Rare Phenomena: Photo of Frozen Bubbles Trapped Beneath Lake Surface

From: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/

A rare phenomenon which appeared on a frozen lake in Canada has been captured by landscape photographer Emmanuel Coupe. Coupe explained that seeing a frozen lake this spectacular is rare as they are usually covered in a thick blanket of snow. In this area, however, there is little precipitation which allowed for stunning views of the frozen surface and beneath.

Photographer Emmanuel Coupe's stunning shot of bubbles underneath a frozen lake won over the judges in the 2011 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest.

 

 Click here for the Full gallery: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/

Mesa, AZ Arc

  From: http://i.imgur.com/CmNAE.jpg

i.imgur.com

Live Oaks, Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie, Louisiana

http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/visiting/photo+gallery/

Nude Photo Shoot Focuses on Saving 1,500-Year-Old Oak Tree, Draws Police Attention (Video)

by Jaymi Heimbuch

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Photo courtesy of Jack Gescheitdt
 
Jack Gescheidt, a California-based photographer, wanted to bring people's attention to a construction project happening on a large tract of land right next to Angel Oak, a tree believed to be over 1,500 years old and possibly the oldest living tree in North America. With the threat of development encroaching on this beautiful tree, and more importantly, the habitat in which it lives, Gescheidt figured it was time to make a statement, and that meant photographing 25 nude people posed around the tree. However, the photo shoot drew some unwanted attention... from police.

The Charleston City Paper reports that Gescheidt has used the beauty and inarguable visual draw of nude people as a way to bring attention to ancient and threatened trees, bringing together both art and activism for the greater good of the environment. The Angel Oak project is part of his larger project, called TreeSpirit.
Gescheidt's photographs are absolutely gorgeous, at times juxtaposing the textures of smooth skin and rough bark as the models drape themselves around the tree and at other times positioning the models almost as if they alone could protect the tree from potential demise.

Such is the case with Angel Oak -- the tree's health could be impacted by the new development, and the photo shoot is aimed at drawing attention to, and possibly stopping, the development next door.
While the police were not thrilled with the photo shoot, the artists were able to still capture the shot. Photographs from this shoot can already be purchased online. All the proceeds go to further photo shoots that promote the conservation of ancient and threatened trees.

Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

10 terrifying twisters

 From: http://www.mnn.com/

Funnel clouds

Although tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, the majority of these violent storms take place in the United States. In an average year, 800 tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in 80 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

 

Thanks to tornado chasers and local residents, many of these funnel clouds have been captured on film, so you can see 10 amazing twisters without getting in harm's way. (Text: Laura Moss) 

Photo: Lori Mehem/AP

The 11 Best Places to Watch The Sunset Around The World

See The World's Most Beautiful Sunsets.

Wed May 25, 2011 09:04

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Photo: Microsoft Bench at sunset

If you accidentally catch one, you suddenly become incredibly calm, contemplative and feel like you’ve snuck in on a romantic moment—I’m talking about sunsets. And snuggled up couples have been watching them since long before Glee and American Idol took up our evening free time. Some of us still skip out on modern entertainment just to go watch the sunset. Some people are sunset connoisseurs, constantly seeking out the highest rooftop, quietest beach, or most off-limits location to sneak into and watch it. For those of you out there, here are 10 spots to watch the sunset that have probably appeared on a postcard.

Ayers Rock in Northern Territory, Australia

The sky is streaked in red here when the sun goes down. That is because Ayers Rock is the seat of Uluru, a 348-meter high, 500 million year old red rock and the world’s largest monolith. When the clouds move across the sky at sunset, they reflect the rock’s blood-orange hues into the sky.


Photo: Google Earth Ayers Rock Australia 

Academia Bridge in Venice, Italy
Of course one of the most romantic cities on earth offers one of the best spots to catch the sunset. Academia Bridge stretches over the Grand Canal, and from here you can watch the dying rays of light flutter across the 15th century architecture. For a more ethereal feel, go in the fall when fog makes the whole place feel like an old mystery movie.


Photo: Microsoft Sunset in Venice, Italy 


The Matterhorn in Zermalt, Switzerland
No, it’s not just a ride at Disneyland. The Matterhorn is a great Alpine peak. Visitors can hike across Gornier Glacier to Monte Rosa Hut for the best view. It’s best caught at sunrise, when the sunbeams climbing up the peak light up the tip to make it look like a candle.


Photo: Microsoft Alpine Peak Switzerland 

Mallory Square in Key West, Florida
Also a favorite spot for locals, Mallory Square pairs the view of the sun setting over the Gulf of Mexico with street performers, amazing food vendors, and the freedom to enjoy them all with a mojito in hand.


Photo: Microsoft Romantic couple at sunset 

Masai Mara in Kenya
Catching the sun set here might bring back memories of a beloved childhood film, The Lion King. This is a great destination for wildlife lovers as a large wildlife migration passes through. Elephants, rhinoceros, Cape buffalo, leopards and lions get particularly active and night time and visitors can watch their silhouettes move across the sun setting over this vast desert.


Photo: Microsoft Wildlife at sunset 

Gay Head in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
The sun can play with a variety of shapes and colors here. Clay cliffs peek out of the Atlantic Ocean and North America’s last glacier disintergrated here 10,000 years ago, leaving behind boulders and clay deposits. From the lighthouse, you can watch the sun move across this entire scene with water on three sides of you.


Photo: Microsoft Gay Head Martha's Vineyard 

Pre Rup Temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Already a popular destination for visitors because of its majestic temples, Pre Rup has reflective pools that face west. When the sun sets, the pools catch the reflection of these enchanting structures and light up with the rusty red from the brick and laterite.

Mount Heleakala in Maui, Hawaii
Mount Helealaka is a dormant volcano that rises over 10,000 feet. The volcano serves as the only display of colors on the baron landscape when the sun rushes over it’s blackened sides, lighting it up like water on hot asphalt.

Sentosa Island, Singapore
Sentosa is a small island just off the coast of Singapore.From the shore, visitors can watch the sun set over the dozens of oil refineries sitting on the water, with their rising smoke playing off different colors in the sun.


Photo: Microsoft Oil Rigs in Singapore

Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
If you sit on the beach just far enough from the pier, you can watch the silhouettes of people playing miniature golf, the waves crashing, and the lights from the Ferris wheel reflecting on the Pacific Ocean.

Photo: Microsoft Sunset over pier in California
They’re free. They’re accessible to everyone. And somehow, they always enchant us. Hopefully this gives you a good date idea for the next time you’re running low on money or you’ve just seen every movie on TiVo.

have to include Jerome Arizona: 

There is nothing I love taking pictures of more than sunsets. We spent a cloudy day in Jerome taking some photos. On the way home the clouds starting to clear perfectly and I pulled off of I-17 to take some shots. There wasn’t anything in the way of a focal point around so I decided to let the sunset speak for itself. This is one of the things I love the most about Arizona. Enjoy!Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: with the Nikkor 18-105mm
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3

Posted in: Arizona, D90, HDR, Jerome
By: Jason Hines

Views from the Porch
Jerome, Arizona

The views from the town of Jerome are nothing short of spectacular.  The following series of photos were taken in the winter of 2010 and were all taken from the the same porch.

Winter Sunset over Jerome

Sycamore Canyon as Snow Storm clears

Roiling Clouds over Jerome 

At Chelsea Flower Show Small Gardens have Big Environmental Impact

by Bonnie Alter

from http://www.treehugger.com/

Photo: B. Alter

There are other gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show besides the big, glitzy and expensive ones. There are small ones...

So give a Gold Medal to the Winds of Change urban garden which puts its reclaimed, industrial aesthetic first and foremost.

Photo: B. Alter

Its designer has a passion for reclaimed materials and created the garden around a focal point of home-engineered turbines made out of.big industrial cooling fans. He definitely makes a statement--they are unmissable. As is the only prison on site...the old steel shed has a door from a prison. A Victorian safe is used as a tool storage and the water butt is made out of old steel. The fencing is made out of recycled timber and the planting is loose and natural, with vegetables and a green roof.

Photo: B. Alter

This year there is a new category of garden: artisanal. By which they mean natural and sustainable. It is replacing what used to be called courtyard gardens and it is an interesting switch. The gardens are all charming: natural planting, lots of local and native plants, most use recycled materials and all have a cottage feel. However, after a while all seven seem much of the same.

The Postcard from Wales garden embodies the best of the genre. It depicts an old boathouse on the edge of a river; the old boat in the front is a particularly charming touch. The planting is gentle with alliums providing colour, rambling roses by the front door and hollyhocks against the recycled wood fencing, with bits of shells and beach combing findings strewn around. It won a Gold Medal.

Photo: B. Alter

A Literary Garden is another charmer--it won a Silver Gilt award. Inspired and intended as a poet's retreat, the poems and verses have been hand-carved into the bench, bridge and sundial, all to make an atmosphere of reflection and quietude. The carving is done by a master carver who does each piece by hand. The planting style, again, is informal, overgrown, with lots of blue and cream.

Photo: B. Alter

This Korean entrant, Hae-woo-so (Emptying One's Mind) is a bit of a variation: it depicts a traditional Korean toilet (what!). It seems that Korean people believed that going to the toilet was a "cathartic experience and considered it to be a highly spiritual natural cycle." Pictured is the outhouse, which is vintage and ramshackle looking. The planting is mainly green, with some wildflowers, artful pieces of driftwood and moss-covered stones. Winner of a Gold Medal (for shock value alone).

More on Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show Opens with a Blast (of Wind)
Cold Unseasonable Weather Affects Chelsea Flower Show :
Chelsea Flower Show Features Biodiversity As a Theme
Chelsea Flower Show Features Vegetables

Chelsea Flower Show Opens with a Blast (of Wind)

by Bonnie Alter

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Photo: B. Alter

This year's Chelsea Flower Show in London has been beset by a series of natural problems. First there was the unseasonable cold weather, then the unseasonable warm weather, then the rain drought. But opening day featured glorious sun and celebrities, albeit with gale force winds.

That didn't stop this year's show, now in its 98th year, from being as big (with 17 gardens competing for top prizes) and beautiful as ever. The themes: "wild" rather than formal, vertical green walls, lots of insect habitats, roof gardens and a series of 7 natural and sustainable small gardens. Where to begin...

Photo: B. Alter

You can't miss the B&Q Garden as the spectacular green vertical wall rises to 9 metres. Beside it is an insect hotel which is 5 metres high. And then there is the field of herbs: everything in the entire garden can be eaten. B&Q (like Home Hardware) have done an excellent job of showing sustainability, with wind turbines, solar panels and water butts to collect rain water. Tomatoes and herbs cascade from the vertical wall. There are vegetable plots and culinary herbs as well as fruit trees and lime trees included in this sustainable wonder. It may be considered too corporate since it is pushing the B&Q company line, but it should win a Gold medal.... News Update: Gold Medal winner

Photo: B. Alter

The artistic and aesthetic favourite seems to be the Wild Garden sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada. Canadians can't take much pride in the splendour since there is not one aspect of Canadian content in it except our good old Canadian dollar. However, it was created by one of the eco gurus of the gardening world and it contains a recycled container that serves as an artist's studio, green roof, native plants combined with garden plants and a lovely stone wall with an insect hotel. It will be reconstructed and relocated to a Wetlands Centre after the show. Definitely a winner. News Update: Silver Gilt winner

Photo: B. Alter

The M&G Garden consists almost entirely of planters that are filled with vegetables and herbs. It is a modern interpretation of the traditional kitchen garden. As well as having raised planters of fruits, herbs, vegetables and flowers, there is a sitting area and a water feature. The raised beds are built from willow and topped with cedar. Cabbages mix with clematis, and beans with roses. It is a bit sprawling and seems crammed but the idea of updating the kitchen garden for modern use is good. News Update:Silver Gilt winner

Photo: B. Alter

This has to be one of the loveliest gardens in the show. The Laurent-Perrier Garden--Nature & Human Intervention (love these conceptual/obscure titles) is the most elegant and sophisticated in design and planting. There is a delicate bamboo structure at the back with a long stream with rocks leading up to it. The flowers are a delicate planting of dusky pinks and browns and creamy colours, planted amidst 11 multi-stemmed trees. There are some huge sculptural stones which give it a Japanese feel, in keeping with the "pagoda" structure. News Update: Gold Medal winner

Photo: B.Alter

Here's a retro, super luxury and super glam garden from the Principality of Monaco. The Monaco Garden is a blast from the past when Chelsea consisted of high-end fantasy gardens (so what has changed?). It was conceived as a way to show how high density living ( Monaco is tiny) can be achieved through roof gardens and balcony gardens, fruit trees and green living walls. Love that swimming pool and the lilac lounge chairs--where is James Bond? News Update: Gold Medal winner

Photo: B. Alter

The most controversial is the Irish Sky Garden, a bright pink pod known as the Wonkavator, containing plants that will be suspended 82 feet in the air from a crane. Created by Diarmuid Gavin, it's being called "lupins in the sky with Diarmuid" and only VIP's can take a ride, 8 at a time, in it. Helen Mirren has been in it, Gwyneth declined. Too gimmicky by far for many, Diarmuid is the bad boy of the gardening world--and relishes it. News Update: Gold Medal winner

More on Chelsea Flower Show
Cold Unseasonable Weather Affects Chelsea Flower Show :
Chelsea Flower Show Features Biodiversity As a Theme
Chelsea Flower Show Features Vegetables

Madrid's Green Wall is Flourishing as is the Caixa Forum

by Bonnie Alter

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Photo: B. Alter

Madrid's green wall is a veteran... First noted here in 2008, it was designed by Patrick Blanc, who has created some of the most famous vertical gardens in Europe.

It was installed on an exterior wall of a former power station which was renovated by equally famous architects Herzog & de Meuron. The garden and the building have been braving the pollution, hot sun and elements for four years and we are pleased to announce that both mother and child are doing well.

Photo: B. Alter

First the building: it was a former power plant built in 1899 and one of the few examples of industrial architecture left in the old section of the city. Caixa Forum is a cultural and arts centre that hired Herzog & de Meuron to convert the building and retain the industrial feel. A Swiss firm, they renovated the Tate Modern in London which was formerly a power plant as well.

Photo: B. Alter

Their master stroke was to remove the base of the building so that it seems to hover over the ground. That created a large plaza which provides a place to sit and meet away from the burning sun. The building goes underground, for an auditorium, and three stories above with gallery space, shop and cafe. The rusted iron cladding on the top level has aged and corroded and is a warm bronze colour.

Photo: B. Alter

The vertical garden, designed by Patrick Blanc, is 4 storeys high and takes up one outside wall, overlooking the plaza. It has 15,000 plants from more than 250 different species and most of it is flourishing.

There is an irrigation system which seems to be ongoing, given the gentle mist of droplets that emanates from the garden. The architects said that they wanted to "create a very unusual encounter between the rough and the natural, ...to incorporate nature so there can be the smell of a garden where you would not expect it."

The building, and garden are in the cultural quarter where the other famous museums are located. Caixa Forum has become an urban oasis in contrast to the more formal, and much older, buildings in the vicinity.

More on Green Walls
Green Walls are Growing Inside and Outside in London
Europe's Largest and Newest Green Living Wall is in London
National Theatre Grows Green
Madrid Gets a Vertical Garden Too

9 Jaw-Dropping Caves

From: http://www.mnn.com/

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Humans have discovered and stepped on almost every swath of terrain on the planet, yet there are still places that have not been explored. Modern spelunking expeditions are unlikely to produce such fantastical results as Jules Verne's "A Journey to the Center of the Earth", but there are still some stunning sights to behold. Here are nine amazing caves from around the world that will make your jaw drop.

The Eisriesenwelt, 40 kilometers south of Salzburg, Austria

Photo: Geoffrey Blass

Click here for the Full article with pics: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/eco-tourism/photos/9-jaw-dropping-caves