Back in 2010, French photographer Antoine Bruy began hitchhiking around Europe without any fixed route. Along his travels, he met people who had entirely abandoned city life in favour of an isolated country existence they found more fulfilling. Bruy began seeking out people who lived off-the-grid. After three years on the road, staying in makeshift houses and on community farms, he has released Scrublands, a documentation of the lifestyle. While each living situation is different, Bruy found that all the people he met shared a common desire to escape the rat race and achieve a quieter life in harmony with nature. (Photo by Antoine Bruy)

Roped up climbers leave the summit of Breithorn at 4,164 metres (13,661 feet) on the ridge marking the border with Switzerland (left) and Italy in the Alpine resort of Zermatt August 4, 2014. Switzerland will vote on November 30 on an initiative from the group Ecopop which proposes a cap on the number of immigrants. The group says it is motivated by concerns about a lack of living space exerting too much pressure on the land and natural resources, rather than by opposition to foreigners. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Japanese Macaque monkeys soak in the warmth of mountain hotsprings at Jigokudani Monkey Park, in Yamanouchi, central Japan, 19 January 2014. The Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata), also referred to as Snow Monkeys, live freely in this area that is covered by snow one third of the year. Jigokudani is the only known place in the world where monkeys bathe in natural hot springs. As a habit, they come down from the mountains where they spend the night and bath during the day. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA)

“The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the southern elephant seal). It is most common in the southern hemisphere along the coast of Antarctica and on most sub-Antarctic islands, but can also be found on the coasts of southern Australia, Tasmania, South Africa, New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, Tierra del Fuego, the Cook Islands, and the Atlantic coast of South America. It can live twenty-six years, possibly more. Orcas and large sharks are the only natural predators of leopard seals”. – Wikipedia

Photo by: Gilad Rom; Source: Flickr

Discovered in 1952 by French bio-speleologist Henri Coiffait, the waterfall and accompanying sinkhole were fully mapped in the 1980s by the Spéléo club du Liban. The cave is also known as the "Cave of the Three Bridges." Traveling from Laklouk to Tannourine one passes the village of Balaa, and the "Three Bridges Chasm" (in French "Gouffre des Trois Ponts") is a five-minute journey into the valley below where one sees three natural bridges, rising one above the other and overhanging a chasm descending into Mount Lebanon. During the spring melt, a 90–100-metre (300–330 ft) cascade falls behind the three bridges and then down into the 250-metre (820 ft) chasm. A 1988 fluorescent dye test demonstrated that the water emerged at the spring of Dalleh in Mgharet al-Ghaouaghir.

I was born in Calella (Barcelona) in 1956, and nowadays I live in Vilassar de Mar (Barcelona). Since I was a child I have been fascinated by painting and I think I'm a self-taught painter because, despite I was taught drawing at Primary School, I have acquired my knowledge thanks to my environment. Painting is my own way to express myself. I can shape my inward in the canvas with the essential help of the palette knife and the colours. As a nature’s lover and great observant, my environment has always been my source of inspiration. At present I devote myself exclusively to painting, my true passion, and that is why I feel extremely fortunate.

Reuters multi-award winning photographers are celebrated here in a three part retrospective on the 30th anniversary of the service's launch. They have captured dramatic images illustrating the human tragedy of natural disaster and war as well as the fallout of economic events across the continents, creating iconic images, recognised around the world. Here: an injured soccer fan is carried to safety by a friend after a wall collapsed during violence between fans before the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool at the Heysel stadium in Brussels, May 29, 1985. 39 people died, and a further 600 were injured. (Photo by Nick Didlick/Reuters)

A beautiful snowy owl looks like she is flying above a cloud, but in fact she is gliding inches above a snowplain in a hunt for food. The owls fit in perfectly with their surroundings as both the male and female, which has darker markings on her feathers referred to as barres, hunt for voles. The female is so low to the ground she is almost touching it as she spots her prey in the snow. Nature photographer Rick Dobson captured the two birds hunting in corn fields near his home, just outside of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Rick Dobson/Solent News/SIPA Press)