#616: No two alike...

We are often told that no two snowflakes are alike. Is that really the case?

That statement is largely based on some work done by the photographer 'Snowflake' Bentley in the 19th Century who used innovative photography techniques to capture snowflakes before they 

#380: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024

I love this image of tadpoles which has been chosen as the winner at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. It's a reminder that the winning entry hasn't got to be some obscure exotic animal shot in the Himalayas after months of lying in wait...

The composition is superb and the arrays of tadpoles seem to have been posing. A bit Klimtish too....

Details:

A snapshot of wriggling toad tadpoles has earned Shane Gross the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Beneath a floating canopy of lily pads in Cedar Lake, Canada, a swarm of western toad tadpoles glided gracefully through the water.

“To me, the most fun that I can have, the thing that lights me up inside, is to see something new and try to photograph it in the best way I possibly can,” Shane told BBC News.

His careful movements through the delicate layer of silt and algae at the lake’s bottom ensured a clear view.

“I had no idea if I had anything good at all until I got home," he said. "But when I finally looked, I was like, wow, this is pretty cool.”

#143: Art and Natural History

There is an expectation that the way the natural world is represented by artists will form part of the new specification.

This is 'art' in numerous forms - paintings, photography, poetry, music etc.

This is an image from an exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia.

Hopefully those teaching the new specification will keep an eye out for relevant local art to direct students to (or perhaps make for themselves in collaborations with art departments).

It is a collaborative work by Heather Ackroyd and Daniel Harvey and is called 'Beuys' Acorn'

It is a C-type photographic print.

According to the artists, "It traces the germination of an acorn over time and symbolises nature's regeneration and evokes a senses of responsibility towards the natural world".

Image: Alan Parkinson - copyright resides with the artists.

#5: Natural History Images - free to use

I've started to put together a set / album of images that may be of interest for those teaching the new GCSE specification and need some copyright free images for use in resources / web pages etc. 

They are all general Natural History images with forests, woodland, farms, estuaries etc. I will add some more when I get the time to browse back through the 37 000 images that are on my main Flickr page.

You can find them on my Flickr account area via the link here.

Feel free to contribute your own images by adding them as comments below or getting in touch with me via Twitter (@GeoBlogs)

I shall continue to add images to this folder in the year(s) to come. 

They are all shared under a CC license.

Images: Alan Parkinson, and shared under CC license.

Top: Castle Acre church through the morning mist and a pea crop, Norwich

Bottom: Poppies between Great Massingham and Grimston, Norwich