Above: The Glass Beach, Fort Bragg California; The Beach of the Cathedrals, Ribadeo, Spain; Maho Beach, Saint Martin; Vik in Iceland and the sea cavern near Benagil Beach in Algarve, Portugal.
MORE: 17 Of The Most Unusual Beaches Around The World (Bored Panda)
Excerpts from a project by photographer Christian Chaize spanning eight locked-off, large format years on a beach in Southern Portugal. To wit:
What the still-life was for Morandi, the haystack for Monet…this beach is that for me. From a distance, I observe the variables: light, weather, time of day, the ebb and flow of the ocean and most importantly, the sunbathers, unaware, below my large-format camera. The images are shot vertically, a departure from the traditional, horizontal format in landscape photography. It puts my subject matter in the form of a portrait—an ongoing record of this corner of nature (and human nature), over the minutes, the days, the years.
Due to a genetic trait known as ‘fibromelanosis‘, everything about the rare Indonesian Ayam Cemani chicken is black: plumage, beak, legs, feet, tongue, organs, bones and meat.
Everything except its blood, which is red. Very dark red.
They retail for €1,900 each.
The handsome but formidable Physalia physalis captured in close up by retired US Navy photographer Aaron Ansarov.
MORE: Deadly Beauty: A Portrait Of the Portuguese Man O’War (National Geographic)
Barry Cummins writes:
A friend of mine got some great pictures of a Seagull…… being eaten by a sparrow hawk (thanks Google Images) right in the comfort of his own back garden. It took the bird of prey two hours to finish the job.
UPDATE: As Mark points out in comments, the unfortunate prey bird may have been a dove or a pigeon. Seagulls have webbed feet.
A huge wasp nest discovered by exterminator John Birkett at the unused spare bedroom of a house in Winchester. According to the Hampshire Chronicle:
“I opened the door and I just couldn’t bloody believe it,” Mr Birkett said. “It was the most incredible thing I’ve seen. “I got dressed up like a spaceman and tried to destroy as many as I could with the workers flying around the room.” The nest split in half during the struggle, releasing 2,000 wasps. “I was covered in them,” he said. “The room was completely full of wasps.”
MORE: 5,000 wasps found in St Cross bedroom (Hampshire Chronicle)
The 250m high Baatara Gorge Waterfall at Tannourine in Lebanon cascades through a limestone cave and three ‘bridges’ formed by millions of years of erosion and rockfalls.
Mind your step. The edges are slippery.
Protrusible jaws, people. Protrusible jaws.
The Shark Family’s Weird Cousins That Live in the Deep Water (io9)
A chart of bioluminescent creatures by biologist and artist Elanor Lutz.
Larger version here.
