- StumbleUpon Islands | Beautiful Places to Visit - Part 2 The island nation known as the Seychelles can be found in the Indian Ocean off the East coast of Africa, North of Madagascar. There are 115 islands in the archipelago. Seychelles has become a popular tourist destination, thanks to its stunning tropical beaches and interesting wildlife. Popular activities include diving, fishing, sailing, and laying around on amazing white sand beaches. Visitors can find any range of accommodation on the main islands of Praslin, La Digue or Mahé, as well as a variety on outlying islands. Once a backpacker’s secret, Thailand’s Phi Phi islands exploded onto the tourist map after the release of The Beach , a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that was filmed on one of the islands. Southwest of Sri Lanka in the Laccadive Sea lies a paradise like no other, the island country of the Maldives. Credit: Silvery Credit: deckchair Credit: Jinaa
Well Timed Photographs Photography Photographs taken at exactly the right moment. Beautiful Planet - Oh I so want to go to the ISS! Indian Ocean Maldives “The sunny side of life” is a catchphrase used to attract tourists to the Maldive Islands. Well it certainly looks heavenly from the ISS. Time to order a large drink, you know, one with a lot of fruit and a little umbrella, then stretch out on a hammock and just enjoy life, watching what I can only imagine a marvelous sunset. I for one am very pleased that the astronauts on the ISS (heroes in my humble opinion) keep sharing images of our beautiful planet with the rest of us. The real kick is, we’ve seen images like this before, created in special effect studios in Hollywood. [34 pictures] Hint: Use “J” and “K” keys to navigate from picture to picture. Pacific Ocean Hawaii Aloha! Aurora Australis, New Zealand I do not think I have ever seen the Aurora from inside the Aurora itself. East coast of Spain at Night Looking southward on to the east coast of Spain, at night, with the Balearic sea as a dark cloak. Image credit: NASA/ESA Image: NASA/ESA Image Credit: NASA/ESA
Photographer Captures An Underwater Dance Of Colors The shapes displayed in Luka Klikovac’s work look like colored smoke, or maybe strange deep-sea creatures, but they’re actually mixtures of colored and black liquids immersed in water. The Serbian photographer’s photo series is called Demersal and was based on the unique motions resulting from the combination of fluids. To create this psychedelic effect, the photographer used nothing but his camera and lights capable of showing the dance of fluid shapes captured by his lenses. No digital editing resources were used afterwards, so what you see in the images are actually the precise moments when the two elements were combined. Klikovac said that the goal of his work is to create images that allow people to escape from their daily routine and that his underwater shapes should be interpreted like the Rorschach inkblot test. What do you see in them?
50 Images from National Geographic`s 2010 Photo Contest | Top Design... Writen by Bogdan / Comments Off on 50 Images from National Geographic`s 2010 Photo Contest This is one of the most anticipated annual photo contests. The deadline for the submissions is on November 30th so if you have an interesting photo, submit it. Below you can see 50 images collected from different categories. An Indian wrestler smears mud on his head before starting wrestling in Kolkata, India, March 30, 2010. A supercell thunderstorm rolls across the Montana prairie at sunset. Freediver waiting over 800 ft of water for something substantial to come up from the depths. The Great Pyramids. The Music Of Love. Liquid Planet. Brown bear, Buskin River, Kodiak Alaska. Fleet week 2010, standing on Alcatraz island as the Blue angels fly over head. A Wrinkle in Time. This picture was taken in Suradita Village, West Java, Indonesia (2010). Cosmic. The child in us. Cloud and ship. After the Crash. Giraffes at Savannah. A worker in a Bangladesh market taking a much deserved smoke break. Oasis.
The Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve in Texas Oct 3, 2011 Located approximately 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Austin, Texas, the Hamilton Pool Preserve is a historic swimming hole which was designated a preserve by the Travis County Commissioner’s Court in 1990. Located 3/4 mile upstream from its confluence with the Pedernales River, Hamilton Creek spills out over limestone outcroppings to create a 50 foot waterfall as it plunges into the head of a steep box canyon. The waterfall never completely dries up, but in dry times it does slow to a trickle. The preserve is home to the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, and a great variety of other birds. A unique natural area surrounds this pool, collapsed grotto and canyon, formed by thousands of years of water erosion.
Bucks-climbers Spending their lives in the mountains climbing, mountain goats reach this incredible virtuosity, excelling in this mastery of many other animals that seem more suited for this purpose. A herd of alpine goats, or IBEX At the 50-foot near-vertical dam Cingino in the Italian Alps. Horned climbers attracted here because of the salt, which they lick from the stones. IBEX live at high altitudes, up to 4600 m, thus escaping from predators. High Speed Liquid and Bubble Photographs by Heinz Maier It never ceases to amaze me: just when I think I’ve seen every possible permutation of an artform or technique—be it figurative sculpture, stop motion animation, or in this case, high speed photography—somebody comes along and manages to do something radically different. German photographer Heinz Maier says that he began taking photographs less than a year ago in late 2010. He claims to not know what direction he’s heading in just yet, right now he’s experimenting with macro photography, mostly insects, animals, and these delicate high speed water droplets. Personally, I think he’s found a great direction. There are so many things happening here to make these photographs simply outstanding: the lighting, the colors, the occasional use of symmetry in the reflection of water, let alone the skill of knowing how to use the camera itself. It’s hard to believe these aren’t digital.
Population Seven Billion - Alan Taylor - In Focus The United Nations Population Fund estimates that in one week, on October 31, 2011, the world's population will reach 7 billion. Just 200 years ago, there were only 1 billion people on the planet, and over the next 150 years, that number grew to 3 billion. But in the past 50 years, the global population has more than doubled, and the UN projects that it could possibly grow to 15 billion by the year 2100. As the international organization points out, this increasing rate of change brings with it enormous challenges. Meeting the basic needs of so many will mean growing, shipping, and distributing more food while providing more clean water, health care, and shelter -- all without inflicting too much further damage on our environment. [42 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: A baby gestures minutes after he was born inside the pediatric unit at hospital Escuela in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on October 21, 2011. A view of deforestation on Indonesia's Sumatra island. St.