Artist Thomas Blanchard likes to create wild visuals from a mixture of mundane ingredients like ink, soap, oils, and ferrofluids. In this latest video, he’s mixed chemical reactions and physical phenomena into something reminiscent of a god’s eye staring across time and space, creation and destruction. (Video and image credit: T. Blanchard)
We’re terribly spoiled these days when it comes to footage of lava and volcanic eruptions. Back when I started FYFD, I could find very few decent photos of lava flows to illustrate posts. And now, thanks to drone cameras, we have a glut of absolutely gorgeous footage of flowing lava. This particular example comes from photographer Jan Erik Waider, who specializes in the ice, fire, and flows of northern landscapes.
Waider’s lens offers us a detailed, almost abstract view of these rivers of lava. I especially enjoy his shots looking directly down on lava. Watching the cooled rock rafting along on the lava is like seeing a fiery version of sea ice floes. (Video and image credit: J. Waider; via Laughing Squid)
Seaweed sways in the surf in this photograph by Billy Arthur. I always love how waves look like a stormy sky when viewed from below. This image is extra neat because of the contrast with the sunbeams shining through the still surface on the right side of the image. Sun and storm on the verge of colliding. (Image credit: B. Arthur/BWPA; via Colossal)
Photographer Lisa K. Kuhn captured a spectacular lenticular cloud over Mount Shasta in this image from the Sony World Photography Awards. These lens-shaped clouds occur most often near mountains and other terrain that forces air to flow up and over it. As the air cools, water condenses out, forming the cloud. When the air flows down and warms, condensation is no longer possible. The end result is a cloud that appears stationary against the mountain, even though air is continuously moving past. Add in the long sun angles and beautiful colors of near-sunset and the results are incredible. (Image credit: L. Kuhn; via Colossal)
Looking down on a Icelandic geothermal pool gives a view into a dragon’s eye in this drone image by photographer Miki Spitzer. It won the Gold distinction in the World Nature Photography Awards’ “Planet Earth’s landscapes and environments” category. I particularly like how the mineral-rich stains left by evaporating water highlight the texture of the ground nearby, giving the impression of the dragon’s scales. (Image credit: M. Spitzer/WNPA; via Colossal)
Wet fur forms a spiral of spiky hairs in this image by photographer Ben Dalgleish. For thin and flexible fibers like hair, a little moisture lets them clump together, forming stiffer (but still flexible) shapes. The technical term for this water-meets-flexible-solid phenomenon is elastocapillarity, and it lets you do things like wind a wire with a bubble. It also makes a big difference when washing hair, including in space. (Image credit: B. Dalgleish/BWPA; via Colossal)
Fabrics flutter in seemingly impossible ways in artist Thomas Jackson‘s images. But despite first appearances, each photograph is true to life; the fabrics are suspended on taut lines. Their dance is driven by wind energy, drag, tension, and flow–not manipulated pixels. I love the (turbulent) energy of them! (Image credit: T. Jackson; via Colossal)
Photographer Jan Erik Waider is a master of capturing incredible landscape imagery. In these videos, he uses a drone to film waves in the Baltic Sea gently undulating polygonal slabs of ice on the ocean surface. The interplay of light, color, and motion looks almost surreal, but nature is better than we credit at making imagery too good to look away from. (Video and image credit: J. Waider/NorthLandscapes; via Colossal)
Photographer Chris Perani is fascinated by the microstructures of insect wings, which he captures in “extreme macro” through focus stacking–letting us see wings in glorious micron-scale detail. In addition to giving insects their brilliant colors and irridescence, these structures serve another key role: they help insects stay dry. In a world where contact with water is unavoidable, insects have instead evolved to trap air in the gaps of their wings, letting water slide off instead of sticking. (Image credit: C. Perani; via Colossal)
A toad swims across a pond in this award-winning image from photographer Paul Hobson. The shot was actually captured from below the water, with the camera kept dry in a glass housing. Although the frog appears to be mid-leap, the light-distorting ripples around its feet hint at the flow its kick generated. It’s reminiscent of the vortices left by water striders as they move. (Image credit: P. Hobson/BWPA; via Colossal)
