Speed Demon Photography

Here are some truly amazing pictures. With emotions ranging from pure adrenaline, blinding speed and motion blur to more subtle interpretations, photographers have certainly put some serious effort into this.

Sprinting greyhound by EcoShow
Boy did this bitch get out on the wrong side of the bed this morning. This photo is so intense, so aggressive and fierce looking you can almost hear the snarling from the charging dog.




Going Down by Wilymon
Does this photo even need a caption? No it doesn't. Clearly a fun day out for the whole family!




Rush by froztbitten
An amazing shot with amazing colors. It feels like I’m being sucked right into the tide, yet at the same time you get a great sense of calm looking at the photo.




Three Wheel Demon by Danish
This is the kind of ride that could end up on Pimp My Ride – I can see it clearly: spinning chrome rims, custom flame paint job, velour interior, Momo racing seats, and to top it off – low rider hydraulic suspension... (as if it isn’t close enough to the ground already)




Big Air by jannev
I am soo tempted to Photoshop a speech bubble saying "ooooh shit man!"




Flying Free by vikasmal
This photo of a sixteenth century mosque really captures the beauty of time, architecture and nature. As one of the comments said, with another shot metered for the birds it could've made an amazing HDR composition.




Mud Blaster by torridence
This black and white shot is so vivid with its rough and crude style you can almost taste the mud and hear the engine roar.



Speedy burst water balloon by pajohnson
Awesome and interesting shot of a water balloon being popped. I’ve never seen a planet blow up, but this is how I imagine it would look.




Rush Hour by asisanyal
With that “booming” light coming out between the clouds, you almost get a feeling these camels are stampeding to get away from the Armageddon which has just opened for business in the distance.




Speedboats by estoril
Owning a 15 foot speedboat with 90hp, I am such a sucker for anything that’s fast and floats. There’s nothing that feels faster than racing at 60 knots with your head just a few feet above the water surface.




Mud run by cjbreil
I have no idea about the story behind this image, but it definitely conveys speed, intensity and action at a very basic level. Studying the facial expression of the kids reveals emotions ranging from pure joy to extreme focus.




Mr Dragonfly by elson87
With a goofy smile and a hairdo like that, you’re bound to attract a lot of attention!




*** by krim
Immensely powerful and thoroughly beautiful, you don’t have to be a horse-crazed teenage girl to fall in love with this fantabulous photo!




Shattered Glass by raniel
This photo perfectly freezes the moment between the breaking of the bulb and the tungsten filaments (thereby breaking the source of light), it’s a sort of limbo captured.




Fighting by Nunu
The splashing mud, the arching back of the man about to fall, and their intense (and quite similar) facial expressions makes for an intense photo with a good feeling of action.




Minimoto Madness by goosey
Cookwashed motorbike? It must be Gulliver going for a ride on a borrowed bike in Lilliput. Did I hear someone say "size matters"?




Snap frozen by rbphoto
When you get past saying “Wow…” you may start thinking about how in the world the photographer managed to make this photo. What do you have to do to get the combination of that looong arch of water coupled with the glass standing at an almost perfect 45 degree angle? I could imagine that the photographer just had someone throw heaps of water-filled drinking glasses across a table and hoping for one of them to hit just the right spot in the right way, but I suspect the truth is much more complex.




Tailgate by DProspero
Yikes, you startled me!




Thief in the night by bgaras2001
Zorro the Delivery Guy?? I’m not quite sure what the idea behind this photo is as it looks like a cross between Superman, Zorro and Einstein rushing to serve a pie. Or maybe he’s charging someone with the fork? Perhaps this is what the eminent Albert Einstein meant when he coined the phrase "Imagination is more important than knowledge”.




Viagra Racing by Egarner
Racing is a damn hard sport, and the drivers will no doubt face stiff competition from this driver...

What happens when you take a photo at the right angle?

Photos of an Atomic Blast taken at 1/1000,000,000 of-a-second

Automatic Camera situated 7 miles from blast with 10 foot lens. Shutter speed equaled 1/100,000,000 of-a-second exposure.

Note: the electric like energy that runs down the towers guide wires.

Note: the electric like energy that runs down the towers guide wires.

Caves: The World Beneath the World

Back to the Cave!

If you are stretched and squeezed by everyday life, then you might be in perfect shape to explore caves.

Enter a narrow natural passageway that may lead to simply mind-boggling underground world - to get away from the depressing sights like these... Caves may lurk right under your feet: a fascinating and unexpected environment, which is often known only to spelunkers and dedicated Gollum-seekers.


Gruta do Lago Azul, Bonito, Brazil. (photo by www.alexuchoa.com)

"Symphony of Stones" (how aptly named) -


Garni caves in Armenia. (photo by eco culture)

Fairyland Cave Formations

Caves are a fairyland of delight, from the burning hot enclaves to the glacial ice mazes. Thousands of years of dripping water, eroding stone and budding minerals create a silent world of mystery and beauty... Graceful arches, giant crystals... silent but for the sound of water dripping and bubbling through.


A "Wishing Well" at Luray Caverns in Virginia (photo by Declan McCullagh)

The most common type of caves form when slightly acidic rainwater trickles into the crevices of limestone and gradually widens the cracks as it dissolves the stone. Centuries of water, supersaturated with minerals, dripping from cave roofs cause stalagmites and stalactites to form (see here).


(image via)

One thing to keep in mind during cave exploration: though these structures are made of minerals, they are generally extremely thin and fragile, many of them are quite rare, and can be damaged or destroyed by touch alone. Calcite (the mineral which forms many cave structures), for example, is soft enough to be scratched by a fingernail.

Some of the cave and rock formations:
- Flowstone (also known as a Bacon formation)
- Cave Pearls
- Soda Straws
- Helictites
- Anthodites (or Aragonite)
- Bottlebrush formation


(image credit: Dave Bunnell)

Probably the most comprehensive cave-exploration site on the net is that of Dave Bunnell... You can spend hours there, wandering around pages, cataloging whimsical underground structures, oozing rock and dripping stone.


(Gruta do Mimoso, Brazil)

Largest Cave Systems

We mentioned the Jeita Grotto - the largest cave system in the Middle East- in our recent Lebanon article. The longest known stalactite in the world is found there at 8.2 meters long.

- The deepest known cave is Voronya Cave in Abkhazia, Georgia and has been explored to a depth of 2191 meters.

- The longest continuous cave system yet explored is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, covering 591 kilometers.

Let's have a short world tour of the most interesting caves, why don't we? We'll start with North America -

Already mentioned Luray Caverns in Virginia are full of celebrated speleothems formations, calcite crystals of abnormal shapes - all formed when the chambers were completely filled with water, highly charged with acid. The acid began to eat away the softer material, resulting in ornate pinnacles and arches...


(image credit: Alejocrux)

(image credit: Declan McCullagh)

One of the deepest known cave pits, Fantastic Pit in Georgia's Ellison's Cave descends 586 feet (179 meters) in a straight tunnel:


(image credit: Michael Nichols, National Geographic)

Glacial Caves and Ice Caverns

Some ice caves must rather be called "glacier caves", which can simply astound with the intensity of ice color:


(image credit: Jenna and Tim Dickinson)

Here is a wonderful page of ice caves photography by Jason Gulley:


(images credit: Jason Gulley)

No sign of Superman or Megatron there yet:


Mount Kenya's Ice Cave Bobby Model, National Georgaphic)

Ice Cave in Matanuska Glacier, Alaska - photo by George F. Mobley, National Geographic

A lot of ice caves grow "hair" - ice extrusions, some are quite strange-looking:


(image credit: Ian Mckenzie)

Brazil: Crystalline Underground Waters

Mato Grosso do Sul region in Brazil (and especially the quiet town of Bonito) boasts many marvelous underground lakes: Gruta do Lago Azul, Gruta do Mimoso, Aquário Natural. Intricate limestone formations and grottos hide the intensely-colored pools and waterfalls (many adventure tours there feature diving, some pools are more than 100 meters deep):





(images via)

Limestone caves in the same region offer fantastic exploration:








(images via)

Venezuela: Cave of the Ghost

Cueva del Fantasma is big enough for two helicopters to fly into it, but it's not technically a cave - rather, a collapsed gorge. It does, however, sport a huge waterfall right inside of it:


(image via)

Iran: tremendous cave system

Katale Khor is a cave dating back to the Jurassic period. It's one of the "snow caves" in the Southwest Zanjan province and connects to other caves - a huge underground infra-structure which can hide who knows what (definitely anti-American... wink wink). See more pictures here




(images credit: Ali Majdfar)

Can't get enough images of Iran's natural beauty? See our previous articles... a country full of great sights and dubious politics.

Vietnam: Hang Thien Cung cave

There are plenty of caves in Vietnam, and just like in China, many are illuminated with garish colors. (see here). But sometimes even artificial light takes back stage to the incredible rock textures:


(image credit: Tai Vo)

Mexico: Giant Selenite Crystals!

In 2000, one of the most unusual and splendid caves was found in Mexico by miners. Located only a mile from an upthrust of magma, this cave is 112 degrees Farenheit and at 90-100% humidity, limiting greatly the amount of time explorers can spend in it. It is a spectacular cave, with gigantic crystal formations thought to be 600,000 years old.




(photos by Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific Films, image via)

The crystals formed underwater; as water saturated with calcium sulfate heated in the cavern selenite molecules crystallized and grew, undisturbed, to giant proportions. The cave was drained (by unknowing miners) in the 1980's and stopped the process of growth. Who knows what we may find further on, in the heat and water?

A description of one photographer's attempt to document this cave is here.



(images credit: Richard Fisher)

"It is unquestionably magical that the cool white rays of moonlight can originate deep underground in a black chamber that is, at least in my perception, white hot." (Richard Fisher, photographer, comments on the huge selenite crystals.)

A Giant Geode

Geodes are normally formed by volcanic or sedimentary geologic activity - a cavity in the rock is formed, inside which crystals begin to grow, such as amethyst, quartz or a number of others. Most geodes are small enough to fit in your hand, but this one is large enough to climb inside. The crystals found here are gypsum. - More info.


(images credit: Javier Garcia-Guinea)

The largest Geode Cave in US is located in Ohio: Crystal Cave, check it out.

Ancient Cave Cities

Khosrov Caves in Armenia served as a shelter to ancient tribes - in a perfectly cinematic location:


(image credit: 18:18)

(photos by Raffi Kojian and eco culture)

We wrote about Cappadocia cave city in Turkey before. But you might not be aware that more modern establishment makes its home there - a luxury hotel!



Considering how hot it can get outside, it definitely provides a welcome coolness:


(images via)

This PC case mod would fit right there, in that cave hotel room:


(case mod by Mashie)

Then again, there's a wildly original Stockholm subway station, seemingly built inside a natural (in reality - blasted) cave :



"Metro on Mars":


(image credit: Hannes R.)

(see if you can spot Arnold Schwarzeneggerr hiding behind a column somewhere, trying to refresh his memory)

The mystery of caves runs wild through the imagination of writers and artists. A typical adventure story might lure the hero inside some hidden world, with glimmer and sparkle, only to leave him trapped and confused. It's been said that exploring the human heart is akin to venturing into a cave: dark, mysterious realm - fraught with danger and fear - yet full of wonder and beauty.