FROM ICE bubbles to boiling lava, these photographs highlight the stunning shapes and patterns found in nature. The series of extraordinary images were taken by German software engineer Thorsten Scheuermann after he decided to examine his surroundings. A trip to the city of Kalapana in Hawaii, home to the Kilauea Volcano, provided Thorsten with the setting for his lava picture, while a visit to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon offered him the opportunity to photograph ice bubbles up-close. The 37-year-old, now of Washington, USA, said: 'These are sights that can gain greater significance and have their beauty exposed when excluding everything else around them.'
If you had to scrape the snow off your car this morning or slip-slide your way into work over icy pavements spare a thought for these little critters .
An American black bear mimics John Travolta’s famous Saturday Night Fever dance move by hurling its arm in the air .
LYING flat out on his back, this little meerkat makes the most of the English sunshine .
Kevin Silva, 52 from Indiana in the USA, has spent an estimated £65K ($100K) on Batman trinkets over the years, and even keeps his 2,500-item haul in his very own basement 'Bat Cave' .
STAIRWAY obsessed photographers have captured psychedelic shots that will mesmerise you .
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
A hungry hippo is seconds away from catching a bird in its gigantic jaws .
An osprey soars through the air at 30 miles per hour before swooping down to catch its prey from a lake .
A middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy .
MASKED intruders look sinister but really they are a gang of urban exploring pranksters .
It's incredible to think anyone could live in such horrendous squalor - yet two men have been prosecuted for keeping their homes in such revolting conditions that it was no longer fit for their animals .