Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Monday, October 18, 2010

10 Beautiful Natural Patterns of Tree Photos

Possibly there’re thousands of beautiful and magnificent trees in the world. Nature is one of my favorite and respectable topics. I’m sure, this beautiful and superb tree patterns inspire you to go out and capture this symbol of nature for yourself.

Quaking Aspen Trees Patterns of Tree

Quaking Aspen Trees

Birch Bark Patterns of Tree

Birch Bark

Eucalyptus Tree Bark Patterns of Tree

Eucalyptus Tree Bark

Knotted Aspen Bark Patterns of Tree

Knotted Aspen Bark

Cottonwood Tree Bark

Cottonwood Tree Bark

Sycamore Bark Patterns of Tree

Sycamore Bark

Whitebark Pine Trunks Patterns of Tree

Whitebark Pine Trunks

Termite Tunnels Patterns of Tree

Termite Tunnels

Foxtail Pine Patterns of Tree

Foxtail Pine

Aspen Grove Patterns of Tree

Aspen Grove

Friday, October 8, 2010

Paris Peacock Butterfly | Beautiful green colored butterfly

The Paris Peacock (Papilio Paris) is a beautiful green colored butterfly in the family Papilionidae (swallowtail butterflies), found in northern areas of Pakistan. I saw this butterfly for the first and last time in May 2008, before starting this blog. They were mud-puddling in a large number on the bank of a stream in Dara Gokand, district Buner.

Paris Peacock Butterfly


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

18 Nature Places to Feel Dwarfed | Real Photography



1. Uluru, Australia
The massive rock — a.k.a. Ayers Rock — is climbed by 250 every day, despite pleas from local indigenous groups to refrain from doing so.


2. Diving with whale sharks
The whale shark is the world’s largest fish species and can grow to be longer than 40 feet. This shot was taken off Christmas Island, Australia, in January 2005.


3. Cotopaxi, Ecuador
This volcano just south of Quito reaches an elevation of 5,897m (19,347ft) — often higher than the clouds.


4. Redwood country, California
Taken in Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park


5. Sea Kayaking, solo
Big water, small boat. Shot taken walking the Southwest Coast Path from Land’s End to Plymouth, England.




6. Great Ocean Road, Australia
The coast along one of the world’s most spectacular roads is also good for a walk.


7. Ponoras Cave, Romania
Things can get large underground too. Here, spelunkers from CSA explore “Mammoth Hall” in Romania’s Transylvania region. The light trail was produced by a fast-moving caver with a headlamp.


8. Snowfields, Rocky Mountains
This is no photoshop. It’s Matador senior editor David Miller getting in some late-season turns in Rocky Mountain National Park.


9. Desert, southern Peru
Sand accumulates into massive dunes in one of the driest deserts on Earth. Notice the city of Ica, Peru, in the distance — also dwarfed.


10. Camping under the stars
So many stars. And camping the best way to let them overwhelm you. This shot was taken near Maupin, Oregon.


11. Mount Bromo, Indonesia
This very active Javanese volcano attracts lots of tiny visitors up to its steaming rim.

12. Yosemite National Park, California


13. Antarctica
Travelers to Antarctica report losing all sense of distance — the geographic scale is so immense and the ice fields so flat and white. This is Lake Fryxell.


14. Preikestolen, Norway
This rock has a great view of Lysefjorden and is a good place to get close to the edge.


15. Mont Blanc, France
Europe’s tallest mountain tops out at 4,810m (15,782ft)


16. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
This salt plain is the world’s largest and traps rainwater during wet winter months, creating a tripped-out sky mirror.


17. On a cliff ascent
This one happens to be the curved limestone face of Malham Cove, North Yorkshire, England.


18. Iguazu Falls, Brazil
The majority of the falls lies in Argentina, but according to the photographer, “the great thing about the Brazilian side of Iguazu is that there are no limits on taking pictures at any time of day….(unlike the Argentinian side).”

Monday, May 10, 2010

Beautiful Four Seasons Photography

Bat Flower look like Predator Faced Plant

Is it too much of a leap of the imagination or does the Bat Flower bear a resemblance to a certain extraterrestrial species featured in the science fiction franchise?

Here at Kuriositas we were immediately reminded of the alien’s vicious mandibles and the shape of the lower part of its face.

The plant itself has much more down to earth origins in fact.

As the Predator series of films had not been made at the time of its discovery the plant was first christened the Bat Flower – and you can see why. This is an incredibly unusual looking species with its black bat-shaped flower. The flowers themselves can grown up to twelve inches across and the ‘whiskers’ that you can see are known to grow up to thirty inches.

It still manages to look other worldly from the back.

Altogether the bat flower is one of the spookier plants we have come across – something that Morticia Adams might like to have in her conservatory. There is certainly something of the triffid about them too, but the fact is that the wild variety of this plant species can be found in the Yunnan Province of China. It is also found in Thailand and Burma.

A brief aside

Since the publication of this article we have had another suggestion - and one which is pretty good too! So good in fact that it may well be better than our original suggestion (shucks).

If you do not think that the Bat Flower looks like Predator then how close a resemblance do you think it has to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Separated at birth, or what?

Which leaves us to conclude that all three species may be possibly related - even though one is a plant, another an extraterrestrial and the third a deity.

The Bat flower or Tacca chantrieri to give it its Latin name is an unusual but increasingly popular addition to gardens but grown best in the wild – often up to thirty six inches. They were first introduced to Europe and the Americas at the turn of the last century when it was grown specifically for its fabulous foliage.

Today it is the bizarre flowers, with their dark purple, almost black color that attracts enthusiasts. They are a little sinister perhaps and might even be out of place at a funeral such is their macabre appearance, particularly the shoe-lace like attachments that dangle from them.

It would be no surprise to discover that John Wyndham - once he had seen a group of these plants flowering together - came up with the idea for the triffids. There is definitely a feeling of being stalked (forgive the pun) in their presence.

You may hear of them as Tacca plants – and this is the vernacular name for this species and a number of close relatives. As it is a jungle plant it grows best in shaded areas but does better outdoors (in temperate climate) than in the stillness of a greenhouse where it dislikes the lack of breeze.

As the flower cluster rises above the leaves, the overall effect is alien, stunning and perhaps just a little disconcerting. A flower with such features could be imagined easily to have triffid like qualities – but the Tacca is completely harmless and will certainly never surprise you with a slap from a stinger (even though it looks like it might!).

Tacca can be propagated by root division or – if you are very patient – by using the seeds. The plant flowers usually after it has produced three or four full sized leaves. Each plant can produce between six and twelve flower stems from late spring to August.

When the seed capsules appear, they too look somewhat alien. They must be left where they are on the plant until they split – and this can take up to eighteen months. Once the seeds are cleaned of the pulp and air dried they can be planted. However, they can take almost a year to germinate – so they are not for the impatient gardener by any means.

As a footnote, it has a much rarer relative, the white bat flower. Which one do you think is spookier?

Image Credit Wikimedia


Source:- kuriositas