Curio Cabinet / Photo Curio

Who needs to paint the roses red when these psychedelic flowers exist? Belaurian photographer Slava Semeniuta (known as Local Preacher online) is a self-professed lover of neon, and in his latest series Granular Creatures, he quite literally sheds new light on blooming subjects. To capture these otherworldly subjects, Semeniuta placed them under ultraviolet light and used a macro lens to get extreme close-ups. The results in the above photo show a rainbow of light colors refracted off of what looks like a stamen, or a flower's central pollen-producing organ. While we may marvel at the luminescence, ultraviolet-radiant flora have evolutionary benefits: bees can see ultraviolet, blue, and green light, making pollination a much easier job when their food gives off good lighting. Seems food presentation isn't just a thing emphasized at fancy restaurants!
 

Below: more of Semeniuta's striking macro images.
 

Image credit & copyright: Slava Semeniuta
 

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this fowl favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Compensating for something? This comically large gun is not a prop, but an actual functioning weapon used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for waterfowl hunting, a popular January pastime. Though, these two are using it wrong. In practice, the 90-pound punt gun would be propped up on the bow of a one-man punt boat, with a single hunter behind the trigger. The poor ducks never stood a chance: the gun's one-pound shots could kill several dozen birds at once. Fortunately, by the time this image was snapped in 1923, the big guns and commercial waterfowl hunting had been banned in the U.S. for several years. Let's hope these two guys didn't do anything too bird-brained for the photo-op… like accidentally load the weapon.
 
Below: a hunter in laying low with his punt gun in his punt boat.
 

Man's best friend has accompanied him to some far-flung places, enduring everything from starvation to frostbite. These huskies accompanied the Australasian Antarctic Expedition: a group of adventurers and scientists who sought to map and catalog geological formations on the barren continent between the years of 1911 and 1914. During the expedition's three-year, blizzard-laden tenure, a pack of dogs embarked with a foolhardy sledging team, consisting of Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis, geologist Douglas Mawson, and explorer Xavier Mertz, into the thick of the white expanse, while the rest of the Australasians remained. Mired in perilous conditions, many of the dogs were lost when they fell into an icy crevasse alongside Ninnis; the rest perished as Mawson and Mertz labored back to camp. Merz died, as well, but Mawson persevered for 30 days and reached safety with all his geological specimens in tow, even after falling into a crevasse himself. At great cost, he managed to contribute more geographical knowledge than any other researcher of Antarctica's Heroic Age of exploration, and was knighted for his icy nerves and unflagging commitment to science. Unfortunately, the trusty pups received no such honor for their sacrifice.
 

Below: more photos of the expedition, including that of a pup named Blizzard, meteorologist C.t. Madigan peering through ice, and a cavern in an ice wall approximate to Commonwealth Bay.
 

Image credit & copyright: State Library of New South Wales
 

Check out Sol in the sky with diamonds! This photo, taken by Czech astrophotographer Petr Horálek, recently won the grand prize in this year's Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition. Beautiful, if not menacing, Three diamonds in the sky shows the sun and moon engaged in a hybrid eclipse. Exceedingly rare, these appear like total eclipses in some parts of the world, but annular, or incomplete in others. Luckily for Horálek, the photographer happened to be in Pakwero, Uganda, which was treated to a mixture of the two types—and also an extraordinary three-part "diamond ring" (the bright bursts of light). The term refers to when solar flares from the sun's photosphere peek out from behind the moon's shadow; the hairline band of the sun's corona, paired with a solar flare, appear like rings of fire in the sky. Three diamonds was up against some beautiful and downright captivating scenery this year, but the gem nevertheless ran rings around the competition!
 

Below: more photos from the competition, including Baby on board by Anton Sorokin, Courting Royals: two Royal Terns in courtship display by Kristian Bell, and Waxwing and Rowan berries in the snow by Alwin Hardenbol.
 

Image credit & copyright: Petr Horálek / Anton Sorokin / East Carolina University / Kristian Bell / Deakin University / Alwin Hardenbol / University of Eastern Finland / Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2018
 

Apparently, we're not the only ones who think this image of the Dnieper River looks like a swirly work of art. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet took the above image above the International Space Station last year saying: "Winter landscapes are also magical from the International Space Station: this river north of Kiev reminds me of a Hokusai painting." The ISS hovers about 200 miles above the Earth, while the Dnieper flows from central Russia through Belarus, to Ukraine, and into the Black Sea. It's Europe's third longest river at 1,420 miles in length, with a name that comes from an Iranian language meaning "the river on the far side." While Pesquet's view was recently highlighted by NASA, the Dnieper's beauty has served as the face of an ancient Greek coin from the third-century B.C.E. For centuries, the waters served as trade routes for Vikings, Slavs, and Byzantines; and today it remains a vital part of Ukraine's transportation, hydroelectric power system, and economy. For the ISS, it's also a view of the delicate ecosystems at play in our big, beautiful world.

 

Image credit & copyright: Thomas Pesquet, ESA, NASA
 

God Save the Queen may be the national anthem of England, but in 1939, Buckingham Palace called on another figure to save the crown: photographer Cecil Beaton. The royal family's reputation had undergone a scandal a few years before when Edward VIII abdicated the throne. As a commercial photographer for Vogue, Beaton didn't think himself honorable enough to take portraits of the royal family. To his surprise, it only took the initial 20-minute sitting for him to begin a lifelong friendship with then-Princess Elizabeth, of whom Beaton once wrote "...each time one sees her one is delighted to find how much more serene, magnetic, and at the same time meltingly sympathetic she is than one had imagined." Beaton's above black and white cibachrome (long-lasting polyester-base prints), taken at Elizabeth II's coronation ceremony in 1953, helped announce to the world that the new Queen was poised and ready to lead. On the 115th anniversary of Beaton's birthday, it's important to remember no one else gave the world such intimate and stately views of Buckingham Palace quite as he did in the 20th century.
 

Below: more of Beaton's portraits of Elizabeth over the years, with an appearance by baby Charles.
 

Image credit & copyright: Cecil Beaton, Victoria and Albert Museum
 

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this milky favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

This guy's going to need a very long milk bath to smooth out those wrinkles. Florida-based photographer Stephen Cole was at a rookery in the Everglades, thinking he'd capture some nice images of birds. Instead, he caught a grown alligator enjoying what appears to be a moisturizing spa treatment. Not that the large reptiles are strangers to the area; the neotropical Everglades, covering nearly 750 square miles, is home to 200,000 of them. Turns out the "milk" this one was bathing in was just the light hitting the swamp at an opportunistic angle… or so Cole claims. We think maybe the alligators just like combining breakfast and skincare. From the looks of this other fella, soaking in orange juice is also fair game!
 
Image credit & copyright: Stephen Cole
 

Some gym memberships come at a high price, though few can claim the ill-fated elitism of a Titanic gym-goer. Among the many luxuries available to first-class passengers aboard the Titanic was a gymnasium fitted with the latest in strength-training and cardio machines, cycling bikes (seen above), and an electric camel which was reportedly "good for the liver." In 1912, gym exercise was treated as a leisurely health benefit, unlike many of today's intense sessions aimed at physical transformations. Take for instance the overly-dressed exercisers in the above image, which was likely a photo op since gym sessions were separated by gender, with women using the facilities from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and men from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The old-timey trainer and manager of the space was Mr. Thomas McCawley, who would have collected a daily admittance fee of one shilling a head (about $4 today). As the ship went down on April 14th, McCawley held his post at the gym. While we admire his dedication, we're glad there's no chance of being lost at sea while working out at a Planet Fitness.

 

Below: a larger view of the gymnasium aboard the Titanic.
 

Image credit & copyright: Popperfoto, Universal Images Group, Getty Images
 

Contrary to what pulp-sci-fi enthusiasts might think of the above image, robots haven't replaced infants in France. Just an hour outside of Paris, the Zora model robot is functioning as an extension of caretaking services at Jouarre hospital, and both were recent features in The New York Times. About 1,000 of the Zora Bots have been sent across the world from the Belgium-based company of the same name, which builds Zora models to support youth, the elderly, and "those who need help." The level of attachment patients have experienced with Zora is striking, as "she" often improves moods, helps with group activities, and hears secrets some patients may be too afraid to tell hospital staff. For instance, one elderly patient once confided in Zora that she'd received bruises by falling out of her bed. The technical support it takes to run her does prove trying, though her role as a friend to those in need may foreshadow the types of evolving relationships humans with special needs may have with robots in the future. Which sounds a lot less like a robot apocalypse, and more like a new form of interspecies companionship.
 

Below: more images of Zora at work in Jouarre.
 

Image credit & copyright: Dmitry Kostyukov, New York Times
 

The early bird gets the award-winning shot! Take it from adventure photographer Matt Horspool, who has scoured 43 countries across six continents in pursuit of the finest landscape snapshots. Shown above, Horspool rose before the sun to capture a blanket of fog rolling across Hassans Walls Lookout, in Australia's Blue Mountains in New South Wales. From top to bottom, cool vestiges of twilight fade beneath columns of sunshine, amounting to a landscape which rivals Japanese ukiyo-e paintings in its wonderful usage of empty space. The scene is just one of hundreds that Horspool has amassed with the use of drones and hot air balloons, earning himself a formidable reputation as a merited aerial photographer. Here's hoping Horspool is using his credit card reward points wisely—the more flights he can wrangle, the more awe-inspiring photos we get to enjoy!
 

Below: more of Horspool's international shots, including: Seceda in Italy; Riomaggiore, Le Cinque Terre; and a dock in Australia.
 

Image credit & copyright: Matt Horspool
 

When wildlife photographer Simon Dell discovered a quivering house mouse in his garden, his first instinct was to offer the little guy some peanuts. The two struck it off, so Dell took his hospitality to the next level a couple days later by building a shelter for his new friend capable of handling the worst of winter. Shown above is one of the doorways to Dell's lavish rodent mansion: a network of crevices constructed from small logs, a box, and some moss and straw. The mouse, whom Dell quickly named "George," immediately made himself comfortable in the abode. And shortly after, more mice began showing up, much to Dell's delight. At the cost of Dell sharing his plump fruits and vegetables, he now has an adorable cast of furry stars in his own backyard; evidently used to his presence, the enthusiastic mice strike the cutest of poses for their giant landlord. Dell's new "lease" goes to show that one should always make "mice" with neighbors!
 

Below: more photos of Dell's mouse haven.
 

Image credit & copyright: Simon Dell
 

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

We thought those rocket exhaust plumes looked suspiciously finger-lickin' good. A recent series of ads for KFC in Hong Kong has their Hot and Spicy Chicken going up in smoke — err, Photoshopped smoke, that is. The fast-food chain worked with long-time collaborator, the Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong advertising agency, which took the idea to artists at Illusion CGI Bangkok, where the food items were carefully photographed and lit like explosions. Graphic artists then transferred those images into scenarios where rockets, racing cars, and superheroes were surrounded not by fire or fumes, but chicken battered in 11 secret spices. It's a clever marketing tactic in the age of internet memes and viral images, though we have to ask what's next: kiwi mice? Lightbulbs made of pears? Or actual icebergs made of iceberg lettuce?
 

Below: more images from the KFC Hong Kong ad campaign.
 

Image credit & copyright: Ogilvy Hong Kong
 

That's the last babysitter we hire off of Craigslist Isengard! Shown above in full Uruk-hai costume is Māori actor Lawrence Makoare having a little fun on the set of director Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring. For the flick, Makoare sat still each day for four-and-a-half hours as makeup artists glued prosthetics to his face and painted his skin a reddish-charcoal color, only to sit another hour-and-a-half after filming so it could be delicately removed. And that was on a good day; for the nightmarish mud-cocoon birthing scene of Makoare's character—a hulking orc named Lurtz—the actor spent over 11 hours twiddling his thumbs in the makeup chair! On set, his woes only continued. Actors who played orcs routinely fainted from heat exhaustion during action sequences, and Makoare's mustard-yellow contacts chafed his eyes. "They were like a ping-pong ball cut in half, and if you blink too much in them they dig into your eyes. It bloody hurt," he said. We can't help but pity Makoare—even when he poses as a snarling servant of evil!
 

Below: more photos from the set of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
 

Image credit & copyright: BBC News / Peter Jackson / New Line Cinema
 

Some people throw their blood, sweat, and tears into their art; Cecilia Paredes tends to make her entire body indistinct from it. The Peruvian artist recently exhibited her collection of self-portraits and at the Museum of Latin America Art in Los Angeles, breaking the genre's molds by giving prominence to her backgrounds instead of herself. In many of the images, Paredes chose boldly patterned florals as backdrops, and either painted or clothed herself to blend into the wallpaper designs. In some of the portraits, the only giveaways of her presence are her dark brown hair, which remains unpainted throughout, and her piercing eyes. In the process of making herself more like her location, Paredes has said she feels a bit more comfortable, as she's often thought of as a nomadic artist. "Through this act, I am working on the theme of building my own identification with the entourage or part of the world where I live or where I feel I can call home." Here's one artist who isn't afraid to blend in and stand out at the same time!
 

Below: more images from Paredes camouflaged portraits.
 

Image credit & copyright: Cecilia Paredes
 

Rub-a-dub-dub, three New Year's swimmers in tubs. In Scotland, the year of 2019 is heralded by the Loony Dook: a spry dip in the waters of the Firth of Forth estuary for charity. Typically Dookers, or "dippers," take part in a Fancy Dress Parade on New Year's morning in the village of Queensferry, with about 4,000 onlookers cheering them on. Just before they end up playing in the freezing waters, Dookers are greeted with a hearty breakfast of porridge and a bluster of ceremonial bagpipes to hype the event up. The Loony Dook rounds out official celebrations of Hogmanay, which is a celebration of the last day of the year in Scotland. In addition to the chilly Loony Dook, participants may watch the Stonehaven Fireball parade or walk the torch-bearing Royal Mile lead by Viking-clad Scotts. It seems whatever one's fancy is for a hot or cold new year, there's an event for that during Hogmanay!
 

Below: more views of the Looney Dook and other Hogmanay celebrations.
 

Image credit & copyright: Edinburgh's Hogmanay, Independent Travel Cats
 

Welcome to our Top 18 of 2018 countdown! As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at this year's most loved Curios across all categories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane in your entire Curio Cabinet .
 

French biologist Laurent Ballesta swims among frosty giants. The ice monster, winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award's Earth Environment's category, shows the hulking nub of a leviathan iceberg off the coast of Antarctica. Trapped under an ice field, this berg idles just above the seafloor. Behemoths like this one occasionally gouge curlicue scars into the ocean bed, marks that scientists chart to investigate climate change. This shot took Ballesta and his team three grueling days to compile because of the limited visibility underwater. "It was so painful," said Ballesta. "The water temperature was -1.8°C. If you fell into the water naked you would die in five minutes." Using a wide-angle lens, Ballesta dove for hours at a time, his wetsuit and an electric heater barely protecting him as he took 147 photographs in total. The strenuous pics were then spliced together to create The ice monster. Let's just hope this frigid Frankenstein doesn't learn how to traverse land!
 

Below: a diver and a penguin get acquainted in front of a gigantic slab of ice; Ballesta often dives for five hours at a time, down to 230 feet below the surface; Emperor penguins dive into the ocean for a hunt. The brownish clouds above them are microalgae that latch to ice and photosynthesizes in the spring.
 

Image credit & copyright: Laurent Ballesta
 

Welcome to our Top 18 of 2018 countdown! As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at this year's most loved Curios across all categories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane in your entire Curio Cabinet .
 

We knew Finland could be a great place to see some aurora borealis, but we never knew the sky could look this majestic. Photographer Mikko Lagerstedt shoots photos amid the ethereal spaces of his homeland, with the above sea, ship, and stars taken on a 2017 trip to Yyteri Beach. Lagerstedt is a largely self-taught photographer, who took up the hobby-turned-profession while he was working as a graphic designer. To get the above final image, Lagerstedt sets up his Nikon cameras to take two images of landscapes before merging them into one. Firstly, he captures an exposure of the sky, then a much longer exposure of the ground, to capture all of the rich details which are usually too dark to capture with quick snapshots. Those pictures are then edited together in Lightroom, producing breathtaking views which make it hard to decide whether we want to visit Finland's beaches, or sail the stars!
 

Below: more of Lagerstedt's images from Yyerti Beach.
 

Image credit & copyright: Mikko Lagerstedt
 

Welcome to our Top 18 of 2018 countdown! As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at this year's most loved Curios across all categories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane in your entire Curio Cabinet .
 

Birds of a feather make turbulent art together. Five years ago, Spanish wildlife photographer Xavi Bou was looking for new ways to bird watch when he began his Orinthographies project. His knowledge as a fashion photographer allowed him to process video images of flight patterns into a single frame that shows unusual air trails. The result resembles a chronophotograph, or an old photography technique that displays a subject's movement through multiple images. National Geographic recently featured Bou's work on their website, highlighting images like this one of western marsh harriers flying in a serpentine stream above the wetlands of Estany d'Ivars i Vila-Sana in Spain. Through they may appear bizarre upon first glance, Bou hopes to "make visible the invisible" and bring a new appreciation to our feathered friends. We're just relieved to know that Bou wasn't actually photographing a new breed of giant flying centipedes!
 

Below: more of Xavi Bou's Orinthographies.
 

Image credit & copyright: Xavi Bou
 

Welcome to our Top 18 of 2018 countdown! As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at this year's most loved Curios across all categories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane in your entire Curio Cabinet .
 

Once upon a time, fairy tales weren't so cheery; half the time, they followed some poor soul lost in a forest full of witches and ghouls. German-born photographer Killian Schönberger seeks to capture the settings of these classic fairy tales in his haunting Brother's Grimm Homeland series. Pictured above is a castle cloaked in fog that draws to mind the sinister origins of Sleeping Beauty and The Pied Piper—stories that once conjured more nightmares than many modern horror flicks can manage. For Schönberger, finding these enchanted locales isn't much of task: they're in his backyard. Most of these shots come from central Europe, in the wooded areas hugging the Alpine Mountains in, or near, Germany. The real task for Schönberger is compensating for his colorblindness; to create these beautiful landscape shots, he puts emphasis on form rather than color. Schönberger's unique process, coupled with the fantastical aura of these settings, really shows where the inspiration for classic fairy tales came from. Honestly, who wants to journey alone in that all-obscuring fog full of creaking branches—who knows what's lurking in there!
 

Below: more fairytale-inspired landscape shots.
 

Image credit & copyright: Killian Schönberger
 

Welcome to our Top 18 of 2018 countdown! As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at this year's most loved Curios across all categories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane in your entire Curio Cabinet .
 

Chasing fireflies is summer at its bewitching best—but we've never seen light shows like these before! When fireflies dart by on summer nights, they flash—then disappear so quickly we wonder if we've seen them at all. In this photo, Japanese photographer Kei Nomiyama used long exposures to capture the glow of the bioluminescent beetles. He then layered multiple shots to create a composite image, so the forest appears to be caught in an iridescent shower. Male fireflies glow to attract females, and several studies have shown that females are drawn to partners that produce the most intense light. Nomiyama, an environmental scientist by profession, lives on Shikoku Island where fireflies are abundant during May and June. His photography habit enhances his appreciation of the natural world he works to protect. Today, firefly populations are down in many regions, threatened by development and light pollution. But even in the best of circumstances, the firefly's life is fleeting: just two weeks long. We're grateful to Nomiyama for documenting their short but stunning courtship season!
 

Below: untitled photo by Nomiyama; and River of Light by photographer Takashi Zenihiro.
 

Image credit & copyright: Kei Nomiyama, Wired; Takashi Zenihiro, National Geographic