NATURE'S MOST STUNNING SHAPES AND PATTERNS
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.'
Other great stories
CLIMBING BEAR CUB
BALANCING on top of a tree, this bear cub puts her climbing skills to the test .
SLEEPING BEAUTIES
Lying angelically with a range of expressions etched on their tiny faces, little bundles of joy are innocently captured in their first few days in these adorable photographs .
WOMAN LOSES 8ST AFTER DITCHING CURRY ADDICTION
A woman who was addicted to eating curries has shed an impressive 8st after giving up her favourite food .
SUPER CUTE BABY RED PANDAS
These adorable pictures show the moment two cuddly red panda cubs take their first look at the outside world and are weighed for the very first time .
MESMERISING FUNGI
With luminous colours and alien- like features, these magical mushrooms look like they belong on another planet .
CHEEKY SQUIRREL STICKS TONGUE OUT
An adorable little squirrel wakes from a nap and pops out his tongue for the camera .
RECORD BREAKING WATERMELON
AN American accountant has grown the world's biggest MELON and smashed his way into the record books with his mammoth 350 .
FROZEN WATERFALLS
COURAGEOUS CLIMBERS scale frozen waterfalls in Canada, as the ice threatens to collapse beneath them .
GLACIER ICE CLIMBING
COURAGEOUS climbers descend 400 metres as they manoeuvre their way through thick walls of ice .
MIDDLE-AGED SOMERSET COUPLE TAKE UP WRITING TO DEATH ROW INMATES
A middle-aged couple from Somerset have developed a rather unusual hobby to occupy their time: writing to killers on death row .
I HID AWAY FOR YEARS AFTER DEVELOPING SORES ON MY FACE AND BODY - NOW I’M A DIVERSITY MODEL
A woman whose face and body was left scarred for life by angry sores, caused by Lupus, has become a diversity model .