Wildlife enthusiast Jimmy Hoffman, 50, scours the vegetation around his home in the Costa Brava, Spain, looking for praying mantises. After finding his subjects, Mr Hoffman can spend up to two hours waiting to get the perfect shot. He said: "My favourite picture is of a mantis about to catch a butterfly. Unfortunately for the mantis the butterfly was too fast and managed to fly away before it could be caught. I got my picture at exactly the right moment and it was very special for me because I had waited a couple of hours for something interesting to happen. After that I decided to called the picture 'Patience'.
A trio of Empusa Pennata mantises perch clutched together, on a twig
Keen plane spotter Bernardo Malfitano took this shot of a rainbow effect pouring off the back of an F-22 at an air show in Miramar, California. The aeronautical engineer from Seattle works for Boeing, and he said: "This is an F-22 at Miramar at the top of a loop. He is pulling so many Gs, the low pressure air over the fuselage that is sucking the plane into the loop gets cold enough for the water vapour to condense. The angle is just right for sunlight to undergo total internal refraction and make rainbow colours around the plane."
