Man Meets Humpback Whale

Stunning.

Three more pics, and diver’s story, here.

Via Towleroad.

International Space Station Captures Volcanic Eruption

Sarychev Peak Eruption, Kuril Islands, taken by the International Space Station. Image courtesy NASA – click pic to enlarge.

More info here.

The White House Flickr Photo Stream: Get (More) Obsessed!

Nearly 300 photos and counting…

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speak together sitting at a picnic table April 9, 2009, on the South Lawn of the White House. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Barack Obama runs down the East Colonnade with family dog "Bo." 3/15/09 Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Barack Obama addresses U.S. troops during his visit to Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq 4/7/09. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza. (I assume that's one of Saddam's palaces?!)

Three more after the jump…

Photographer Captures The End Of A Rainbow

Taken by Jason Erdkamp on his iPhone in Orange County, CA.  Source.

More Photos Of Tongan Volcanic Eruption

As I promised earlier, here are more photos – first and fifth in a series – from last week’s underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga. Click the pic for the full size version or go here for the complete gallery.

Photo: Dana Stephenson/Getty Images

Photo: Dana Stephenson/Getty Images

I really can’t imagine the amount of force at work here.

Underwater Volcano Near Tonga Erupts [Updated]

…and creates some amazing scenes that look like they’re pulled from a sci-fi disaster movie. Click to enlarge.

Photo: Lothar Slabon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Photo: Matangi Tonga Online/Reuters

The volcano is only 6 miles from the South Pacific nation’s main island but is not expected to threaten human or fish life (?!). Full story here. This is sure to produce more photos; I’ll keep you posted.

Update: Video! It doesn’t quite capture the scale but it’s awe-inspiring nonetheless…

Photograph: Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Circa 1848

Sotheby’s is set to auction one of the oldest existing photographs of New York City and one of the only that depicts life beyond lower Manhattan:

From ArtDaily.org:

“A half-plate daguerreotype of A Country Home Along ‘A Continuation of Broadway’ (est. $50/70,000), made in October 1848 or earlier, may be one of the earliest photographic views of New York City extant. This surprisingly detailed image of what is now Manhattan’s Upper West Side shows a stately home atop a hill with its vast lawn spread before it, newly planted with evergreens and surrounded by a crisply-rendered white picket fence. In the foreground, the daguerreotype shows what is almost certainly the old Bloomingdale Road, referred to as ‘a continuation of Broadway‘ in the New York City directories of the day.

The date and location of this image have been taken from a manuscript note which was folded and placed behind the daguerreotype plate in its original leather case.

Early daguerreotypes showing parts of New York City are exceedingly rare. Of the handful that can be dated to the 1840s and 1850s, all but the image offered here show buildings in Lower Manhattan, and only one is believed to precede the present daguerreotype in date. This image provides a unique glimpse into a hitherto unknown Manhattan: the country estates beyond the grid of downtown streets, the busy traffic of Broadway just beginning.”

Just look at that yard!

Via Towleroad.

The News In Photographs: Australian Wild Fires

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. (AP Photo)

Yeah, if that’s not a “wall of flame,” I don’t know what is…

Burnt out trees outside Kinglake that were destroyed by fire are viewed from this aerial shot on February 8, 2009. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

This pic would be beautiful if it weren’t the result of deadly fires.

Click the images for the spectacular full-size versions and the rest of the gallery at The Big Picture.

“The Big Picture”

Boston.com/bigpicture (“News Stories In Photographs”) always has some amazing hi-res photographs but this one of a partial solar eclipse in the Philippines really caught my eye:

Photo: REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

Click pic to enlarge to its enormous awesomeness.

Here’s a satellite image capturing Las Vegas’s sprawling real estate development (Gag).  Gee, I can’t believe that town’s real estate market imploded.

Photo: IKONOS satellite image ©2004 GeoEye

Click pic to enlarge.

NYT: “Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas”

Photo: NY Times

Today’s Science Times has a beautiful slide-show of some rarely-seen underwater awesomeness.  Click for the slide show or the article about the authors and their new book, recently published by National Geographic.