landscapes

These Photos of the Atacama Desert Will Make You Feel Like You’re on Another Planet

Among our planet’s spectacular landscapes, the northern Chile’s Atacama Desert stands out for its otherworldliness. Sandwiched between Chile’s coastal range to the west and the Andes to the east, the Atacama is doomed to a fate of little to no rain. The desert averages a paltry 0.6 inches of precipitation a year and once went…

This Timelapse of the Night Sky Over Old West Ghost Towns Will Leave You Misty Eyed

There’s an existential beauty in the fact that everything on this Earth will eventually fall into decay; that our vibrant world is littered with the abandoned husks of past life, past ecosystems, and past civilizations. Even relics that speak to humanity’s exploitation of the natural world can take on a quiet elegance with the passage…

This is the most beautiful post-apocalyptic vision of Earth ever

Post-apocalyptic and beautiful are words that I’ve never put in a sentence together until I saw this short film. It takes the exuberant beauty of the ancient temples of Myanmar and incorporates stunning futuristic spaceships to them. That combination creates such gorgeous landscapes that I wish they existed for real. Strange Alloy is a wonderfully…

Real Places On Earth So Surreal, They Look Like Alien Landscapes

If you want to see strange and exotic landscapes, you don’t have to travel the solar system; you just have to take a closer look at our own planet. From fiery pits to rock formations that seem to defy gravity, these views show us a side of the Earth that looks almost alien, but are…

This Photo of San Francisco Was Shot Just Minutes Ago From Space

What an amazing year we are living in! “San Francisco. I almost felt like I was with you as we flew overhead a few minutes ago,” NASA astronaut Scott Kelly posted on his Facebook page directly from the International Space Station. Wish we were with you space station commander!

Artist’s Trash Exhibitions Depict A Planet Colonized By Plastic

Landfills, E-waste piles, and ocean garbage patches are a part of our world we’d rather not see, but these eyesores aren’t going away. Rather than simply accept that our planet is being swallowed by garbage, one artist has started turning this discarded junk into something beautiful. The landscapes shown here are the work of Alejandro…

The stunning landscapes of Austria in one perfect time lapse

This time lapse took two years and about 5TB worth of footage to be completed. The result is stunning, and not only because the work of Peter Jablonowski is technically perfect, but also for its accurate depiction of Austria’s gorgeous cities and mesmerizing landscapes.

The Many Play Areas Nestled Into New York’s Metropolis

New York is an epicenter of commerce and culture. But even busy Manhattanites need recreation to sooth their nerves. Luckily, NYC has no shortage of parks, fields, and courts for sporting types. Franck Bohbot’s series of cityscapes documenting these various sites scattered throughout the metropolis are an ode to our unceasing desire to get out…

Photographer transforms plastic bags into beautiful bird flocks

Paris-based photographer Alain Delorme is a master creating images with Photoshop. His new work is called murmurations: A beautiful series of pictures where he tricks us into think that we are watching a flock of birds when in reality they are humble plastic bags. He scans a single plastic bag in different positions using an…

NY-LA road trip video shows how amazingly beautiful America is

Filmmaker Alex Avella filmed this beautiful video on his road trip from New York to Los Angeles. If there is something that really amazes me about North America is its stunning landscapes full of cinematic references. This short captures this feeling perfectly. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

These Are All The Places That Curiosity Didn’t Land On Mars

Picking a good landing site is key for a rover mission. Here’s a look at all the locations that were under consideration when deciding where to drop the Curiosity rover on Mars two years ago, set to oddly dated soundtrack. [HiRISE]

Beautiful time-lapse is proof that nature is the greatest architect

Time does a breathtaking thing on nature. If you let it run its course the face of the Earth changes into beautiful things that don’t even look like their from this world. Enrique Pacheco made this time lapse, “Shaped By Time”, showing the natural beauty in landscapes. Pacheco writes: “Shaped by Time” is a time-lapse…

Sobering Images Show Famous World War I Battle Sites A Century Later

The Great War may have ended nearly a century ago, but its legacy lives on. As these remarkable images taken by Irish photographer Michael St. Maur Sheil illustrate, it’s going to take a very long time for the scars of this war to completely heal. All images Michael St. Maur Sheil; they are republished here…

Why Mysterious UFO-Like Lights Glow in this Norwegian Valley

As a name, Hessdalen may be more familiar to UFO watchers than scientists. The valley in Norway is prone to “strange, hovering, flashing balls of lights” best attributed, as some believe, to alien origins. Now scientists say they’re on the verge of an explanation: The valley is a giant natural battery. But first, let’s set…

The Weird, Depressing Stage Sets That Zoos Build For Their Animals

If you’re like me, you can remember the discrete moment when the zoo stopped being fun and started being sad; when the jungle behind the animals stopped looking like jungle and started looking like concrete masonry painted with clumsy trompe l’oeil. In reality, the terrariums and enclosures that zoos build for animals aren’t really just…

California Salmon Will Get a Free Ride to the Ocean—In Tanker Trucks

If the salmon won’t come to the ocean, then the ocean will come to the salmon. Well, not quite: Tanker trucks will take them there. Such are the extreme measures in California this spring, as drought forces major salmon hatcheries to funnel their fish into tanker trucks and ride them straight to the Pacific. The…

Sick of being locked in a perpetual winter? Matt Lief Anderson, a professional traveler and photographer, sent over a few of his recent shots, and they’re a salve for the Cabin Fever-wracked soul. That’s Crater Lake, in Oregon, above—click through for a few others. Yosemite National Park, California: Sequoia National Park, California: Alberta, Canada: Seward,…

Germany Is Relocating Entire Towns To Dig Up More Sweet, Sweet Coal

Most of us think of Germany as one of the most energy-progressive countries in the world. But in recent years, it’s also increased its dependence on a form of energy that’s anything but clean: coal. And it’s demolishing or relocating entire towns to get at it. While Germany has some of the largest brown coal…

Norway looks even more gorgeous from an F-16

Norway—like all the Scandinavian countries—is an incredibly beautiful country, especially when it’s sunny. Its endless Tolkienesque landscapes of little islands, fjords, and mountains are a pleasure to watch from an F-16 jet fighter. A perfect way to start your morning. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

None of these awesome photos has been digitally modified

Each of the photos in this collection took weeks—some even months—of preparation. They were prepared and shot by a JeeYoung Lee, a Korean artist who just has a camera, a ridiculously tiny 11.8 x 13.4 x 7.8-foot studio and lots of patience and talent to build her dreamscapes. From the gallery’s site (in French): For…