

Dana Friedman, a trial lawyer who has spent 6 months of each year growing out his beard for his annual appearance as Santa Claus since 2001, greets children outside wearing masks as a precautionary measure at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center in Queens as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in New York City, U.S., December 6, 2020. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

Earlier this year, Belgian film-maker and artist Vincent Bal stumbled upon an uncanny resemblance to an elephant in the shadow of his tea cup. This gave him the idea for Shadowology, a series of doodles that interact with the shadows of simple, everyday objects: a banknote, some ice cubes and a flower, for example, can turn into a church, a woman and a hippy. “I draw a few lines and I get my image. It’s really the shadows that inspire me”, Bal says. Here: “Stonedog”. (Photo by Vincent Bal/The Guardian)

This strange coral-looking specimen is actually a mushroom. The photo, “Beautiful Destroyer”, was taken in the Panamanian tropical rainforest where the mushroom produces nitrogen, an element vital to soil health. (Photo by Sarah A. Batterman)