A man holds on a rope as he tries to board a truck while crossing floodwaters brought by typhoon Koppu that battered Candaba town, Pampanga province, north of Manila October 20, 2015. Typhoon Koppu swept across the northern Philippines killing at least nine people as trees, power lines and walls were toppled and flood waters spread far from riverbeds, but tens of thousands of people were evacuated in time. (Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

ne committed photographer spent a grand total of 3,000 dive hours trying to get the perfect shots, capturing beautiful images of a rare shark feeding frenzy. Laurent Ballesta’s images show the glimmering gray reef sharks hunting in swift packs, flying through the water and feasting on the likes of helpless grouper. (Photo by Laurent Ballesta/Caters News Agency)

Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

“The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of genetically manipulated mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Various storylines portray them as having had every emotion removed except hate, leaving them with a desire to purge the Universe of all non-Dalek life. Collectively they are the greatest enemies of the series' protagonist, the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Their famous catchphrase is “Exterminate!”, with each syllable individually synthesised in a frantic electronic voice” – Wikipedia

Photo: Max Hardy, aged 6, stands by a street sign from the Doctor Who Experience as Dalek, from the cult television show Doctor Who watches him on April 16, 2011 in London, England. The Doctor Who Experience Exhibition is currently running at Kensington Olympia Two, celebrating the science fiction programme that was originally screened in 1963. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images for BBC Worldwide)

A Palestinian beekeeper uses smoke to calm bees in the process of collecting honey at a farm in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip April 11, 2016. Rateb Samour sees 250 patients a day, whose complaints range from hair loss to cerebral palsy and cancer. He is not a doctor and has never worked in a hospital. Samour inherited the skill of bee-sting therapy from his father. From 2003 the agricultural engineer dedicated all his time to study and develop the alternative-medicine treatment of apitherapy, which uses bee-related products from honey, propolis – or bee glue used to build hives – to venom. (Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

As national soccer teams and the photographers who have been covering them start to trickle home from the Brazil World Cup, it’s time to revisit the “On the Sidelines” project. This Reuters Pictures project was billed as a chance for photographers to share “their own quirky and creative view of the World Cup”. Photo: People watch from outside as a dancer performs inside a bar in Porto Alegre June 21, 2014. In a project called “On The Sidelines” Reuters photographers share pictures showing their own quirky and creative view of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)