Amazing Things Around the World: July 2013

Clouds That Look Like Things

Spotting shapes in clouds is a delightful way to pass a lazy afternoon. There's even a society dedicated to cloud spotting. It’s called the Cloud Appreciation Society, founded by Gavin Pretor-Pinney to foster understanding and appreciation of clouds, and to fight “blue sky thinking”.

A clear blue sky has always been associated with good, happy weather – a perfect summer’s day, while cloudy skies are regarded as a metaphor for doom. Nothing could be more depressing, it seems, than to have ‘a cloud on the horizon’. Gavin Pretor-Pinney decided that this has to stop. “Someone needs to stand up for the clouds”, he says. So in 2004, he started the Cloud Appreciation Society and few months later launched a website. People sent in their cloud photograph, which he put up on the gallery pages for others to look at. The early trickle of submission soon swelled to a torrent. Today, it has over 29,000 members worldwide from 83+ different countries, and many thousands of amazing images.

Below is a collection of some of the most peculiar cloud formations.

A cloud monkeying around over Bangkok. Photo by Alex Cliff

Cloud Alien ahead.....Eagle River Valley, Colorado. U.S. Photo by Terry Robinson.

Aladdin's lamp, spotted over The Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. Photo by Andrea Andreoli.

A baby floats over Zurich, Switzerland. Photo by Danièle Siebenhaar.

The big chicken on the roof of Manor Market in Bishop California, is being mirrored in the clouds. Photo by Andrew Kirk.

A dolphin leaping from an inky black sea over Sussex, UK. Photo by Beryl Pratt.

Dolphins at play, Sausalito, California. U.S. Photo by David Holbrooke.

A heart in the clouds over Norwich, UK. Photo by Doug Taylor

A Dove over Kent, UK. Photo by Pauline Reay-Earnshaw

Eagle soars over Cambridge. U.K. Photo by Christie Nel.

Elephant in a storm cloud, taken on holiday at Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand. Photo by Graham Blackett.

A feather over Brockenhurst in the New Forest, Hants., UK. Photo by Chris Gleed-Owen

A heart over SuperDevoluy, Saint Etienne en Devoluy, France. Photo by Emily Morus-Jones

A hummingbird over Berryton, Kansas, US. Photo by Shannon Franks

Jack Palance, spotted over Loudonville, Ohio, US. Photo by Catherine Wilson

A jellyfish over Berry, New South Wales, Australia. Photo by Mark Muirhead.

A cumulus called Kitty, Western New York. U.S. Photo by Diane Mariotti.

A man running with a bouquet of flowers. Spotted over France. Photo by Rudolf Wehrung.

A giant Mushroom over North Jutland, Denmark. Photo by Jan Hertoghs

Poodle spotted over Sanderstead, Surrey. U.K. Photo by Alex Brooker.

A poodle with shades enjoys a day by the sea over Blackpool, Lancashire, UK. Photo by Bill Williamson.

A rabbit hopping over Nottinghamshire, UK. Photo by Andy Jamieson.

Shhhhhh dont tell anyone. There's a monster rat over Tortona, Alessandria, Italy. Photo by Pietro Cordelli.

A sunset smile over West Hollywood, California, US. Photo by Christine Murphy.

Little Cumulus cloud from East Texas, US, smoking. Photo by Jan Morris Marek.

A snail, spotted just before sunrise over Anglesey, UK. Photo by John Rowlands

A turtle travelling on the back of a crocodile over the border between France and Spain. Photo by Jean-Francois Guillot

A witch or the grumpy old man in the muppets over Bangkok. Photo by Alex Cliff.

Gigantic Snow Wall Along Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, Japan

The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is a unique and spectacular route through the Northern Japan Alps, which is traversed by various means of transportation, including cable cars, trolley buses and a ropeway. The route is particularly famous for the high snow walls that line some of its roads in spring.

The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route was completed in 1971, and connects Toyama City in Toyama Prefecture with Omachi Town in Nagano Prefecture. The route was carefully built so that the surrounding environment is not damaged. Consequently, three lines go entirely under tunnels; among them, two are trolleybus lines. Trolleybuses have all gone from Japan, except for these two lines which are still used here as they don't exhaust gas.

The route goes through Tateyama in the Hida Mountains with a lot of scenic sites, including Kurobe dam. The section between Kurobe Dam and Ōgisawa was originally made for construction of the dam, while the section between Tateyama and Kurobeko was for tourists from the beginning. Currently, the route is purely a sightseeing one, only used by tourists. The main attraction that draws the crowd to this route is the magnificent scenery of the Tateyama Mountain Range, part of the Chubu Sangaku National Park. The 20 meter high snow corridor is a highlight during spring, while alpine flowers and autumn colors attract hikers during the summer and autumn.

Along the route, some stations have hotels around them that are used as bases for mountain climbing or trekking.

Some scenes along the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

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Photo taken in the Murodō Highland, on the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route. Photo credit

Kurobe Dam, on the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route. Photo credit

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Photo taken on the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route, precisely at Daikanbou (upstream ropeway station) Photo credit

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Frozen Trees of the Arctic: Photography by Niccolò Bonfadini

Niccolò Bonfadini is a young photographer living in Monza, in the northern part of Italy. Since he was a child he has always been fascinated by Nature. Some years ago he discovered his passion for photography and since then he has started traveling intensively with his camera. For him nothing is more fulfilling that being out in the wilderness witnessing a sunrise or a starry sky. Photography motivates him to get out into Nature more often, experiencing conditions and places that he wouldn’t probably have witnessed otherwise. Recently he has started collaborating with a group of talented photographer for the “Wildvisions Nature Photography” Project.

In one of Bonfadini's recent series titled “Sentinels of the Arctic”, the photographer captured images of snow covered landscape in Finnish Lapland during last winter where temperatures ranging from -40 to –15 degrees centigrade can completely engulf trees in solid ice.

“That morning I slept in my tent to watch the sun rise from the top of a hill; an eerie mist was forming around the trees, enhancing the mysterious atmosphere”, said Niccolò Bonfadini.

One of his pictures was selected as a photo of the day published at APOD-NASA, a project run by NASA along with the Michigan Tech University.