The Year in Pictures 2009

Upside Down
Photographer Kate Westaway went underwater to take this image of a humpback whale calf off the coast of Turks and Caicos. "I was really terrified at first, she says. "I was in snorkel gear, and this humpback calf was brushing me with his pectoral fin. He would slap the water with his tail and then go to his mother, who was sleeping nearby, then return to us. I came eye to eye with him a few times. Maybe he was fascinated by his reflection in my 
 fish-eye lens." The photograph is printed upside down. Westaway says she wanted to show the world from the whale's perspective.

• The Year in Pictures 2008