This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
With winter in full swing (and some of the coldest temperatures on record in Eastern Europe) I wanted to highlight these stunning macro photos of snowflakes, taken by photographer Matthias Lenke:
Says photographer Matthias Lenke:
I must confess that I never cared about snowflakes too much … until I read an article about the uniqueness of each crystal. So I took my gear to the balcony and made some “field stacks“. And yes … if you are able to have a closer look, these fractal shapes are pretty fascinating. Each snowflake is a small geometric miracle.
To see the rest of Matthias’ gorgeous photos, see his full Flickr gallery. For more macro photography of snowflakes - this time in color - check out Brian Valentine’s work. (h/t to This is Colossal).
-Jodi
This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
Though I’ve been travelling around the world for the last 4 years, I am the first to admit that I’ve seen only one small part of what my country’s national parks and those of the United States have to offer. With such vast spaces and varied landscapes, months of discovery are needed to see them all. Take, for example, these 3000 ft tall Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona, shot by photographer Richard Barnes:
As National Geographic notes in their January 2012 magazine,
It’s hard to believe that a national monument girded by towering cliffs—their color burning through the spectrum as the day advances—could be so little known. Yet few people have heard of the place, apart from one or two of its famous features. One reason is that Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is upstaged by its neighbors, which include some of the most famous national parks and monuments in the United States: Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and more.
Adding it to the bucket list, stat!
For those in the region, note that there are few marked trails and rangers found in the bigger National Parks, so it’s quite an undertaking to visit, and one where preemptive planning is necessary. Additional info, maps and camping sites for the adventure-seekers among you Hipmunks can be found on the Arizona Bureau of Land Management’s site.
-Jodi
This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
Some of the most evocative travel photography is the kind that makes you see something normal in a totally different light. Take the photo below, a bird’s eye view of Baja California desert in Mexico, taken by Adriana Franco:
Hard to believe that this is a desert image and not a delicate hand-painted canvas of furrowed branches and trees. We all know that nature is beautiful, but sometimes it’s a surprise to see it shifted into an unexpected form.
For a few more shots of the desert from above, see Adriana’s gallery on National Geographic.
-Jodi
This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
I stumbled on this bright, ethereal photos from under the sea and had to share them here. Alexander Semenov is a biologist who now does a gorgeous job of photographing what he spent so long studying.
Exhibit A:
Semenov notes that he got into underwater photography by accident:
When I first began to experiment with sea life photography I tried shooting small invertebrates for fun with my own old camera and without any professional lights or lenses. I collected the invertebrates under water and then I’ve shot them in the lab. After two or three months of failure after failure I ended up with a few good pictures, which I’ve showed to the crew. It has inspired us to buy a semi-professional camera complete with underwater housing and strobes. Thus I’ve spent the following field season trying to shoot the same creatures, but this time in their environment. It was much more difficult, and I spent another two months without any significant results. But when you’re working at something every day, you inevitably get a lot of experience. Eventually I began to get interesting photos — one or two from each dive. Now after four years of practice I get a few good shots almost every time I dive but I still have a lot of things that need to be mastered in underwater photography.
You can check out more of his photos on Flickr, or this photoessay of jellyfish on This is Colossal. Don’t miss his Northern Lights photoset on his website either - it rivals the above deep sea photos in brightness and beauty.
-Jodi
This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
Over 13,000 votes were cast for Surfer Mag’s 2011 Photo of the Year contest, and the winning picture is a stunning capture, shot in Tahiti by Zak Noyle:
In an interview with the photographer, Surfer mag asks how the photo came about. Noyle notes:
It was an amazing afternoon with just my friends out in the water. There were five guys in the water with pristine conditions. It wasn’t huge, but I saw that rainbow forming. I was shooting fisheye, and I was quite close in, so I kind of kicked back toward the channel and framed it up like that. It was just a quick moment, it only lasted for two waves, and it just happened to be a setup.
You can head on over to the interview to read more about Noyle. While you do that, I’m just going to sit here and stare at the photo above - it’s just that beautiful. (Thanks to Alex Ogle for bringing it to my attention.)
-Jodi
This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
Landscape photography is one of the better ways to sink into a new place, with its focus on detail and wider ability to bring you into the feeling behind one snapshot in time. Aaron Hobson is a master at constructing photos of this kind, having won several awards for his cinemascape panoramic photos.
In a new series, he uses Google Street View snapshots to create narratives, eerie portraits of the world as as we know it. Example, the photo below from Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave, in France - it’s not your usual Google map!
For the full series of photos, check out Aaron’s gallery here. It’s well worth a few minutes of your long weekend.
-Jodi
This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
Every year, National Geographic holds a photo contest, allowing readers to submit photographs in three categories, people, places and nature. Last year they received over 16,000 entries from 130 countries. This year’s nominations are open until November 30.
Week 10 nature category entry: Dusky Leaf Monkey with its mother near Prachuap Khiri Kan, South of Thailand. Photo by Daniel of Canvas of Light.
Take a few minutes out of your day and head over to The Atlantic’s In Focus blog, where Alan Taylor has curated a photoessay of 45 wondrous entries from the National Geographic photo contest. From volcanos to bonabos to flocks of birds taking flight, the photos are vivid and varied, and beyond humbling.
Which one of the entries was your favorite thus far? Number 2 remains the one I can’t get out of my head.
This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
When people ask for advice on when to travel to a certain destination, I usually respond that they should chase the weather they want. You like your torrential downpours? Head to Southeast Asia during the monsoons. Of course, with global warming and changes in weather patterns, one season tends to bleed into the next. Which is why I tell those who are on the fence about weather that they ought to visit during shoulder season.
Benefits are plentiful: squished between the high prices of peak season and the often cold or rainy low season, it’s a perfect time to see the sights and still manage to find some deals. You’ll usually benefit from off-peak hotel rates and a friendlier set of locals since the crowds are gone.
And you’ll get some deliciously beautiful sunsets on the cusp of a seasonal change. Take my trip to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. It was end of August, a time where the rates for beachside bungalows were halved, but the rains had yet to move onto the islands in full force.
Instead, daytimes were ideal:
Afternoons saw the clouds roll in:
And sunsets were beyond lovely, followed by a tempestuous storm:
So when is shoulder season? I tend to go just after high season ends, something that differs per destination. For Thailand, it’s been in mid-May to early June. For Malaysia’s east coast, late August to mid-September. For most of Europe, Spring and Fall will be your shoulder times (Easter through early June and late October to mid-November). The closer to high season, the better the chance that the weather will hold out. This Travel + Leisure slideshow of when to travel to get your shoulder on is another good resource for getting there just after the crowds and before the rain or snow.
This is a Hipmunk guest post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads.
For Hipmunks who never leave home without their iPhone, Blurb has partnered with photo darling Instagram to print books of your Instagram albums.
Blurb already lets you create photobooks with SmugMug, Picasa and Flickr accounts. I’ve actually used it to make a photo album from my gallery of travel photos, which is why I’ve paid attention to Blurb news - the book was professional-looking, easy to make and a lot of fun.
Collage of my travel photos for my Blurb book
According to TechCrunch, users can now log into Blurb with their Instagram accounts and create a book, with the most popular image (based on Instagram likes) assigned to the cover. Recent images are folded into a book that can be printed and ordered via Blurb’s site.
While many people are getting out and buying DSLRs, mobile photos are skyrocketing in popularity and with so many apps to make phototaking fun with your phone (we’ll be talking about them soon in a travel photography roundup), this seems like a great match.
(I’ve got no affiliation with either of these companies, I just like shiny photos).
