Lava Kiss
“My husband and I, along with a tour guide and a group of friends, hiked up to what was formerly the Royal Gardens subdivision above Kalapana, Hawaii, where the last standing house was just recently taken over by the active lava flow. While waiting for the rain to pass, we started taking back-lit portraits of each other in front of the lava flow after I set up my camera on the tripod. For the last photo, my husband spontaneously dipped me in a kiss. It was a truly once-in-a-lifetime moment!” (© Dallas Nagata White)
Good Bye Old Friend
“Elephants are legendary for their memory and intelligence including attributes associated with grief, making music, altruism and compassion. We came across this elephant whose corpse was overcome by vultures and jackals. From a distance we heard and then saw another elephant approaching at a fast pace. She was successful at chasing away the predators and then very slowly and with much empathy wrapped her trunk around the deceased elephants tusk. She stayed in this position for several hours guarding her friend.” (©John Chaney)
Fly By
“This photo was taken on the ice near Arctic Bay last month. As far as we know, it is the highest latitude passenger flight on a hot air balloon ever. It was quite the sight to see a hot air balloon fly between the iceberg columns — it is one iceberg but looks like two.” (© Michelle Valberg)
Spiral Down
“The beautiful spiral staircase at the Vatican Museum.” (© Syaza Mohammed Shakharulain)
Milking a Yak
“Nomad woman milking a yak on the grasslands of Sichuan, China after a snowfall the night before.” (© John Quintero)
Left Behind
“It was hard picking out interesting compositions during a fly over, but I thought this one worked out well and gives some idea of the immense numbers of flamingo.” (© Bryan Pereira)
Family Time
“A lion and lioness share some quality time with their cubs.” (© Brandon Harris)
Beneath The Ice
“A magical moment as tons of sea ice floats above while we explored the world beneath the waves.” (© Aaron Wong)
Dust Dance
“A tornado tightens up and kicks up a lot of dust as it heads straight for me, roping out and dissipating approximately 1/2 mile from my location less than a minute later. The tornado was on the ground for a total of 4 minutes. To the right of the main tornado another funnel with a debris cloud on the ground can be seen. The tornado was a rare cold core tornado that had papers written up about it a few days later, referencing my photos. This is one of seven tornadoes I saw that day, making it my most successful storm chase to date. June 20th, 2011 near Norton, Kansas at 2:32pm.” (© David Mayhew)
Burj Khalifa
“At 829.84m (2,723 ft), the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. However, plans are underway to construct an even higher building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. If completed, that structure will be the first in the world to surpass the 1km (3,280ft) mark.” (© Sandra Leduc)
Stay Tuned for tomorrow’s part 2
