Category: photography

Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas. The clear waters in shallow areas surrounding the fort, seen easily in the photo, are popular for snorkeling and scuba diving. (By U.S. National Park Service – U.S. National Park Service [1]; English Wikipedia, original upload 2 March 2005 by Brian0918, Public Domain, Link)

The Dry Tortugas are a small group of islands, located in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the Florida Keys, United States,  known for its famous marine life, its legends of pirates and sunken gold, and its military past. The first Europeans to discover the islands were the Spanish in 1513, led by explorer Juan Ponce de León. The archipelago’s name derives from the lack of fresh water springs, and the presence of turtles. Turtles provided a food source to the pirates who roamed the waters around the islands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and used adult turtle meat as currency for trade.

Fort Jefferson located on Garden Key in the lower Florida Keys within the Dry Tortugas National Park, is a massive but unfinished coastal fortress. In the middle of construction, the Civil War broke out, and building materials were increasingly hard to come by. This bastion remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War. It later was used as a prison until abandoned in 1874.
info: Wikipedia
Continue reading Dry Tortugas

By Bureau of Land Management – BLM Winter Bucket List #7: Trona Pinnacles, California, for Out of This World Rock Formations, Public Domain, Link

The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water, rising from the bed of the Searles Lake dry basin. Known as tufa pinnacles, these strange shapes formed underwater 10,000 to 100,000 years ago. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side. The Pinnacles are recognizable in more than a dozen hit movies. Over thirty film projects a year are shot among the tufa pinnacles, including backdrops for car commercials and sci-fi movies and television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Disney’s Dinosaur, The Gate II, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes.
info source: wikipedia
Continue reading Trona Pinnacles recognizable in more than a dozen hit movies.

CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Tsingy de Bemaraha is a national park located near the western coast of Madagascar. The area is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the unique geography, preserved mangrove forests, and wild bird and lemur populations. The northern end of the park is characterized by needle-shaped limestone formations, above cliffs over the Manambolo River. The incredibly sharp limestone formations can cut through equipment and flesh easily, which makes traversing them extremely difficult. The word “Tsingy” is derived from a local word meaning “the place where one cannot walk barefoot”.
Continue reading The needle-like landscape in Tsingy National Park, Madagascar

By 663highland – Own work, CC BY 2.5, Link

The Hells of Beppu are eight spectacular hot springs  in the Onsen town of Beppu in Japan. The site  is a popular tourist area where you can feel the pulse and the power of the Earth. The “hells”, that are for viewing rather than bathing, are the second largest source of thermal spring water on the planet after Yellowstone park in USA.

Continue reading Hells of Beppu – Hot springs in Japan for viewing rather than bathing