Nikolai Tolstyh takes photos of paper animal silhouettes in a natural setting. The combination is surprisingly perfect: the surroundings provide both color for the cutout and a scene to frame the animal.

Disabled dogs outfitted with wheelchairs walk at an animal rescue center on July 12, 2008 in Chengdu of Sichuan Province, China. The center has adopted over 100 stray dogs and cats from quake-struck areas. Those who were hurt or disabled are outfitted with a cart to help support they're body and make them mobile. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Canoeists are framed by the tail of a breaching whale in Antarctica in April 2023. The photographer, from California, writes: “It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime moment”. (Photo by Jiahong Zeng/Solent News)

I wanted to create the smoke effects on animals I used on some few of my female subjects.
The hardest part was that while there were only faces, here there was the whole body that needed to be “smokeified”.

Humboldt Penguins swim in their pool as a keeper looks on through a spherical window during the annual stocktake press preview at London Zoo in Regents Park in London Monday, January 4, 2016. A requirement of ZSL London Zoo's license, the annual audit takes keepers a week to complete and all of the information is shared with zoos around the world via the International Species Information System, where it's used to manage the worldwide breeding programmes for endangered animals. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)

Inquisitive elephant seal pups venture towards a photographer on South Georgia, an uninhabited island near Antarctica early July 2022. The seals are not used to seeing humans and shuffled closer to Charlotte Rhodes rather than shying away. (Photo by Charlotte Rhodes/Media Drum Images)

In this photo taken Thursday January 17, 2013, sled dogs Poncho, left, and his blind brother Gonzo are hooked up for a run at the Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel, in Jefferson, N.H. Poncho has taken to helping his blind brother on regular runs. (Photo by Jim Cole/AP Photo)

A Kazakh hunter walks with his tamed golden eagle during an annual hunting competition in Chengelsy Gorge, some 150 km (93 miles) east of Almaty February 22, 2013. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)