Your Daily Breeze

The View Outside

Photo by Eddie Schermerhorn.

Photo by: Steve Hinch.

Photo by: Jürgen Freund.

Stop and...look at the clouds

When was the last time you looked up?

Next time your life seems to be racing by, go outside and look at the amazing condensed water up in the sky. Clouds are so easily overlooked, yet so incredible. They grow and change, dissipate and will never be that way again. But, they are usually there, in the sky, waiting to get heavy enough to let raindrops fall. Let's all notice them more, they feed our gardens, they supply our water and they just look so darn cool!

Some activities to do when there are clouds around:

Find a spot to watch closely, and look at the billows and uplifting puffs change slowly.

Another memorable thing is looking at a tree, or a telephone poll (the closer you are, the better), and look up at fast moving clouds...it seems like the earth is moving and the clouds are still!

See if the breezes touching you at the moment corresponds with the clouds movement up above.

Look all around, there's so many different textures and depths within the clouds.

Clouds (or anything in nature) can be so uplifting, and so can the act of visiting YourDailyBreeze.com every day!

Photos taken by a Nikon D100 and 85 mm Nikkor lense; camera similar to: Nikon D300 Digital SLR Camera, lense similar to: Nikon 18-70mm Nikkor

Unusually Bold Photography

This is one of the largest and most visually stunning books I own. Photographed by Steve Bloom, this book, titled Untamed, presents a unique outlook on the natural world. Almost every page is worthy of being hung in a museum, or at least your own wall, where you can look at it everyday...chock full of unbelievable eye contact, depth of field, and perfect focus.

Even on the first (three) pages the book announces its presence. Three amazing images right in a row; motion blurred horses, a Macaw that you can almost see his eyes dialate, and a dolphin looking right smack at you. But then, after the title page, there is one of my all time favoritest photos...The colors, the movement, the lighting, all work perfectly around a leaping Sifaka mother and her baby who clings to her shoulders, peering around her head. The best part? The young one is looking straight at us. Imagine photographing that moment!?!

Untamed

Some personal favorite images in Untamed include:

#5 (Sifaka))
#26 (Zebras; on a Masai Mara plain in Kenya, with a blue downpour drenching them)
#53 (Springboks running in Etosha National Park),
#59 (a snow filled view of the ocean in the Antarctic)
#77 (a great overhead shot of a penguin who has just burst through the water, New Zealand)
#83 (a Wandering Albatross using a wave)
#130 (a flapping duck in water, Australia)

And in the back of Untamed, the photos are labeled, with a story, and best of all (and good for educational purposes too) is the fact they are listed by location. Mmmm. Geography. Mmm.

Perhaps some of the photos are altered with photo editing software. But, the images are too incredible to loose their endearing qualities due to a few touch-ups or enhancements. Photography is a form of art; and I have accepted that artists can do whatever they want to their own work to make it memorable to their viewer.

Check out Steve Blooms' slideshow of some incredible photos!

Untamed

Spirit of the wild

Elephant!

Books: Purchasing the book through this site allows us to bring you more great treats and finds. Tell your friends! Thank you:)

Untamed
Spirit of the Wild

Favorite Nature Books

National Geographic: The Wildlife Photographs: This book contains stunning and very artistic photographs. Its large format makes it a perfect book to plop on your lap and enjoy. The incredible composition, color, and style in each individual photograph affect the presentation of these photos immensely. And the best part? The feeling you get at each page turn. It's almost like you can smell the mist and feel the waves breaking and spraying bits of salt water on your face.

My favorite pages are: 40-41 (a loon flapping its wings on water), 59 (a Coyote running through green undergrowth), 84 (Ostriches running, two page spread), 86 (Giraffe in the midst of fog and trees), 144-145 (Stingrays), and 289 (Moose calling).

My absolute favorite photo in the whole book is found on page 210; a chameleon reaches across both pages with his or her tongue. It really is almost as if you're there.

Beautiful Nature Photography

Photo by: Louis-Marie Preau

One of my favorite 'jobs' is image searching. I could google image search until my head popped off.

Along my online travels I have found some pretty astounding sites, enclosed below:

The Natural History Museum  has a great collection of photos compiled from the Shell* Wildlife of the Year. Check out their online gallery, especially "previous years".

Photo by: Rohini Kamath

 

TrekNature is also good and it allows you to search for specific thing

One of my favorite site has been "TrekEarth". It's so fun to search for a landscape or for animal images taken by photographers around the world. Try it and take a deep breath of fresh air.

Brief article on Shell's sponsorship of the contest

*YourDailyBreeze.com does not endorse Shell Oil, and we realize their creation of "Photographer of the Year" contest may be an attempt to conceal underlying missions, but the photos are so good!