Big, Big World: 2015

12/22/2015

Wonders of Nature and Nature Landscape Photography

Delta of the River Lena in Siberia, Russia

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Location: Google Maps 73° 21′ 11,51″ N, 140° 01′ 57,57″ E
Camera: NIKON D80

Malakatyn river at Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, part of Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve, Sakha, Russia

Franz-Josef Land Reserve in Northern Russia

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Camera: Canon EOS-1D X

Iceberg at Franz-Josef Land Reserve, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia

Island Archway, Great Ocean Rd, Victoria, Australia

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Location: 38° 38′ 53,06″ S, 143° 04′ 21,59″ E

Island Archway on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Taken as a 6 segment panorama showing the surrounding coastline.

Mono Lake, California, USA

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Camera: Canon EOS 600D

Tufa columns in Mono Lake — Mono County, eastern California. Within Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve, Eastern Sierra region. Photography: August 2012.

Rock formation at Point Lobos, California, USA

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Location: 36° 30′ 53″ N, 121° 56′ 52″ W
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel Xti

Rock formations at Point Lobos, near Monterrey, California, USA.Ed Clifton,Point Lobos Docent and Geologist Emeritus, U.S.Geological Survey, explained this image: "Those funny round lumps (or holes) in the rock, and those odd orange-colored bumps are concretions and nodules, features common to many sandy or muddy sedimentary rocks. Their origins, however, continue to baffle geologists. We know that they are produced by chemical reactions in the sediment after it was deposited, but little of the details of their formation."

Mushroom in Timna Park, Israel

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Location: 29° 47′ 20,6″ N, 34° 57′ 16,68″ E
Camera: Canon EOS 50D

Mushroom and a half, result of wind erosion, in Timna Park, Southern Israel.

12/21/2015

Best Magical Landscape Photos

Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland

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Eilean Donan Castle, as viewed from the south-east at sunrise. Taken by myself as a 2×6 segment panorama with a Canon 5D and 85mm f/1.8 lens.

Lake Bondhus, Norway

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A view of Lake Bondhus in Norway, and in the background of the Bondhus glacier, part of the Folgefonna National Park.

Floen in Oldedalen, Norway

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Floen lake in Oldedalen, Stryn, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway in 2011 August.

Azerbajiani landscape

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English: Landscape of Khinalug valley in Azerbaijan.

Switzerland Lake Sils

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Lake Sils, in Graubünden, Swizerland.

Lanzarote 3 Luc Viatour

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El Golfo Beach in Lanzarote, Canary Islands (Spain).

Lake Vuoksa

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Okunevy Island in Lake Vuoksa.

Mount Yamnuska

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Officially known as Mount John Laurie, Yamnuska is the popular name for this mountain in Kananaskis Country west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

12/17/2015

Animated GIF of a mind-boggling phenomenon

Solar engine - a mind-boggling phenomenon

: Radiometer. The Crookes radiometer, also known as the light mill or solar engine, consists of an airtight glass bulb, containing a partial vacuum. Inside are a set of vanes which are mounted on a spindle. The vanes rotate when exposed to light. The reason for the rotation has been the cause of much scientific debate. 640x480, 240 fps. © Nevit Dilmen Please see the licensing details.

12/08/2015

Fascinating Lightning Animations

Lightning sequence animation

Intercloud lightnings over Toulouse (France) © Sebastien D'ARCO, animate: Koba-chan Please see the licensing details.

Azaraxsh Taleghan

Lightning, slow motion, Taleghan, Alborz province, Iran

Storms over Concord Park

Lightning over Concord Park, Russett, Maryland (USA)

©Andrew Bossi derivative work: Nevit Dilmen Please see the licensing details.

Lightning slow motion

1/50 second exposition

©NOAA Please see the licensing details.

Lightning_slow_motion.gif

Lightning in Duisburg

Lightning animation - NOAA

12/06/2015

10 Most Stunning HD Landscape Photography

Balaton Hungary Landscape

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Landscape at Lake Balaton, Hungary.

Autumn landscape near Gullesfjordbotn, Hinnøya

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An autumn view near Gullesfjordbotn in the island of Hinnøya, Kvæfjord, Troms, Norway in 2010 September.

Laanemaa Lake at Orkjärve Nature Reserve

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Lake Laanemaa at Orkjärve Nature Reserve, Estonia. Sunrise. Intense colors were present for just couple of minutes.

Durbach, Weingut Schloss Staufenberg

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Weingut Schloss Staufenberg (Schwarzwald). Aufgenommen in Durbach, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland.

Lanzarote

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Papagayo Beach, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain.

Port and lighthouse overnight storm with lightning in Port-la-Nouvelle

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Port and lighthouse overnight storm with lightning in Port-la-Nouvelle in the Aude department in southern France.

Wolayer See

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Nature reserve Wolayer See and surrounding area in Carinthia

Catbells Northern Ascent, Lake District

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A view of the northern ascent of Catbells (facing south) in the Lake District near Keswick, Cumbria.

Olgas

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Kata Tjuta or the Olgas is a rock formation near Uluru/Ayers Rock. Panorama of three landscape images.

Crepuscular rays at Sunset near Waterberg Plateau

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Crepuscular rays at sunset near Waterberg Plateau (Wabi Game Ranch) in Namibia.

10/11/2015

Mandelbrot Fractal Animation

An animated diagram showing iterations of the equation used to generate the Mandelbrot set, a fractal first studied by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1979. The animation shows the values of Z for first 20 iterations of the equation
Z_{n+1} = Z_n^2+c
where c is a complex variable.
Mandelbrot set graphics are usually generated using the so-called "escape algorithm", where color is assigned according to the number of iterations it took for the equation to diverge past a pre-set limit, and black color is used for regions that never diverge. This, however, is a plot of a much simpler quantity: the actual values of the equation at the first 20 iterations. Every pixel in the image corresponds to a different value of a complex constant c ranging from -2.2 to 1 on the real axis (horizontal) and from -1.2i to 1.2i on the imaginary axis (vertical). Z is initialized to 0. At each iteration, the next value of Z is calculated using the equation above.
This graphic was generated with 13 lines of code in the R language (see below for the code). For each point, the magnitude (aka absolute value) of Z is calculated, than scaled using an exponential function to emphasize fine detail, and finally mapped to color palette (jetColors). Dark red is a very low number, dark blue is a very high number. The deep blue region "squeezing" in the boundaries of the fractal is the region where Z value diverges to infinity. © Jarekt Please see the licensing details.

Another Mandelbrot Fractal Animation

Created by user AlterVista from the German Wikipedia © AlterVista Please see the licensing details.

10/04/2015

Captivating 3D animation effect

Captivating 3D Animation Effect

Created by Jason Hise with Maya and Macromedia Fireworks. A 3D projection of an 8-cell performing a simple rotation about a plane which bisects the figure from front-left to back-right and top to bottom. © Jason Hise Please see the licensing details.

9/26/2015

Trees Nature Photography

Tree Canyonlands National Park

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Baum (Juniperus osteosperma) im Canyonlands-Nationalpark in Utah / USA

Broken Tree in the Primeval Forest Sababurg

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Broken tree in the primeval forest Sababurg near Hofgeismar, district Kassel, Hesse, Germany.

Baobab Tree-001

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Baobab Tree in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Spring Blooming Cherry Tree

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A Wild Cherry in flower.

Broken Tree Against the Sunset

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Broken tree against the sunset near Mörfelden-Walldorf, Hesse, Germany.

Bloedel Reserve Willow Tree

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Taken by me during a visit to the Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge, Washington. Willow in the Japanese Garden.

Baobab and Elephant, Tanzania

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Baobab (Adansonia digitata) and elephant, Tanzania

Fog on the Tree Line in the Rocky Mountain National Park

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Fog on the tree line in the Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA. The trees are most probably limber pine (pinus flexilis).

Cirio columnaris, Boojum Tree

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Boojum tree (Fouquieria columnaris), taken at the Baja California Peninsula, Cataviña region, Mexico

Silhouette of a Dry Tree at Dawn

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Silhouett of a dry tree in a dawn.

9/23/2015

People Like You and Me (Photo Portraits)

India - Delhi Portrait of a Man

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Portrait of a man, Delhi, India.

Young Ashaninka girl in an Apiwtxa village, Acre State, Brazil

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Young Ashaninka girl in an Apiwtxa village, Acre state, Brazil.

Official portrait of Barack Obama

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Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009)

Blond-haired Vanuatu Boy

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Blond-haired Vanuatu boy

Robert De Niro Portrait

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Robert De Niro at 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Josephine Skriver

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Josephine Skriver (born April 14, 1993) is a Danish model

Migrant Mother

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Colorized version of Great Depression photo "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange.

Face of a Boy from Venezuela

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A 9-year-old boy's face, Margarita Island, Venezuela.[1]

Louis Armstrong

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Head and shoulders portrait of jazz musician Louis Armstrong.

I'll Miss You Dad by Cecilio M. Ricardo Jr

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I'll Miss You Dad Child holds on tight to her dad's leg while saying goodbye to him. Her father deployed to Southwest Asia for six months in support of OEF and OIF.