10 Amazingly Unbelievable Sights To See

The Most Inspiring Nature Photography of the Year

National Geographic's yearly contest offers some of the best that nature photography has to offer. All images and captions via National Geographic 2013 photo contest.

Orta Lake Storm Chasing, Riccardo Criseo
"I have spent the entire summer chasing thunderstorms all around Italy. I usually stand in front of the camera, to modify the parameters according to lighting's distance and intensity. This time I was in a very dangerous situation, I was completely surrounded by lightning strikes, so I chose to leave the camera on the tripod shooting in automatic mode. I spent about 15 minutes on the ground, as far as I could from any conducting material, and I protected my eyes and my ears hoping for the best. When I finally looked to the pictures I was very impressed by the size and intensity of the storm."

Mara, Majed al Zaabi
"We just wanted to search for a Leopard that morning, but we found a group of giraffes moving toward a small lake and start drinking. It was a nice moment when the Giraffe finished and left a letter "S" shape in the air."

Sky Swimmer, Vincent Truchet
"After looking for a green sea turtle nest for a long time, I found one. I was staying in the water close to the beach, and many turtles came in the sea, trying to go the ocean. One of them came straight toward me and I put my camera lens just below the surface."

Where the Buffalo Roam, Glen Hush
"I had been in Teton National Park for 5 days and hadn't yet seen the tops of the Teton Range due to non stop storm systems moving through. October can be like that in this majestic part of America. Large herds of bison roam free in this park as well as in Yellowstone, just to the north. It is an awe inspiring sight indeed. After taking pictures of this herd, I felt that I had been "shut out" as the mountain peaks had still not been revealed to me. It wasn't until I looked at the pictures on my computer that I realized that in a few frames, the peaks had been revealed. What a great surprise."

Baby Whale, Gaby Barathieu
"A baby humpback whale seen near Reunion island."

Anemone fish with tongue parasite, Peter Allinson
"Rare photo of a tongue parasite in an Anemone fish, taken in Komodo, Indonesia."

Long Penguin, Max Seigal
"A long penguin standing in the surf on South Georgia Island."

Deer Calling, Prashant Meswani
"Taken early morning while at Richmond Park, London, in Late October."

Shake It, Robert Pfaffenbauer
"A brown bear shaking off its wet fur in Kamchatka, Russia."

Brown Bear Cubs, Graham Erik Mandre
"The picture is captured using a special hide placed to the primeval forest in Finland. High trees offer protection to the brown bear cubs being vitally important to survive from all the dangers around them. Bear cubs are threatened especially by the other male bears, who might attack and take their lives without any doubt. Thus, fast climbing on trees is one of the most important skills for bear cubs in order to survive and they are always ready for it."

Eastern Screech Owls, Graham McGeorge
"Eastern Screech Owls like to take over woodpecker nests that have been dug out over the years in pine trees, which are the main species of tree at this swamp. Fish and wildlife also paint a white ring around the base of a tree that has active nests in order to avoid when conducting controlled burns. Screech owls can range in height anywhere from 8-10 inches, so you have to have a sharp eye to find these little birds of prey. I spent the first few weeks of April this year photographing the grey morph screech owl that was living in the nest and had no idea there were three owlets inside."

Hummingbird, Scott Bechtel
"While photographing hummingbirds in British Columbia I shot this male Rufous just as he fanned out to show his authority when another male Rufous appeared over my head."

Morning train, Teruo Araya
"Taken at Mishima town in Fukushima pref. The first train goes across the railway bridge through in morning mist. The train moves forward little by little, slowly."

Ripples on Carezza Lake, Antonio Chiumenti
"Carezza Lake is a pearl of the Dolomiti. Nestled between an ancient forest of grand firs and the Latemar Mountain is a place of legends and beauty. A nymph lives under its emerald waters. I threw a little stone in the water to add a little mystery to the scene."

McDonald's: The Georgia Way

I know what you're thinking, and no, not the US state of Georgia. Instead, this is the country of Georgia.

Amazingly Incredible India!

Here is a colorful promotional package by The Official Tourism Website of Ministry of Tourism, GOI. 
What appealed to us is the use of colors in the ads to convey the idea. The concept of using the colors has added beauty & attraction to the whole theme. 

Charcoal grey - have a thirty-six-course banquet cooked for you. Shop for over sixty kinds of tulips. Access e-mail round the clock. All without ever setting foot on land.

Mustard yellow - 100% recyclable. 100% self-sufficient. 100% rural tourism.

Maroon - born 563 BC. Enlightened in 528 BC. Great passing in 483 BC. Still lives in millions of hearts. The Enlightened One.

R. Green -all eyes on the world's fastest growing region. After all, one can't help but sit up and notice 130,000 species of flora and fauna, and almost 2 billion acres of forest.

Technicolor.

Tea green - Darjeeling is the champagne of teas, grown high in the valleys where the world's smallest train does its rounds. Assam is known for its full-bodied flavor, as robust as the one-horned rhino that roams in its plains. In Munnar, you could even get a taste of a planter's life in sprawling bungalows, British-era buildings with tennis, golf, bridge and of course high tea.

Water colors - 232 lakes. 273 rivers. 7,517 km of coastline. Incredible. Choose your color.

And here are a few more of the print ads:

Houses With A Twist!

Most of the houses are built from usual stuff. But these houses are the ones we don't see regularly; they have something different & unique in each of them. The main material used in their construction is …………

House made from paper.

(Image: Credit).
The Paper House is an actual house made from paper. It was built in 1922 by Mr. Elis F. Stenman, a mechanical engineer, who created building block material purely out of newspaper (about 100,000 newspapers were used). The only wood used in the house was for the frame, floor & roofs. The house was built with electricity & had running water but no bathroom. 

Edible house.

Home built with 100% living nutrients.

House made from scrap.


Standing at over 4300 sq. feet, the awe-inspiring structure is the house made out of scrap. Designed by Single Speed Design, won the firm AIA/BSA Housing Design Award.

Here is another one:


This is what you get when you challenge a rockstar team of San Francisco architects, artists, contractors, city officials, & engineers to construct a house using only scrap. This one was constructed by using material from junkyards, spending less than $3,000 on the whole house! 

The cardboard house.


An excellent environmentally sustainable option for housing & being extremely low cost & transportable, these could be used in a wide variety of applications.

House made of straw.



Another one of the eco-friendly & recyclable material. Using straw bales a well insulated incredibly sturdy, beautiful house can be created. 

House made from bamboo.

(Image: Credit).
Building material which is up to 50 times stronger than oak yet lighter than steel & concrete, which is flexible & aesthetically pleasing & is highly rated for its green credentials - bamboo. 

House made of steel. 


To be precise 110 tons of steel is been used in the cool design by Robert Bruno, architect for his own house in Texas & the construction took about twenty-three years.

House made of gold. 


We aren't sure of this one, as somewhere it doesn't make practical sense. Perhaps can this be the work of photoshop or a palace of some Sheik?

House made of ice.


Microsoft's "Digital House" made completely of ice.

House made of balloon. 

(Image credit: Balloonmanor).

House made from bottles.


What better way can it be to recycle numerous empty bottles than to build a house from it!

House made from cans.


This house is made from cans, certainly living up to the green spirit perhaps.

House made of mud. 

(Image: Credit).

House made of glass. 

Glass house - any takers for this one!