The fourth annual BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition aims to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth, and encourages people to protect and conserve it. Here: “The Salmon Catchers”. Terrestrial Wildlife. To capture this view of a mother grizzly bear and her cub, photographer Peter Mather set up a camera trap on a log that he knew the bears tended to traverse while fishing for salmon, in the Yukon River watershed in Canada. (Photo by Peter Mather/BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition 2017)

A leaf from a sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) lies on the grass at Godewaersvelde early October 27, 2017. (Photo by Philippe Huguen/AFP Photo)

A man looks at a pyroclastic flow during the eruption of Mount Semeru in Lumajang, East Java, on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Agus Harianto/AFP Photo)

A British woman plays a piano designed especially for people who are confined to bed. Date: 1935. (Photo by Mary Evans Picture Library/Caters News)

In 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union, all Ukrainians had to get a new passport – and photographer Alexander Chekmenev was on hand to take their photos. The snatched extra shots he took are remarkable in their honesty and tenderness. (Photo by Alexander Chekmenev/The Guardian)

Members of the LSU Golden Girls dance team sit spaced apart wearing masks, under COVID-19 restrictions, requiring social distancing and masks, before an NCAA college football game between the LSU and the Mississippi State in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, September 26, 2020. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

Happiness on a Rainy Day by Fardin Oyan, Bangladesh. Winner of the young environmental photographer of the year. Many children in Bangladesh love to bathe and play in the rain. The country, which is flat and occupied by the huge Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, is exposed to floods, especially during monsoon season. (Photo by Fardin Oyan/2018 Ciwem environmental photographer of the year 2018)

Waves crashing on the shore at sunrise at St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay in Tyne and Wear on the north east coast of England on Friday, October 22, 2021. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)