To Make You Happy: Elephants Greet New Arrival

Last year, a baby elephant had been orphaned, but rescuers found it and brought it to an animal sanctuary.

The little elephant lost its family, but judging from the goings on in the video you'll see below, the kid is in good hands with a new family, which rushed to greet him.

True, the video is several months old, having been uploaded in May. But when you need good news, old news is both good news, and refreshing news.

Here's the video:

A Very Peaceful, Nature-Filled, Astronomical Look At 2017

Look to the sky to find peace and beauty. A 2017 shot of
northern lights and the big dipper viewed
from Alberta, Canada.

Like most of us, I'm still trying to recover from a chaotic, angry, scary, mean, corrupt, despicable 2017.  

Plus, I'm afraid 2018 isn't looking much better.

Which means we need to look at the bright side. The peaceful side. Nature usually helps.

Nature gets an assist here from Adrien Manduit, who gives us some of his best and favorite time lapses from 2017. You can watch and breathe easy and relax with his video at the bottom of this post.

Most of the images in this video were shot in Iceland, Malawi and Canada. The time lapses go heavy on mesmerizing views of northern lights and intense views of skies filled with millions of stars.

The video closes with this message: "All you have to do is look up."

I guess that will be my talisman going forward. Whenever the world gets to be too much, when people and leaders and the news get to be too much, all I have to do is look up. I already do this, given my fascination with cloud photography.

I guess I was on to something. Manduit proved it. And you should try his recipe. If only to stay sane.

This video proved surprisingly moving for me. I hope it does for you. (H/T BoingBoing)

Shark Feeding Frenzy View From A Drone: Glad I Wasn't in Water!

In a view from a drone, sharks devour the carcass
of a humpback whale as tourist watch from small boats.  

When sharks are hungry, watch out!

Nothing can demonstrate that more than drone footage taken last week of 70 tiger sharks involved in a feeding frenzy on a dead whale in Shark Bay, Australia.

According to CNET, the sharks were tearing apart the carcass of a humpback whale as tourists in small boats watched the action.

It was filmed by Eco Abrolhos cruises, which had the tourists out in the water.

Eco Abrolos notes that the sharks were so close that people on the boats could reach out and touch the sharks, but that probably wasn't a good idea. Tiger sharks eat people, too.

Cruise operator Joe Cox said the sharks "were very docile and very well fed, we counted around 70 tiger sharks of all shapes and sizes."

Yeah, I bet those sharks were really well fed. '

Watch the video below, unless you are squeamish about blood flowing into otherwise pretty tropical turquoise water:

Ohio Police Department Allows Doves To Commandeer Cruiser For Best Possible Reason

Mourning doves have set up a nest with two eggs at the
base of the windshield of a Parma, Ohio police crusiers.
The nesting doves are enjoying full protection from
Parma police offices.   

I love the population boom of birds I see bere in tbe northern climes this time of year.

Which is why I have to congratulate the Parma, Ohio, police department.

A pair of mourning doves decided to set up a nest at the base of a windshield on a backup cruiser parked in the department's lot.

Police could have shooed the doves away, destroyed the nest and moved on with protecting the citizens in the fine city of Parma.

But this was a backup cruiser and Parma police had all the tools they needed to protect and serve. They could live without the spare cruiser for awhile and make do with what they had.

Really. Why not protect and serve the doves?

While two eggs are awaiting hatching at the base of the windshield, Parma officers sealed off the parked cruiser with police tape and traffic construction barrels, says television station Fox 8 in Cleveland.

Who says police tape is only for crime scenes?

Police officers have set up an umbrella over the nest to keep it dry, left a container of water out for the birds to drink and have even dug up worms from a nearby muddy lawn to feed the mourniing doves.

"Our officers are human beings just like anyone else. We care for all lives human and animal," said Lt. Kevin Riley of the Parma Police Department. They want to make sure the doves and their young are well taken care of, according to Fox 8.

By the way, the Parma Police Department names the dove mom Gerty for some reason.

Works for me!

And congratulations to the soon-to-be mourning dove parents.

Whales Swim Under Northern Lights In Maybe The Most Gorgeous Video Ever

Whales swimming beneath the Northern Lights off
the coast of Norway this week.  

Much northern Europe and northern reaches of North America were treated to another stunning display of Northern Lights this week.

This yielded what might be the most gorgeous video I've ever seen.

Taken by Harald Albrigtsen of the Norwegian media company NRK, the video shows humpback whales cavorting just off the coast of Norway while the Northern Lights were in full throttle mode.

If you like nature, this is your video.

Watch:

Oblivious Texting Guy Misses One Whale Of A Cool Moment

Photographer Eric Smith took this photo
in Redondo Beach, CA of an oblivious guy texting on his phone
while an incredible moment in nature
played out right in front of him.  

If there was ever an illustration of how sometimes, smart phones, social media, texting and all that jazz can make you miss out on more exciting stuff, this is it.

CBS News says photographer Eric Smith took a pic of a guy on a boat in Redondo, Beach, Florida intently texting somebody on his phone while a whale surfaced right next to the vessel.

Actually the whale and her calf were "flapping, breaching, jumping, mouths eating fish," right there, Smith said, and the guy never noticed.

"The guy never looked up from his phone during the entire breach," Smith said.

Too busy on the phone.

I hope whatever was going on in the text was more interesting, but I doubt it. I haven't experienced it yet, but people have told me there is practically nothing more awesome than watching whales nearby.

Smith said he admits he can get too wrapped up with a phone. "We're all guilty being buried in our phones, even me," he said.

The photo of the oblivous guy on the boat with the whale is probably one of the best illustrations of the Way We Are these days.

Though this might be his best photo, Smith is an experienced photographer with a lot of great work. Check out his Instagram page.

Walking On Water In Slovakia

The view a hiker in Slovenia had of his feet as
he walked across a frozen lake with incredibly clear ice.  n

I kind of like the old joke that Jesus probably DID walk on water, but it was probably also winter.

Some trekkers in Slovakia found the joke to be almost true when they encountered a frozen lake in the High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia

The lake water, and the ice that formed in the deepening winter chill, is so clear that the hikers really looked like they were walking on water.

I'd be a bit nervous walking on that ice: It's so clear, I'd worry it was my imagination and once I realized it was water and not ice, I'd plunge through.

Kind of like the Coyote after the Roadrunner in the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour who doesn't start falling after he's run off the edge of the cliff until after he realizes he has run off the edge of the cliff. 

Here's the brief but really cool video, taken by one of the hikers as he pointed the camera down at his feet as he gingerly walked on the ice on this frozen lake:

Don't Swim In This Lake In Iceland: Really Awesome Boiling Lava

Iceland's Bardabunga volcano has been a source
of amazing photos and videos since it
started erupting in August.  

Somebody last week took a helicopter over the Bardabunga volcano in Iceland, which has been erupting since August 31.

The volcano, for all its danger, has been an incredible source of amazing photographs and videos, and another great one has just come out from that helicopter trip.

The video shows various aspects of what's going on with the volcano, but I especially love the huge, boiling, roiling lava lake.

Yeah, it's chilly in Iceland, but I don't think that's the kind of lake anyone would want to smooth their cold muscles in.

The volcano has affected a 28 square mile area of Iceland. It could still belch ash to disrupt international flights, and it could melt glaciers in the region to produce dangerous floods.

For now, though, it's just amazing. Watch the video for yet another example among many of the power of nature:

A Perfect Patagonian Photobomb

Photographer Richard Evans was lucky enough to be trekking through Patagonia.

At one point, he encountered a spectacular scene of snow capped, dramatic mountains and rocky scenery.

It was the perfect setting for a photograph and he busied himself setting up his tripod to shoot.

The result is in this post, via Huffington Post.

 Drama turned to humor as he got totally photobombed by some animals called guanacos, which are similar to llamas.

The photobomb made the picture so much better. (As usual click on the image to make it bigger and more easily viewed)

Today's Darwin Nominee: Let's Run On Top Of A Hot Lava Flow!

There's a video going around of a guy near a volcano running up and on top of a steep, and very hot fresh lava flow. He somehow made it through unscathed.

The surprising thing is that while this was an incredibly dumb thing to do, it wasn't the dumbest possible. With a little bit of luck, you won't fall through and burn yourself to a crisp of you run along hot lava, like the guy in the video did, says Erik Klemetti at the Weird Science blog

Still, notes Klemetti, if there's a thin spot on the crust on top of the lava flow, in you go, burning your leg off, practically. And if you trip and fall and hand falls through into the lava, that's got to hurt.

Anyway, here's the video. Don't try this at home. Or anywhere near your favorite neighborhood volcano.

Best Volcano Eruption Photograph Ever?

This is a four year old photograph but it's gotten new life on the Internet lately.

It's an amazing shot of a volcano erupting on an island off of eastern Russia, as seen from the International Space Station.

Amazing shot fro the International Space Station
of a volcano erupting between Russian and Japan
four years ago.

Earth Observatory is always a tremendous source of great photography, usually from space. Do read the link above for a great full explanation of what's going on in the picture.

In this shot, the Space Station happened to be going over the volcano when it erupted, and they captured the big plume of ash going way up into the sky, capped with a white cloud that made the whole thing look a bit like a nuclear bomb.

You can see along the slopes of the volcano something called a pyroclastic flow, which is a fast moving, extremely hot rush of hot gases that kills and destroys everything in its way. Almost everybody that has been killed by a volcanic eruption in the earth's history has been killed by a pyroclastic flow.

Luckily, not many people live near this volcano on the island, northwest of Japan, so nobody got hurt in this eruption.

So, we get to enjoy the awesomeness of nature and geology in this photograph, and not feel guilty about enjoying it, since there were no casualties and not much property damage to speak of 

Otherworldly Late Winter Moments in Vermont

I love those moments where the world, or parts of it in my line of site, take on the look of something from another planet.

The colors are warm in this sunset Sunday evening
in St. Albans, with Lake Champlain in the foreground,
but it was very cold

The setting sun plays on the clouds in a unique way, or ice forms shapes and patterns that aren't what you see every day.

That's happened near where I live over the past few days, to my delight

Sunday was a blustery, bitter cold day, with a strong, steady north wind keeping us chilled under a gray sky. Toward evening, the sky began to brighten.

As the sun set, it cast rays through a distant snow flurry near the mountains, while higher clouds above all this glowed. Beneath it, frozen Lake Champlain reflected the warm light above the cold air that had me shivering. The lake ice, and snow dunes on that ice, made its own delicate pattern.

Shifting, slushy ice along the shore of LakeChamplain
in Burlington, Vt. gives us this moonscape-like view.  

Next day was very bright and not quite as cold. The wind drove thin sheets of Lake Champlain ice against the shore in Burlington, Vermont. The ice formed into a moonscape of patterns, rolling gently as waves pushed through underneath them.

The ice surface looked like something from another planet, a planet where the ground is not rock solid, like it is here on Earth, or even someplace like Mars. It evoked a semi-liquid planet, one you imagine has exotic life, and plants, suited for something that isn't quite liquid, isn't quite solid.

One's imagination runs wild when you gaze at the ever changing ice patterns on a lake during a cold winter's day.

Excellent Avalanche Video

Out in western North America, avalanches are always a danger in and near ski areas. Every winter, you hear of people getting killed or injured by avalanches.

A lot of resorts intentionally set off avalanches when nobody is around in an effort to prevent future avalanches that might occur when the crowds turn out at the slopes.

Some of these intentional avalanches are a sight to behold, much like this video of such a project in Stewart, British Columbia. Keep with the video to the end, it's all cool.

Simple, Peaceful Image: Crescent December Moon

Sometimes I like the simplist images the best. Saturday at dusk, I took "The Boys" as we all them, the dogs Jackson and Bailey, outside to use the restroom in our yard in St. Albans, Vermont

I looked up to see the crescent moon in the clear sky that was fading from blue to black. The moon and the sky and the quiet winter air seemed so peaceful, especially in light of the particular awfulness in the news that day.

So I snapped a picture of the moon to remind myself on dark days and nights there is tranquility to be found out there. 

Cape Cod Weekend Photos

Living in northwest Vermont, I haven't seen the ocean in nearly two years, since I don't have easy access to the coast.

Sunset in a small harbor in Truro, Mass. on Cape
Cod Saturday evening.

So when Jeff suggested we go to Cape Cod for a wedding of one of his past students, I was all for it.

The wedding was at a yacht club in Truro.  Everybody there was very nice, very wonderful. And they were even patient with me when I excused myself periodically to take some photos. I couldn't resist.

I loved how the light kept changing throughout the beautiful, warm day on the Cape. We also went through several art galleries over the weekend, and I was struck by how many painters were inspired by the same views I saw.

I can't blame these artists at all. It's gorgeous down there.

A few light clouds in a blue sky over
Truro, Mass. Saturday. 

A few of the photos I took are in this post.

A small harbor in Truro, Mass. as the light fades
Saturday evening. 

Tristan and Bethany, having just
gotten married, enjoy a moment
in Truro, Mass. Saturday. 

Big Trees, Harmony and No Worries in Vermont

While on a work assignment in southern Vermont, I stopped for a sandwich at the Harmonyville Store, in a section of  Townshend called Harmonyville.

Vermont's largest sycamore looms
over the Harmonyville Store

I have to say it was with great trepidation that I was in Harmonyville. I had this irrational thought that anybody who steps foot in this village with the melodious title would have to prove they could sing, and sing damn well.

And if the singing voice is sub-par, the village elders would stand me up in the Harmonyville Store parking lot and give me a 21-gun salute, so to speak. My funeral services would be held at a later date.

When I sing, I sound like a horny walrus with a wicked case of strep throat.   Any day now,  a military Special Ops unit will call me, whisk me away to Syria, and make me sing Lady Gaga's song "Bad Romance" outside the palace of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, as a way to finally rid that country of its embattled dictator.

Anyway, there were no embattled dictators in Harmonyville, Vermont, at least as far as I could tell. And (YAY!!) nobody asked me to sing.

Which left me time to see one of Vermont's most wonderful attractions looming over the Harmonyville Store. It's the state's biggest sycamore tree.

You'd think that's not a big deal, because I swear Vermont has, like 12 sycamore trees, total. It's practically all sugar maples, here, folks.

But this sycamore is truly amazing.  The fact that I'm telling you its 175 years old and 115 feet tall with a 63 inch diameter just doesn't do it justice. The trunk is so huge, if four NBA players suddenly decided to hug the sycamore in unison, their fingers would not meet each other.

The sign proves that the big tree
in the background is damn big

(By the way, if you ever see four NBA players hugging the Harmonyville sycamore, call me, STAT! I want a picture of that.)

The sycamore has at least seven main branches, each the size of a 150 year old maple. Even the sycamore's leaves live large. Some were almost twice as big as either of my hands.

One of those enormous branches looms directly over the roof of the Harmonyville Store.  If it ever fell, it would smush the poor little Harmonyville Store just as much as the ant I killed in my kitchen yesterday when I stomped on it with my work boots. I'm still trying to scrub the ant remains from the floor.

I asked the nice young man at the cash register about that sycamore threat. He said he doesn't give it a second thought. "I'm not the type to worry," he said with some understatement.  "Besides, the tree is leaning the other way."
I let it go at that and didn't ask the store clerk to sing, just to check. I didn't want to cause trouble.

So I went outside and ate my sandwich under that beautiful sycamore tree.  If only it could talk.........

A view looking up the trunk of Vermont's
largest sycamore tree.

Pine Tree Tries to Kill People in the Park

Enjoying the day in the park can be so hazardous. There's mosquitoes, bees, too much sun, the threat of rain, winos peeing on your picnic blanket. You know, the usual.

A homicidal pine cone in Australia.

One doesn't need additional threats in your average city park, but one in Austraia invented another scary menace. A pine tree in a town with the great name of Warragul  has been dropping watermelon sized pine cones weighing more than 20 pounds. 

Jeez, that's one mean tree.  So, if you ever walk through a park in Australia, wear a hard hat, please.

Motorists Beware: Heavy Foam Warning

We had freezing rain here in Vermont last night, just a little. Enough to ice up the roads and force us to hack our way into our cars this morning.

It's just one of those things you put up with in the winter. No biggie.

At least we didn't have to deal with the road situation in Cleveleys, on the British coast near Blackpool this week. What was apparently decaying algae formed a foam that was driven inland from the sea by a severe wind storm.

So, motorists there had to drive through this:

Another Amazing Time Lapse

My brother in law sent me this incredible time lapse video of various natural and mountain scenes, and I have to share it with you, it's so good.

The photographer is Terje Sorgjerd of Norway, who has produced a series of incredible time lapse videos besides this one, all depicting the natural world. He reminds us the world and the natural universe is truly magical.

This inspires me to try my hand one of these days at time lapse. I obviously would be a zilion times less amazing than this guy, but it would be fun to do something with a thunderstorm, or clouds, or something.

Any suggestions, folks?



The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Ahh..Ahh... CHOO!!! A Springtime Video

My nose has been running a bit more than usual lately, a sure sign of spring. Yes, snots are a sign of spring, just as much as gorgeous daffodils and robins trilling happy morning songs.

When I saw the video in this post, below, my eyes really got itchy and I started sneezing. Just the vicarious look at springtime in its glory. Talk about pollen! That is one horny tree in the video, which was shot in late March in Lewisburg, Tennessee:

Watch: