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.'
A grey whale and her calf greet an audience of awestruck admirers on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico .
A striped marlin means business as it spots lunch and spears a small fish .
A lazy otter finds the ideal spot to soak up the sun and sleep off his lunch .
SWIMMING in unison, millions of silverside fish dwarf the divers .
COURAGEOUS climbers descend 400 metres as they manoeuvre their way through thick walls of ice .
An osprey soars through the air at 30 miles per hour before swooping down to catch its prey from a lake .
The view from this rooftop pool is sure to make most holidaymakers envious .
HUDDLED together on a branch, a pair of adorable Javan scops owls soak up the sun .
SPURTING water 20ft into the air, this is one well you wouldn't want to dip your bucket into .
BEHIND the doors of this building, with its stacks of mattresses and discarded remains of wheelchairs, lies another victim of austerity cuts .
A little caterpillar fearlessly scampers down a branch and confronts a praying mantis .