Photographer Mitch Dobrowner captures the majestic and terrifying power of storms in his black and white images. Towering turbulence, swirling vortices, and convective clouds abound. See more of his work at his website and Instagram. (Image credit: M. Dobrowner; via Colossal)
“ColorLover,” a short film by artist Rus Khasanov, is a delightful liquid rainbow. The video’s ingredients seem to be ink, paint, oil, and a bit of superhydrophobic coating primed to reveal a heart. I love that latter touch; it’s a cool way to use regular materials in a way that some might assume involved digital effects! (Video credit: R. Khasanov)
Today, enjoy this moody black-and-white short film of storm timelapses. Photographer Mike Olbinski is a master of this subject. I never tire of watching his towering convective supercell thunderstorms or his picturesque microbursts. The lightning-lit clouds in the latter half of the film are particularly spectacular (assuming you do not have sensitivities to flashing lights). And there are a few haboobs and a tornado in there for good measure, too. (Image and video credit: M. Olbinski)
Icy crystals burst forth against a dark background in Thomas Blanchard’s short film “Belletrix.” The process is one of chemical crystallization. Blanchard supersaturates a chemical in a dish of hot water, then cools the fluid, which then spontaneously crystallizes when disturbed. Depending on the solution’s temperature, the crystals vary from feather-like to radial stars, each reflecting, expanding, and overlapping to cover the full surface. (Image and video credit: T. Blanchard)
Unusually high rainfall in Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni turned the world’s largest salt flat into a shallow salt lake. These natural-color satellite images show the area in late January 2022. If you zoom in on the full resolution image, there are incredible detailed swirls in the water. It’s like peering at an abstract or Impressionist painting. The many colors are attributable to several sources, including volcanic sediments, runoff, and a variety of microbes and algae thriving in the mineral-filled waters. (Image credit: L. Dauphin; via NASA Earth Observatory)
We’ve seen a lot of drone photography from volcanic eruptions in the last few years, but this footage from Iceland Aerials seems even more daredevil than usual. In this video, you can cruise over fountains of lava and watch as it cascades downhill. The perspective on some of these shots is absolutely unreal; it almost seems like it would have to be CGI. (Video credit: Iceland Aerials; via Colossal)
To capture his images of auroras, nebulas, and comets, photographer Juha Tanhua points his camera lens downward, not upward. Despite their astrophysical appearance, Tanhua’s “oil paintings” are actually parking lot oil spills. The stars are roughened bits of asphalt, and the colors come from thin film interference in a layer of oil (similar to the way colors appear in soap bubbles). It’s amazing how much beauty he captures in examples of urban pollution. (Image credit: J. Tanhua; via Colossal)
Wispy white cirrus clouds cover dark skies glittering with stars in Roman De Giuli’s “Heaven”. Or so it appears. In reality, these skyscapes are made with watercolors, ink, and acrylic paint. The vistas are gorgeous regardless of whether they’re driven by turbulent convection (as in the atmosphere) or the Marangoni effect (as in this video)! (Video and image credit: R. De Giuli)
During lockdown, photographer Doris Mitsch turned her eyes to the sky and began capturing these mesmerizing composite images of animals in flight. Vultures, crows, starlings, gulls, and bats all feature in her series. Some images, like “Lockdown Vulture (Signature)”, feature a single bird’s movement over a minute. Others show entire flocks over extended periods.
I love how the images capture a sense of speed. Given equal timing between images, the lines with more space between each snapshot of a bird indicate a faster speed. It’s a bit like having particle image velociometry frames stacked atop one another! (Image credit: D. Mitsch; via Colossal)
Soap films are ephemeral and ever-changing. The shifting concentration of surfactants along the surface of the film, combined with thermally-driven convection, keeps the fluid in motion. The shifting colors reflect subtle changes in the soap film’s thickness. Over time, gravity drains fluid from the top of the film, thinning it to the point that it appears black. This photo from Bruno Militelli captures all of that detail in a striking and fascinating image that earned him 2nd place in the Manmade category of the Close-Up Photographer of the Year awards. You can find more winners of the competition here, and more of Militelli’s work on his website and Instagram. (Image credit: B. Militelli)
