A striking spiral of golden ginkgo leaves raked with care in a private garden in Petersdorf, Brandenburg, Germany on November 2, 2025. (Photo by Patrick Pleu/dpa)
In 2007, I graduated from Lomonosov’s Moscow State University in the department of Zoology. I specialized in the study of invertebrate animals, with an emphasis on squid brains. Soon after, I began working at the White Sea Biological Station (WSBS) as a senior laborer. WSBS has a dive station, which is great for all sorts of underwater scientific needs, and after 4 years working there, I became chief of our diving team. I now organize all WSBS underwater projects and dive by myself with a great pleasure and always with a camera.
“Leopard Hunting a Stork”. “One-shot capture. I watched the leopard stalking the stork, I only had time to focus at 400mm, no time to change to high speed, I watched the stork, and as soon as it flapped its wings, I shot one shot”. (Photo by Paul Rifkin/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)
You might feel as if you are being watched when you look at these incredible pictures – revealing the close-up world of a spider's eyes. The intimidating creatures, which look like they should live in a horror film, star menacingly at the camera as every fleck of colour and hair are revealed. But despite their appearance the arachnids are actually jumping spiders, which measure a tiny six millimetres in length. The harmless arachnids, which are capable of jumping up to six times their own height, can be found in grassy meadows and on the walls of houses on sunny days. (Photo by SWNS/ABACA Press)