Epic death-defying plunge caught on camera

This stunning series traverses harsh Aussie bushfires, icy polar landscapes, and playful seals beneath the ocean’s surface, presenting breathtaking art that re-imagines our relationship with the natural world.

Each one of these photos is available as part of a limited sale to raise funds for the Jane Goodall Institute, which promotes understanding and protection of great apes, as well as conservation of our natural world. For more information on the sale, click here.

Dive into the full gallery below to explore these mesmerising images >>>

Blue-footed boobies look after their chick in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Although based on these islands, photographer Tui De Roy aims to capture “wildlife and wilderness from our planet’s most pristine, uninhabited regions.” Picture: Tui De Roy/Vital Impacts

Australian photographer Krystle Wright captured these fur seals frolicking off the coast of Montague Island, home to one of Australia's largest colonies. Often nicknamed the labradors of the sea, the animals were curious and playful as she snapped their movements. Picture: Krystle Wright/Vital Impacts

Icebergs float on San Rafael Lagoon, Chile. The glacier is approximately 3,000m high and 40km long, however it has lost around 13% of its surface area in the last 140 years due to climate change. Tamara Merino, a National Geographic photographer who focuses on subterranean communities, identity, human rights, environment and climate change. Picture: Tamara Merino/Vital Impacts

Daisy Gilardini, a conservation photographer specialising in polar regions, caught these polar bears sparring in northern Manitoba, Canada. Young adult bears often spend their time play fighting to reinforce relationships and prepare them for a solitary life on the hunt. Picture: Daisy Gilardini

Snow Geese blast off from a pond in Kearney, Nebraska in this artistic rendition caught by conservation photographer and writer, Melissa Groo. Picture: Melissa Groo/Vital Impacts

National Geographic Magazine photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale spent three years tracking the population of giant pandas in China. On her mission, she came across Hua Yan, a two-year-old female, who had been released into the wild after being born in captivity. As she trundles off into the wild, she takes with her the hope for her entire species. Picture: Ami Vitale/Vital Impacts

An early self-portrait of Dr. Jane Goodall taken in 1962 shows the scientist at Gombe National Park in Nigeria, perched on a high peak with her binoculars and telescope, searching the forest below for chimpanzees. Picture: Dr. Jane Goodall/Vital Impacts

While filming for The Way of the Cheetah, photographer Beverly Joubert spotted one of the more adventurous of the four cheetah cubs playing on the branches of a tree, almost completely camouflaged by the leaves around it. Picture: Beverly Joubert/Vital Impacts

In Sumatra’s Gunung Leuser National Park, a large male orang-utan curiously approaches a meditation group, where the photographer was able to snap this moment. Danielle Khan Da Silva, an award-winning documentary photographer, resides in Ontario, where she lives life in the forest. Picture: Danielle Khan Da Silva/Vital Impacts

Australian photographer Aletheia Casey, reimagines her childhood landscapes, marked by Australia’s bushfire threat. Through painting and reworking of her archival images, she reflects on the human impact on nature. Picture: Aletheia Casey/Vital Impacts

Rajan, a 66-year-old Asian elephant, strolls calmly through the forest in his retirement. Brought to the Andaman Islands for logging in the 1950s, he and a group of 10 others were brutally forced to learn how to swim to assist the industry. Once it was banned in 2002, Rajan lived out his days in harmony among the giant trees he used to haul. Picture: Jody MacDonald/Vital Impacts

In 1993, Dr. Goodall captured a tender moment of Fifi’s first grandchild, Fax, marking a new chapter in her dedication to the study of chimpanzees. Picture: Dr. Jane Goodall/Vital Impacts

The Namib Sand Sea’s towering dunes, shifting colours with the sun, resemble the female form and demand a reflection on our deep connection with nature. Picture: Brooke Holm/Vital Impacts

A captivating image of a bee mating ball underscores the resilience of female bees, who independently shape their legacy and fate within the natural world. Karine Aigner's is on a mission to document animals and their relationships with humans, their own world, and their existence in the space between the two. Picture: Karine Aigner/Vital Impacts

A surreal photo depicts a young woman positioned as a blooming night flower, up-ended, with her head in the sand. It serves as a commentary on the pervasive “head in the sand” mentality, borne of feeling utterly powerless in the face of the enormous climate challenges we face as a species. Picture: Tamara Dean/Vital Impacts

A young horseback rider grapples with their horse in Mongolia. Picture: Chiara Goia/Vital Impacts

Iran’s Martian mountains, aptly named for their otherworldly beauty, come alive with light and offer a glimpse into a landscape akin to another planet. Picture: Callie Chee

At New Zealand’s Mount Cook/Aoraki, a brief burst of pink light breaks through the clouds, offering a fleeting but awe-inspiring glimpse of nature’s unpredictable beauty. This ethereal shot was captured by Australian photographer, Lisa Michele Burns, who focuses on glaciers, deserts and other regions of climatic significance. Picture: Lisa Michele Burns/Vital Impacts

Scarlett Hooft Graafland has described using landscape as a stage for a performance or installation. Her carefully choreographed, site-specific sculptural interventions and performances take place in some of the most remote corners of the earth. Picture: Scarlett Hooft Graafland/Vital Impacts

Still waters create mirrored reflections in Sitka Sound off of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska, where trees range from 200 to 700 years old. Melissa Farlow is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer who worked primarily in North and South America on over 20 National Geographic projects. Picture: Melissa Farlow

Captured in Tonga’s Vava’u, Aussie photographer Michaela Skovranova was lucky enough to witness a juvenile humpback whale breaching, creating a dynamic and unforgettable encounter with nature’s playful giants. Picture: Michaela Skovranova/Vital Impacts

In the UK, hundreds of thousands of starlings perform mesmerising dusk murmurations, their co-ordinated patterns dancing across the sky before they settle into their roosts. Picture: Kathryn Cooper/Vital Impacts

An intimate dusk encounter with a barn owl deepens a lifelong fascination for photographer Beth Moon, with its silent flight and ghostly appearance inspiring awe and a deeper connection to these majestic birds of prey. Picture: Beth Moon/Vital Impacts

In North West Greenland, Inuit hunters continue the tradition of travelling by dog sleds through the winter landscape, relying on hunting seals, walrus, and other Arctic animals for sustenance. This photo features as part of a series by Tiina Itkonen, who has now travelled more than 1,500km along the west coast of Greenland by dogsled, fishing scow, sailboat, oil tanker, cargo ship, helicopter and small plane. Picture: Tiina Itkonen

The Northern Lights cast a spectacular display above southeastern Iceland’s Heinabergsjökull Glacier, illuminating the December night sky with vibrant colours. Picture: Deanne Fitzmaurice

On Heron Island off Queensland, a green sea turtle hatchling surfaces amid a storm, dodging predators from above and below in a dramatic fight for survival. Only 1 in 1000 of these hatchlings will survive. Picture: Hannah Le Leu/Vital Impacts

Giraffes intertwine the necks while a flurry of birds passes by on the African plains. Marina Cano is a Spanish wildlife photographer, with more than 25 years of photographic experience and international prestige, of which 20 have been dedicated to nature photography. Picture: Marina Cano/Vital Impacts

In La Paz, Brenda, an Aymara Pollera woman, embraces skateboarding as a means to overcome fears and challenge limits while proudly representing her heritage with the Imilla Skate group. Luisa Dörr is a Brazilian photographer renowned for her portraiture that explores the feminine human landscape. Picture: Luisa Dörr/Vital Impacts

Caribou roam near Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska, a community named for its location along traditional migration routes which have been integral to the Nunamiut people’s culture and survival since 1957. Picture: Katie Orlinsky/Vital Impacts

A story of dark dwellings and light beings as an egret rests on a tree in a bayou. Picture: Sapna Reddy/Vital Impacts

A polar bear moves silently along the frozen shoreline, its gaze fixed on the horizon, as the September ice heralds the approaching winter in the Arctic wilderness. Picture: Melissa Schäfer/Vital Impacts

The moon sets behind desert oak trees in the early morning light in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Picture: Amy Toensing/Vital Impacts

In August 1990, Fifi, then alpha-female, cradles her fifth infant, Faustino, in Gombe. Celebrated by Dr. Jane Goodall, Fifi’s resilience highlights her role in the chimpanzee community. Picture: Dr. Jane Goodall/Vital Impacts

Penguins find love in at the end of the world in South Georgia. Picture: Malin Hanning/Vital Impacts

Michelle Valberg recounts her first meeting with Barney, a Spirit bear. She first spotted him in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest feeding on barnacles at low tide. When they locked eyes, it was a curious and enchanting encounter between human and bear. Picture: Michelle Valberg/Vital Impacts

Off South Africa’s coast, a whale thrashes in the midst of a sardine run, captured in a dynamic scene as dolphins also converge on the vast schools of fish. Picture: Krisi Odom/Vital Impacts

Dandenong Creek, once a thriving habitat for diverse wildlife and a vital resource for the Boon Wurrung people, now contends with pollution. Morganna Magee uses traditional photographic techniques in unconventional ways to highlight the sacred importance of the bushland she is privileged to call home. Picture: Morganna Magee/Vital Impacts

Christina, adorned with a curtain and a makeshift crown from a carton box, playfully poses as the Princess of Tundra in a Nenets reindeer herders’ camp. Picture: Evgenia Arbugaeva/Vital Impacts

In a poignant moment demonstrating her profound connection with chimpanzees, Jane Goodall offers her hair to an aggressive male chimp. Disarmed and curious, the chimp reaches out and engages with her, creating an everlasting image of the bond that Dr. Goodall shares with these enchanting creatures. Picture: Michael Nichols/Vital Impacts