Originally published 2019-04-17. Events, ages and announcements in this gallery refer to April 2019.
Some photographs work because of perfect timing; others because the place itself seems almost unreal. This collection brings together 22 images posted by photographers around the world between 2015 and early 2019: a Greek island bay, the inside of a breaking wave, a Guatemalan volcano erupting under the Milky Way, a frozen Siberian lake, a bright pink lagoon in Western Australia and even an ice-filled crater on Mars.
Beside each photo you will find who took it, where it was shared and what is actually going on in the frame: why the lagoon is pink, how cold the 2019 polar vortex really got, what makes Peru's Rainbow Mountain striped and why a crater near the Martian north pole holds on to its ice. Several images came from the Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA) and National Geographic's photo contest, and one, the "melting moon", is openly a digital composite, which we flag so nobody mistakes it for a real event.
The photos are grouped by theme rather than ranked. Embedded posts load from Instagram and Facebook, so if one does not appear, the photographer's credit and a description are still here. All credit belongs to the photographers named.
Sea, surf and island light
1. A turquoise bay on Ios, Greece
Hαуℓeу αndersen ❥ (@haylsa) on
Ios is a small, hilly island in the Cyclades, roughly halfway between Naxos and Santorini, covering about 109 square kilometres. Despite a party reputation built around its main village, Chora, it has some 32 km of sandy beaches along an 86 km coastline, many of them quiet coves like this one. Ancient tradition claims Homer died and was buried on the island, though historians treat the story with caution. Photo shared by Hayley Andersen (@haylsa) in July 2017.
2. The power of a wave, caught at the breaking point
Clark Little (@clarklittle) on
Clark Little is a Hawaii-based photographer famous for shooting shorebreak, the heavy waves that crash right onto the sand, from inside the wave itself. Working in water only knee-deep, he times his shot for the split second before the lip slams down. The results show the curl of a wave as a glassy tunnel, something few people ever see with their own eyes. Posted in October 2015.
3. A bubble of air drifting underwater
Ulderico (@7gooses) on
Small bubbles are round because surface tension pulls them into spheres; larger ones are flattened by the water pressure and wobble into dome or jellyfish shapes as they rise. Divers often release rings and domes like this for fun, and the light passing through them acts like a lens. The shot was shared by the account Ulderico (@7gooses) in April 2017.
4. The view from underneath a wave
Matt Burgess (@matt_burgess_photo) on
Surfers call the hollow inside a breaking wave the barrel or tube. It forms when a swell moving across deep water hits a shallow reef or sandbar, slows at the bottom and pitches its top forward. Underwater photographers like Matt Burgess (@matt_burgess_photo), who posted this in March 2019, look up through the turbulent water to show the churning white of the breaking lip against the sky.
5. A mackerel feeding with its mouth wide open
Clark Little (@clarklittle) on
Striped or Indian mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta) feed on plankton by swimming with their mouths open, a method called ram filter-feeding. Water rushes in and out over the gills, where comb-like gill rakers act as a sieve and trap tiny animals and algae. Seen head-on, the open mouth looks enormous for such a small fish. The image appeared on Clark Little's Instagram account in February 2019.
Wildlife moments
6. A crow helping itself at a garden camera
Ostdrossel ™ (@ostdrossel) on
Crows belong to the corvid family, among the most intelligent birds known. They can solve puzzles, remember human faces for years and, in some species, make tools. A bird like this one quickly learns where a feeder is stocked and how to grab more than its share. The close-up comes from a hidden garden bird camera run by the account Ostdrossel (@ostdrossel), posted in July 2018.
7. A squirrel and its perfect reflection
Julian Rad (@julianradwildlife) on
Austrian wildlife photographer Julian Rad is known for his photographs of squirrels and other small European animals, often taken at their eye level. For a mirror image this clean, the water must be completely still, which usually means early morning before any wind picks up. Posted in March 2019, the frame works because the animal and its reflection form an almost symmetrical shape.
8. A lizardfish swallowing a young grouper
Lizardfish are ambush predators. They rest on the sand or reef, often half-buried, then lunge upwards to seize passing fish with rows of needle-like teeth, swallowing prey nearly as big as themselves. Here a juvenile grouper is caught mid-struggle. Lilian Koh entered the photograph in National Geographic's 2018 photo contest, a reminder that a reef is as much about survival as it is about colour.
People, work and tradition
9. A fisherman's net lifted by the wind in China
This image comes from the 2018 gallery of the Siena International Photo Awards, a contest based in Italy that draws tens of thousands of entries each year. Throwing or lifting a net by hand is still common on China's rivers, lakes and coasts, and backlit spray or wind-blown mesh is a favourite subject for photographers. The billowing net turns a routine task into an almost abstract shape.
10. A taiko drummer in mid-stroke
Taiko drums have been used in Japan for centuries in festivals, theatre and religious ceremonies. The ensemble style seen at most performances today, known as kumi-daiko, developed after the Second World War and is as much about choreographed movement and stamina as sound. Reddit user uncovery shared this shot for a monthly photo prompt in January 2019.
11. Bundles of incense drying in Vietnam
Incense sticks are burned at family altars, temples and graves across Vietnam, and demand peaks before Tết, the Lunar New Year. In craft villages such as Quang Phu Cau near Hanoi, workers fan out thousands of sticks with dyed red handles to dry in the sun, creating vast flower-like patterns. Red is associated with luck and celebration. The image is from the SIPA 2018 contest gallery.
12. A floating market before sunrise in Indonesia
Indonesia's best-known floating markets are in South Kalimantan on Borneo, around the river city of Banjarmasin, where traders paddle small wooden boats loaded with fruit, vegetables and fish. Trading starts in the dark and is usually over soon after sunrise, so visitors have to be on the water very early. Dozens of boats crowd together, swapping goods hand to hand. This photo also comes from the SIPA 2018 gallery.
Ice and deep cold
13. Life in the 2019 polar vortex
In late January 2019 a lobe of the polar vortex, the mass of frigid air that usually circles the Arctic, broke south after a sudden warming high in the atmosphere. Chicago's O'Hare airport fell to -31°C (-23°F) on 30 January, Illinois set a new state record of -39°C (-38°F), and at least 22 deaths across North America were linked to the cold. This scene was posted by the Michigan photography page DHphotoMI on Facebook.
14. An old pier frozen solid on the Baltic coast
The Baltic Sea is brackish, far less salty than the open ocean, so it freezes more readily. Its northern gulfs ice over every winter, while further south, along the Polish coast, freezing spray during storms can coat piers and railings in thick, sculpted ice. The photo was shared by Polish photographer Michał Olech on his Facebook page.
15. Ice hummocks on Lake Baikal, Russia
Chanthana Chitanantarat (@aew_chanthana) on
Baikal in Siberia is the world's oldest and deepest lake, about 25 to 30 million years old and up to 1,642 metres deep, holding roughly a fifth of the planet's unfrozen fresh water. From around January to May its surface freezes, usually 0.5 to 1.4 m thick, and pressure pushes the ice into ridges and hummocks of startlingly clear blue blocks. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. Posted by Chanthana Chitanantarat (@aew_chanthana) in March 2019.
Colour in the landscape
16. Volcán de Fuego erupting beneath the Milky Way
Albert Dros (@albertdrosphotography) on
Fuego, 3,768 metres high, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, with small explosions of ash and lava every 15 to 20 minutes. Photographers usually camp on neighbouring Acatenango to capture shots like this. The volcano is beautiful but deadly: its eruption on 3 June 2018 killed at least 159 people. Dutch landscape photographer Albert Dros posted this pre-dawn image in January 2019.
17. A painterly sunset in Poland
Patryk Biegański (@patrykbieganski) on
Sunset colours come from sunlight travelling through a long stretch of atmosphere: blue light is scattered away and the reds and oranges reach our eyes. Thin high cloud, humidity and dust all intensify the effect, which is why some evenings look almost artificial. Polish photographer Patryk Biegański shared this view in September 2018.
18. Romania from above: a landscape split in two
Dronemob / Ignacz Szabolcs (@dronemob.ro) on
Drone photography has transformed how we see familiar countryside, revealing patterns invisible from the ground. Romania, with the Carpathian Mountains, dense forests and patchwork farmland, offers plenty of sharp contrasts in colour and season. This aerial image was posted by Dronemob, the account of drone pilot Ignacz Szabolcs, in December 2018.
19. Peru's Rainbow Mountain
Vinicunca, south-east of Cusco, gets its stripes from layers of minerals: red from iron-rich clays, yellow from sulphurous sandstone, white from quartz sandstone and green from other iron-bearing rocks. Its summit is usually given as about 5,036 m (16,522 ft), although figures near 5,200 m are often quoted for the area. The colours were long hidden by snow and ice; after the ice cap melted around 2013 the mountain became a tourist magnet, and a 2018 mining concession was dropped after public protests.
20. Hutt Lagoon, Western Australia's pink lake
Kristina Makeeva↟Kotleta↟Timon (@hobopeeba) on
Kristina Makeeva↟Kotleta↟Timon (@hobopeeba) on
Hutt Lagoon, near the coastal town of Gregory north of Geraldton, is a shallow salt lake about 14 km long. Its pink to red colour comes from the microalga Dunaliella salina, which produces beta-carotene, and the lagoon hosts a large algae farm that harvests it for food colouring and vitamin A. In summer much of the surface dries into a salt flat, so the colour changes with season, light and cloud. Both photos were posted by Kristina Makeeva (@hobopeeba), in November 2018 and February 2019.
Beyond Earth, and beyond reality
21. Korolev crater, an ice-filled bowl on Mars
Korolev is an 81.4 km-wide crater near the Martian north pole. ESA's Mars Express images, released in December 2018, show it filled with a mound of permanent water ice about 1.8 km thick and roughly 2,200 cubic kilometres in volume, comparable to Canada's Great Bear Lake. The crater acts as a cold trap: chilled air sinks over the ice and forms a protective layer that stops it warming and evaporating.
22. The "melting moon", a digital creation
This one is not a real event. The image shared by Reddit user ChiefCDawg in March 2019 is a digital edit made in Photoshop, in which the moon appears to melt and spill downwards like liquid. It is a fun piece of digital art and a useful reminder that striking images online are not always photographs of real events.
Seeing more in photographs like these
Most of the drama in these shots comes from conditions as much as places. Rainbow Mountain looks muted under flat midday light, Hutt Lagoon changes from bubblegum pink to pale lilac depending on season and cloud, and Baikal's blue ice appears only in late winter. If you plan to visit any of these places, check the season and time of day, not just the location.
It also helps to read a caption critically. Contest galleries such as SIPA and National Geographic usually set rules on how much editing is allowed, while social media posts can range from untouched shots to full composites like the melting moon. Following the photographers themselves is the best way to see more of their work and learn how each image was made.
Sources: Wikipedia: Ios; Wikipedia: January–February 2019 North American cold wave; Wikipedia: Lake Baikal; Wikipedia: Volcán de Fuego; Wikipedia: Vinicunca; Wikipedia: Hutt Lagoon; Wikipedia: Korolev (Martian crater). Photographers: haylsa, Clark Little, 7gooses, Ostdrossel, Julian Rad, Matt Burgess, Albert Dros, Patryk Biegański, Dronemob / Ignacz Szabolcs, Chanthana Chitanantarat, Kristina Makeeva, DHphotoMI, Michał Olech, Lilian Koh, uncovery, nickargiresphoto, ChiefCDawg, Siena International Photo Awards, ESA/DLR/FU Berlin.
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