With luminous colours and alien- like features, these magical mushrooms look like they belong on another planet. These mesmorising pictures, however, capture the beautiful variety of fungi here on Earth. The incredible images were taken by Australian photographer Stephen Axford, 62, after he became familiar with the importance of fungi in everyday life, and decided to document it twelve years ago..
WIDE EYED and staring straight down the lens of the camera, this intrigued seal is ready for his close up .
Swimming side by side with divers, these manatees will do anything they can to stay warm .
A grey whale and her calf greet an audience of awestruck admirers on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico .
PERCHED on a branch, these two frogs hold hands as they look into the camera .
A striped marlin means business as it spots lunch and spears a small fish .
A group of otters put on a show of aqua aerobics, as they raise their flippers perfectly in sync .
RACING through the mountain range on horseback, the Kazakh people practice their ancient tradition of hunting with golden eagles .
IT'S the iconic TV show that influenced a whole generation in the 1990s .
A BEAUTIFUL sight for the eyes and the imagination, these liquid sculptures take shape in many different colours and formations .
Meet the human CCTV: a PCSO with a memory for faces so sharp he has apprehended more than 130 suspects in the last year alone with his eagle eyed talents .
A diver looks like a minnow as she swims alongside a gigantic whale shark, the largest species of fish on the planet .
These are the faces of orphans suffering from the horrifying effects of chemical warfare .