The Bird Photographer Of The Year competition has announced its 2023 winners. There are some incredible photographs among them. Here, for example, is the overall winner, showing a female falcon driving a brown pelican away from her nest. (Click any image to be taken to a full-size version of the photograph on the Web.)
Here's a mother owl with her almost-grown chick.
And here's a Gibson's albatross flying over the ocean.
There are dozens more at the link. Click over there to see them all.
Peter
British photographer Andy Maher captured this outstanding image of a kestrel diving straight at his lens. Click it for a larger view.
The BBC reports:
Andy Maher, from Hayle, told BBC Radio Cornwall he was out taking photos of birds in flight when he saw the kestrel hovering above him.
He said the bird then dived towards him and swooped away at the last second.
Mr Maher took a burst of photographs of the action and when he looked at them later he was "quite blown away by what I'd taken" ... "You can get a bird in flight which isn't always difficult... but to get an action shot, it can be very rare, particularly a shot like that where a bird is coming right at you. It's just a once in a lifetime image."
There's more at the link.
I found Mr. Maher's Web site, and was impressed by his excellent bird photographs. Check it out for yourself. He's apparently self-taught, and I'd say he's mastered his craft very well.
Peter
Found on Gab. Clickit to biggit.
Looks like a sort of icy version of the fiery, lidless Eye of Sauron...
Peter
I came across this image at The Feral Irishman's place. It boggled my mind.
I couldn't help wondering how the heck they got that car up there. A brief internet search, and my question was answered.
Arthur Clarence Pillsbury on the hood of this “Studebaker Six” about a foot away from the edge at Glacier Point in Yosemite.
Thirteen others, on the precipice, can be seen near the vehicle. Local carpenters built a trestle so that the car could be positioned.
Image Circa 1916
Why they thought it necessary or worthwhile to go to all that trouble to get a car up there, I have no idea. It must have been a major undertaking in those pre-helicopter days. Perhaps they were thinking of an early masculine version of the ending to "Thelma and Louise"? If so, Mr. Pillsbury failed to follow through . . .
Peter
I was struck by this photograph, posted by Larry Langman on Gab:
Intrigued, I looked for more information, and found an entry for Brewster & Co. on Wikipedia. According to the entry:
Brewster & Company was an American custom carriage-maker and automobile coachbuilder founded by James Brewster in 1810 and active for almost 130 years.
. . .
By the time of the Great Depression which began at the end of 1929 there was strong sentiment against the wealthy and their archetypal Brewster-bodied Rolls-Royces and Brewster's bodies were not selling well. In 1934 sales chief J.S. Inskip, who had taken control of operations in the hope of saving Brewster, bought 135 Ford V8 roadster chassis for model year 1934 and designed a body for them easily identified by its swoopy fenders and a heart-shaped grille. Stylish and sold for US$3,500 ($70,897 in 2021 dollars), it was a hit at the 1934 New York Auto Show. The bodies were worth more than the chassis. These cars were branded Brewster and sold at Rolls-Royce showrooms.
There's more at the link, including this photograph.
"Swoopy" it certainly is! I'd never seen that design before. It's an amazing example of Art Deco automotive artistry.
Peter
Courtesy of The Feral Irishman, here's video shot from a drone showing the late, lamented sole example of the Antonov An-225 Mriya taking off from Kyiv in Ukraine a few years ago. I don't know whether any permission was given for filming so close to the flight path; I have to presume not - but the result was extraordinary. The world's largest aircraft went by the drone at a distance that can't have been more than a couple of hundred yards. Watch in full-screen mode for best results. (Don't adjust the volume - there's no sound.)
The An-225, the only one of its kind, was destroyed early last year during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Antonov has on hand another partly-built airframe that was never completed, and has vowed to finish it and fly it as a memorial to the giant aircraft (and as a raised aviation finger to the Russians). I'm not sure that'll be a worthwhile exercise in economic terms, but I daresay it's a point of national pride to Ukraine.
Peter
Two photographs have caught my eye this week on social media. Click either one for a larger view.
First, from SNAFU Solomon, we have this image of a bird and a snake competing for a fish.
Then, from user CertainHOPE on Gab, here's a lovely winter scene titled "Sugarcoated Serenity". The photographer captured the light just right.
Both are great examples of photography - and being in the right place at the right time to capture the picture.
Peter
Courtesy of Koltuk's Honey on Gab, here's a picture he/she/they titled "Nature's frozen hummingbird". Clickit to biggit.
Amazing to have the wind and rain and snow shape that icicle just right, and for the photographer to be in just the right spot at just the right time to capture it.
Peter
I came across both these images from Gab user "laylaloo" recently. She has some interesting art and photographs on her site.
First, here's an ice cone at Helmcken Falls in British Columbia, Canada. Click the image for a larger view.
According to Wikipedia:
Most tourists see Helmcken Falls in summer. A winter visit is worthwhile because the ice cone at the base often grows to 50 m tall and sometimes even higher in very cold snowy winters. It has occasionally been seen reaching halfway up the falls. The best time to view the ice cone is from late January to the end of February. The cone collapses inward sometime during March and some remnants are still visible in June.
Next, here's one that's just cute.
Both images cheered up my day. I hope they did yours, too.
Peter
Courtesy of user "Dr. Shooty McBeardFace" on Gab, we find this image (clickit to biggit).
The poster notes: "A rather nice use of natural wood structure." I'll say! That took real skill, as well as real artistic talent.
Peter
A fascinating video clip has emerged of a Russian pilot (who was wearing a personal video recorder on his chest) ejecting from his damaged Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft, after it was hit by Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire. A tip o' the hat to The Aviationist for publishing the video. All the action happens in the first 30 seconds.
You can see how quickly things happen at low level. If he'd hesitated even a second or two, the aircraft would have flipped inverted on its way to crashing, and would have fired his ejection seat straight down into the ground. You don't survive that, at that altitude.
Peter
Courtesy of the BBC, here's a wonderful image of the Pillars of Creation in the Serpens constellation, taken by the Webb space telescope. Click either image for a much larger view.
And here's a comparison between the Hubble space telescope's view of the Pillars (on the left) and the Webb's greatly improved and much sharper view (on the right).
From the report:
Webb, with its infrared detectors, is able to see past much of the light-scattering effects of the pillars' dust to examine the activity of the new-born suns.
"I've been studying the Eagle Nebula since the mid-1990s, trying to see 'inside' the light-years long pillars that Hubble showed, searching for young stars inside them. I always knew that when James Webb took pictures of it, they would be stunning. And so they are," Prof Mark McCaughrean, the Senior Advisor for Science at the European Space Agency, told BBC News.
The M16's pillars are being illuminated and sculpted by the intense ultraviolet light from massive nearby stars. That radiation is also dismantling the towers.
Indeed, if you could magically transport yourself to this location today, the pillars are very probably no longer there.
We only see them because we're looking at them in the past. The light that Webb detects has taken 6,500 years to reach its mirrors.
There's more at the link.
Seeing wonderful images like that reminds me of how very, very small and insignificant humankind is, in comparison to the vastness of the universe.
Peter
The first civilian video of the damaged Nord Stream pipeline has emerged. Screen captures from the video appear to show that the explosion originated inside the pipeline, and blew outward. Click either image for a larger view.
That would tend to support Lawdog's theory that the explosions were caused by methane hydrates, that congealed into a hydrate plug inside the pipeline. If an explosion had occurred outside the pipeline, it would have blown the metal inwards, rather than outwards. Of course, those few images aren't conclusive, but the deep trenches blown into the seabed around the explosion site would tend to support the theory. If an external explosion had caused the blast, it would presumably have made a crater (a deep divot in the ground) around the explosion site, in a roughly circular pattern. If the video is to be believed, this explosion did not do that; but it might well have propagated a seabed rupture reaching out to either side of the pipeline, as the seismic effect of the blast made itself felt through the concrete surrounding the pipe and protecting it on the sea floor.
I'm not an engineer, and I'm not an explosives expert. Nevertheless, I've caused a few loud bangs in my time (back when I was in uniform), and I know a little about the subject. I'll be watching this with great interest, to see what else comes out in the wash.
Peter
NASA has retired its Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), after eight years of operations. Data from its missions will continue to be analyzed for years to come.
From the start of its development in 1996, SOFIA required engineering ingenuity. A Boeing 747SP jetliner had to be modified to carry the 38,000-pound, 100-inch (more than 17,000-kilogram, 2.5-meter) telescope provided by NASA’s partner on the SOFIA mission, the German Space Agency at DLR.
Engineers at Ames developed a garage door-like mechanism that rolled up to let the telescope observe the skies. In that configuration, it was “one of the largest open ports ever flown on an aircraft,” said Paul Fusco, a NASA engineer, now retired, who helped design the door system, “and the largest certified to fly at all altitudes and speeds with the door open. It was a really thrilling aviation innovation.””
The mission’s pilots couldn’t even feel when the door was open. And the stability of the telescope itself was equivalent to keeping a laser pointer steady on a penny from 10 miles away. SOFIA had achieved a smooth flight and a steady gaze.
And that was only the beginning. By 2014, the observatory had reached its full operational capability, and for eight years SOFIA helped astronomers around the world use infrared light to study an impressive array of cosmic events and objects invisible to other telescopes.
Magnetic fields observed by SOFIA in the galaxy Centaurus A“SOFIA’s unique scientific achievements were the result of the ingenuity of the incredible international community that grew up around the mission,” said Alessandra Roy, SOFIA project scientist for the German Space Agency, “which was only made possible by the collaboration of NASA and DLR.”
There's more at the link.
That's pretty amazing technology. The results of SOFIA's missions were spectacular, both from a scientific and a photographic perspective. You'll find many of the images here, and they're well worth viewing. They're every bit as spectacular as those from the Hubble or James Webb space telescopes, taken as they were above the stratosphere.
Congratulations to NASA on a really productive and fruitful scientific mission. I'd call that taxpayer money well spent.
Peter
I'm sure most readers are aware that the battleship USS Texas, launched in 1912 and a veteran of both World Wars, has just been moved to a floating dry dock for extensive repairs and rehabilitation. After 110 years since her launching, she needs them.
The images below are circulating on social media. They're probably the same image, with the second more color- and light-processed. Click either picture for a larger view.
She's still a good-looking lady, isn't she? It's strange to think that she saw action during World War I, before either of my parents was born. She's borne up well under the years.
I hope that USS Texas will still be around long after you and I have gone, to continue to teach our children and our children's children about a long-gone era and the two biggest wars in human history (so far).
Peter
The winners of the 2022 Underwater Photographer of the Year have been announced. Here's the first place winner, by Rafael Fernandez Caballero, showing a group of 5 whale sharks feeding near the Maldives. Click the image for a larger view.
And here, from Alex Dawson, is the wreck of the Tyrifjord near the Gulen dive-resort area of Norway.
There are many more images at the link. You can download a free Yearbook of all the winning photographs at this link. I plan to do so myself.
Peter
I came across this image, posted by user MsOctober1017 on Gab. Click it for a larger view.
They're Undulatus Asperatus clouds. I'd never heard the name before, and certainly never seen them myself. They were added to the cloud "catalog" as recently as 2009. The Cloud Appreciation Society says:
"Since they look like the surface of a rough sea from below, we call them the 'Jacques Cousteau cloud' in honor of the legendary French diver and ecologist."
They certainly do seem to resemble photographs and video that I've come across elsewhere of the sea surface from below.
Peter
Found on Gab yesterday (clickit to biggit):
What a magnificent shot! Talk about being in the right place at the right time - and having the skill and talent to translate location into opportunity. I don't know who took it, but I'll gladly provide credit if the photographer contacts me.
Peter
In both the photographic and military senses of the word. I found this image on Gab. A photographer captured the perfect moment as US servicemen fired a mortar - location, date and time unknown.
Does anyone have any idea of when and where that photograph was taken, and who are the troops involved? If so, please tell us in Comments.
Peter
EDITED TO ADD: My thanks to the commenters who tracked down the original photograph. You'll find it here; open the image in a new tab or window to see it full-sized (3393x2262 pixels).
