“This grey adult male seal enjoys a good grin while lying on the beach”. (Photo by Michael Hutch/SplashdownDirect via Rex USA)

From Manhattan and Brooklyn's trendiest neighborhoods to the far-flung edges of theouter boroughs, Will Ellis has spent the last three years photographing and researching the lost and lonely corners of the United States' most populous city. His photo book Abandoned NYC is packed with 150 color images of sixteen of New York's most beautiful and mysterious abandoned spaces, paired with detailed essays on the fascinating history of these forgotten sites. Here: Letchworth Village is located just an hour's drive from NYC in Thiells, NY. It was founded in 1912 to house the city's developmentally disabled as a ”state institution for the epileptic and feeble-minded”. (Photo by Will Ellis)

These stunning images show the beauty and drama of Mother Nature at work. Captured deep in heart of the Danakil Desert in East Africa, the images show the acid pools near the Erta Ale volcano. Pools of brightly colored acid can be seen amid the dramatic blast of volcanic ash. The photos were taken by Neta Dekel, an Israeli photographer. He the acid pools were one of the most extraordinary sights he had ever seen. (Photo by Neta Dekel/Caters News Agency)

A woman walks past graffiti on a wall in the Williamsburg neighborhood of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York, September 16, 2014. The picture was taken through car window with raindrops. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Photographer Loes Heerink spent hours waiting on bridges in Hanoi to capture the street vendors who walked underneath. She recently launched a Kickstarter project to publish a book of these images. Here: “In Hanoi there are a lot of street vendors who roam the city with their bicycles trying to sell goods, from vegetables to flowers”. (Photo by Loes Heerink/The Guardian)

A villager pours pesticide from a bucket as Mount Sinabung spews ash at Kebayaken village in Karo district, Indonesia's North Sumatra province, on December 4, 2013. The country has ordered the evacuation of 15,000 residents near the active volcano. (Photo by Roni Bintang/Reuters)

Street entertainer and fortune teller “Juana La Cubana” smiles holding a cigar in her mouth as she waits for tourists in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, May 24, 2015. Juana is 72 years old and has worked in the Cathedral square in Old Havana for 28 years. (Photo by Desmond Boylan/AP Photo)

“A Hawaiian photographer braved freezing temperatures for this cold SNAP – of what appears to be a firebird bursting from an aurora. Keen snapper CJ Kale, more used to sun, sea and sand while at work than snow, captured the incredible moment while on a trip to Alaska. It was his first time seeing the spectacular sight and lucked out – capturing some of the rarest colors of aurora on his first night”. – Caters News