Publicado em Sábado, 26 Dezembro 2009 16:03
While at Huntington Beach in Bay Village, Ohio, I saw a storm approaching fast out of the north. I got lucky and was in the right place at the right time. Within a minute of this shot, the storm unleashed its fury on the beach. It was a great day.
Like curtains drawn across the landscape, the walls of the Toad River Valley yield to untracked forests and pure lakes in northeastern British Columbia. Years of compromise and careful planning defined the enormous Muskwa-Kechika Management Area here, where competing interests—from miners to outfitters, preservationists, and native peoples—coexist in delicate balance.
Sunrise filtering through the rising mist at the base of the falls. A perfect moment. Snoqualmie Falls, Washington 30 miles east of Seattle
The low tide uncovered this vibrant sea moss in the rocky shores just north of Los Angeles in the Santa Monica Mountains.
This photo is taken at the top of the 83-meter-high Rock Fort—the only outcrop in the otherwise flat land of the city of Trichy in Tamil Nadu, India. I awoke for the climb at sunrise, in order to capture the colours from the sun radiating over the hazy city. Looking back down, we see one of many decorative Hindu temples in the area of the Rock Fort.
Grizzly cubs are unpredictable. At one moment they look at you with their intrigued eyes, and suddenly run away scared by unknown behavior. These two seven-month-old cubs thought that holding hands would make the danger disappear.
The sweeping color of sea and sky, blue is a common thread in nature, seen in the cerulean of a whale shark (pictured here), the indigo of a stormy night, and the cobalt of a peacock's feathers. Over the centuries, the hue has come to represent calm, cold, mysticism, and sadness.
A rainbow is reflected in Arctic icy waters in Canada's Foxe Basin. Data from submarines suggest that Arctic sea ice has thinned by 40 percent in the past 30 years. As more water is exposed, the upper ocean absorbs more sunshine, speeding up the decline.
Sunlight sneaks through a crevice in Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona.
A starry night gleams above Owachomo Bridge in Utah's Natural Bridges National Monument—named the first Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). "Here you see something forgotten," says ranger Scott Ryan, "and reconnect with the sky."
Captured one morning along the River Avon, this beautiful swan was cleaning itself before stretching its wings in a classic pose. The early morning sun rays add to the surreal image as they burn away the river mist.
A feeding party streams back to shore after several days at sea. Their orange markings, long, slender bills, and hefty, three-foot-long bodies distinguish them as king penguins. With bellies full of small fish, they will regurgitate a portion for waiting chicks.
This is the result of a ten-second exposure on a breezy evening from a suspension bridge in Upper Michigan's Porcupine Mountains. Thankfully, no one was around the bridge to induce camera shake. At the end of it all, it was very, very satisfying and yes, ten seconds—often a minuscule amount of time in our daily standards—did feel like eternity.
Still on shaky ground, the Mexican gray wolf, an endangered subspecies, is slowly increasing in number in Arizona and New Mexico, thanks to captive breeding.
Dolphins are known to jump out the back of big waves as they break against the shores. This pod of bottlenose dolphins was leisurely surfing in the waves as the offshore wind blew against the incoming waves, creating an atmosphere that was most unique and magical. At a place called Waterfall Bluff in the Transkei, South Africa.
In a far north without ice, a mother bear could be stranded a long way from good hunting, struggling to feed herself and her cubs. This snow-free scene near Kapp Fanshawe (Cape Fanshawe) offers a glimpse of what may be the Arctic's rockier future.
Nestled 3,000 feet [900 meters] deep into Havasu Canyon lies the land of the Havasupai. The native Indians are named for the area, the people of the Blue Green. The area is known around the world for its blue waters and spectacular waterfalls. Havasu Creek, a year-round stream with incredible aquamarine water, flows by the village and descends another 1,400 feet [425 meters], passing over five waterfalls. Navajo Falls is the most secluded and is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
A green frog sits atop a large lily pad in the waters of Atchafalaya Delta. Although this croaker is a bayou-dweller, its species thrives as far north as Canada.
The moon rises over Big Meadows on an autumn evening in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. Some 450 families in the Blue Ridge Mountains were relocated when the park was created in the 1930s.
A thunderstorm strikes over the foothills of the Superstition Mountains in central Arizona.
Gray reef sharks and red snappers hover above a patch of table coral, waiting for prey fish to emerge. "They go after everything that moves," observed Enric Sala, a marine ecologist on Spain's National Council for Scientific Research and a National Geographic fellow. Because of their abundance and the resulting competition for food, the sharks and snappers at Kingman Reef, Sala said, "are always on the verge of hunger." Kingman Reef is part of a chain of Pacific atolls and islands (called the Line Islands) that straddles the Equator south of Hawaii.
An African elephant crosses the lush green of Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater.
Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) ride out high surf on blue-ice icebergs near Candlemas Island in the South Sandwich Islands. Safe for the moment from predaceous leopard seals, chinstrap penguins are the second most abundant species in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic.
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