Category Archives: Photography

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An infrared image of the Helix Nebula, 700 light years away, taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

NASA sez:

The two light-year diameter shroud of dust and gas around a central white dwarf has long been considered an excellent example of a planetary nebula, representing the final stages in the evolution of a Sun-like star.

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After a few decades, the Danube mayfly (Ephoron virgo) have returned to the river Danube, probably due to the increasing water quality. The fantastic mass swarming of these mayflies is one of the most exciting phenomenon for me. My image was taken in a dark, near-natural bank of Rába river (a tributary of the Danube) with long exposure, flash and flashlight. Unfortunately, the lamp-lit bridges have negative influence to them, because they are attracted to the lamps, become exhausted, lay their eggs to the asphalt roads of the bridge and perish immediately. The team of the Danube Research Institute in cooperation with the Environmental Optics Laboratory plan to solve this biooptical and environmental problem. This image is very precious to me as I can draw the attention to these spectacular water insects and their complex ecological light trap, which endanger their survival. Rába river, Hungary. Nikon D90, Sigma 17-70 mm, f/2.8-4.5 1.3 sec, f/14, ISO 800, 17 mm.

Exact location: Near the northern entrance to the 14ht borehole, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa Description – This image was near the northern entrance to the 14th borehole water hole, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa. We saw group of Southern Yellow Hornbill birds foraging on the ground as we drive pass the entrance to the waterhole. They were feeding on termites and it was interesting to see how the termite was thrown into the air and then the bird catches it again in order to swallow it. One of the birds came close my vehicle and it was catching termite after termite. Eventually this one bird ended up about 6 meters from my vehicle and I did some macro photography with my 600mm lens as the bird was tossing the termites in the air in order to swallow it. No baiting was used.

Some fishermen may use the whales to localize the herring shoals. Likewise, many whales have during the years learned the sounds from specific fishing boat when they retrieve their fishing gear, and thereby seek to the boats with the hope to get a “free meal”. This is seemingly a win-win-situations for both parties, but some whales also actively tries to steal the fish form the fishing gear, which can in some cases destroy both the fishing gear and the herring caches. This has led to a debate about the fishing quotas and the interactions between whales and fishing boats. These interactions have also lead to an increasing number of accident where the whales have been entangled in the fishing gear. I developed my own underwater housing to be able to take split pictures like this under very low light conditions. Ordinary underwater housings for split pictures will not work due to several optical challenges during low light conditions. (some dust/ flare due to salt crustal on the underwater housing glass is removed in the digital post-processing). Canon 5DIII, Canon 11-24 f4; 1/200 sec; f/6,3; ISO 640, self made underwater housing, Lee filter 1.2.

Finallists from this years Wildlife Photographer of The Year competition at London’s Natonal History Museum.

Above: An urban fox in Bristol by Sam Hobson; swarms of mayflies on Hungary’s River Rába by Imre Potyó; a hornbill flicking insects into the air by Willem Kruger and a large male killer whale feeding on herring in the Arctic Norwegian waters by Auden Rikardsen.

MORE: boredpanda

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Every month, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), launched in 2005, sends images back to Earth.

A recent batch of more than 1,000 photographs coincided with the Martian equinox when the sun shone directly onto the planet’s equator, revealing clear views of a surprisingly diverse, multicoloured terrain normally shrouded in darkness.

View the complete image set here.

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