Category: bizarre

Bizarre Yet Beautiful Badlands: Hidden Gems In New Mexico’s Wilderness [52 PICS]

August 6th, 2015 Permalink

When you think “alien” and New Mexico, Roswell might come to mind, but “alien” in this case is about 5 and a half hours away in the little known New Mexico Wilderness areas of Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah and Bisti/De-Na-Zin. The rock formations are fantastic and surreal, alien in appearance, and the area is full of dinosaur bones and other fossils. Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Study Area has over 6,500 acres, including the Valley of Dreams, and the nearby Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness has more than 41,000 acres; all are remote and full of colorful hoodoos, pinnacles, spires, cap rocks, canyons, washes and other bizarre formations laid out in a remote maze. Those who brave the wilderness may not see another soul during their adventure, but they are rewarded by seeing some of the most unusual scenery and incredible landscapes in New Mexico; it is a photographer’s dream shoot location. [52 Photos, 1 Video]

Stars in the Valley of Dreams, Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness in New Mexico

Magnificent Milky Way from the Valley of Dreams, a hidden gem within the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Study Area. These bizarre yet beautiful badlands are located in northwestern New Mexico. This stunning shot was captured at the GPS coordinates of 36.141132, -107.976894. Photo #1 by John Fowler

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Unconventional Dr Seuss-like Architecture of Hundertwasser [41 PICS]

April 23rd, 2015 Permalink

Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an artist turned architect at age 55. He spurned traditionally boring 20th century designs, put out manifestos such as one proclaiming Window Rights, pushed his point across by giving lectures in the nude, used bright colors, distorted lines and designed with the desire to be in harmony with nature. Here’s a look at some of creations by the “the doctor of architecture.” [41 Photos]

It's alive, Hundertwasserhaus House in Vienna

It’s alive, Hundertwasser House in Austria. It’s both an apartment house and expressionist landmark in Vienna that was built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Although the concept of a forested roof terrace house was at first rejected, the City of Vienna eventually was convinced to allow the unconventional design. “Within the house there are 52 apartments, 4 offices, 16 private terraces, 3 communal terraces, with a total of 250 trees and bushes.” The Hundertwasserhaus has many unique features, including undulating floors as the artist “said ‘an uneven floor is a divine melody to the feet,’ a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it, to prevent something ugly from going up in its place.” Photo #1 by Sergio Morchon

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Tunnel of Love in Many Romantic Flavors [35 PICS]

February 12th, 2015 Permalink

If you have love on the brain, then everything can tie back to love; the reality of a place can be tinted by a whimsical and romantic notion that makes a tunnel into a tunnel of love. It was curious to see places that actually are real tunnels of love and what photographers tagged as “tunnel of love.” So tap into your inner romantic, let your imagination run wild and let your heart “see” what the photographers saw. Happy Valentine’s Day! [35 Photos, 3 Videos]

Tunnel of love aka green mile Kleven train tunnel

Again and again people see “tunnels of love” that a less imaginative person, or one not in love, might see only as a tunnel of some sort. However, the leafy green arches over a railway track in Ukraine make up a real Tunnel of Love. Photo #1 by Livincool

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60 Awesome Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography to Make Marvelous Miniature Worlds

August 6th, 2014 Permalink

One of the reasons photographers use tilt-shift is to make life-size locations look like photos of miniature scale models. Tilt-shift photography is not only used for miniature faking, but these miniatures reminded us of the song “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” So let’s do some virtual globe hopping to view amazing miniature worlds in which city-scapes appear like toy cities. [60 Photos]

St. Peter's, Vatican City in tilt shift

St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City in tilt shift. This type of “tilt-shift photography” can be done either by tilting the camera lens to distort the plane of focus and shifting the lens to distort the perspective, or via software. Photo #1 by Ondablv

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Dazzling Dunes and Lagoons in the Desert: Bizarre Beauty in Brazil [29 PICS]

June 7th, 2014 Permalink

In Brazil, there is an very unusual national park in the desert. While you might expect to see rolling white sand dunes, you would not expect to see the area dotted with lagoons created by rainwater. Here’s a look at those dunes and lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park. [29 Photos]

Lençois Maranhenses, the Paradise of the dunes

Lençois Maranhenses is called a desert, but it’s not really. Instead paradise lagoons are hidden among the rolling white dunes. Photo #1 by LCjournal

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Happy Festival of Numerical Coincidence! Dogs & Cats in Weddings [25 PICS]

November 12th, 2013 Permalink

Happy Festival of Numerical Coincidence! In the United States and Belize, we do dates differently than the rest of the world by using a month/day/year format. Believe it or not, there’s a mad rush to get married on 11/12/13. For example, San Francisco City Hall is all booked up. David’s Bridal compared the date to the Superbowl but for weddings. There’s a psychology surrounding numerical sequences, other than setting a wedding anniversary date that neither couple should forget. For couples who desire such a date, the next sequential date will be next year in December 12-13-14. Since it’s a big day for marriage-seekers, we thought we’d look at weddings featuring dogs and cats while discussing magical calendar dates that set marriage records. [25 Photos]

The Bride and Groom, dog wedding

The Bride and Groom, dog wedding. Sequential dates, such as 11/12/13, have been called the “perfect” date to get married. For math or number lovers, a couple could try to time their increasing number wedding ceremony for 11/12/13 at 14:15:16 seconds. Photo #1 by geckoam

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Waverly Hills Sanatorium: 1 of the Scariest Abandoned Hospitals in America

October 24th, 2013 Permalink

This former tuberculosis hospital has been called one of the most terrifying, most haunted, places in America. At least 6,000 people died there, many taken out through a ‘death chute’ tunnel, and Waverly Hills reached urban legend ghost status. Built in 1926, the massive Gothic architecture housed TB patients suffering from the “White Plague” with no antibiotic cure on the horizon. It closed in 1962, then became a facility for the elderly, but was shut down for patient abuse by Kentucky state officials in 1982. Here’s a ‘spooky USA’ armchair visit to a place of history and mystery, Waverly Hills Sanatorium. [66 Photos, 6 Videos]

Patients of Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Patients of Waverly Hills Sanatorium. You’re looking at it, the most modern, most advanced and well-equipped tuberculosis hospital at the time…in 1926. There had been a horrible outbreak, the “White Plague,” sweeping across America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It’s been said that thousands afflicted with tuberculosis checked in, but some never checked out. And nowadays this abandoned hospital is known as “one of the most terrifying places in America.” Photo #1 by The Owl / University of Louisville Libraries

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Eerily Beautiful Underwater Sculptures: Art Transformed into Artificial Reefs [PICS]

October 12th, 2013 Permalink

Our coral reefs are dying, but forward-thinking eco-minded artists are helping nature by creating stunning life-sized sculptures . . . and then sinking them. Man has been creating artificial reefs for thousands of years, starting with the Ancient Persians who wanted a military advantage by blocking off an area of the sea. As mankind has evolved, so too have our artificial reefs. The most amazing consist not of our trash or out-dated ships, but of incredibly detailed sculptures created to be placed underwater and slowly but surely undergo a metamorphosis under the sea. While it may look like abandoned statues starting to decay, it is actually art being rebirthed into living, breathing reefs. If you haven’t had a chance to dive or snorkel such locations, then you are missing out. So here is a look at the eerily beautiful process of spectacular art, underwater sculptures, transforming into artificial reefs. [52 Photos]

August 2011 Silent Evolution

More than 400 life-sized sculptures, collectively as The Silent Evolution, form a massive artificial reef in the shallow waters off of Cancun, Mexico. Slowly but surely, in an eerily beautiful process, the art changes; nature transforms the underwater sculptures from concrete, to covered with algae, and then coral, creating new reefs and new homes filled with a wide variety of marine creatures. Photo #1 by © kozyndan

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From Beach Resort Paradise to Rotting Ruins: Crumbling Mediterranean Ghost Town

September 13th, 2013 Permalink

Imagine yourself on an island in the Mediterranean with beautiful white sand beaches, warm weather, fantastic places to shop, fine dining, and modern luxurious hotels that are frequented by the vacationing rich and famous. Then boom, the island is invaded and you must flee for your life from that slice of paradise. From tourist hotspot to ghost town, it’s a No Man’s Land with ruins that are rotting away. This happened: the island is Cyprus, the year was 1974, and the area was known as Varosha, a section of Famagusta. The crumbling vacation resort is a “forbidden zone” that has been stuck in time and slowly decaying for nearly 40 years. Sure, you could cross the “Buffer Zone” to see what that moment in time looked like when people fled and Varosha was abandoned, but if caught . . . trespassers will be shot on the spot. [36 Photos]

Varosha is a beach paradise and crumbling vacation resort where trespassers will be shot

Varosha in Cyprus is a both a beautiful beach paradise and a crumbling vacation resort where trespassers will be shot. Wait, what? You read it right. The photographer explained, “Perhaps the most haunting and downright weird tourist attraction on Cyprus, the abandoned Maras district (known in Greek as the ‘Varosia’) really is a sight worth seeing. The Varosia is a lingering reminder of the relatively recent year of 1974, when the Turkish invasion took place and this whole area was barricaded off with barbed wire, becoming something of a no-man’s land. The beach and crumbing high-rise tower blocks remain unused and make the Varosia area of Famagusta appear rather like a ghost town, with just a tiny portion of this former leading beach resort being still occupied.” You can see both in the “postcard” above. Photo #1 by bass_nroll

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Mischief & Daredevil Misadventures: Reasons Why Boys Need Dads [42 PICS]

June 11th, 2013 Permalink

Boys will be boys and who understands that better than a grown boy, a dad? He was once a boy in mischief, full of daredevil energy for fun misadventures. Here are photographic examples of boys being boys to show reasons why boys might need their father. Of course we’re not discounting the value and power of what moms can do in these same situations, but having once been a boy, now a big boy, dad might understand this in a different way. Sprinkle in some quotes and here is lighthearted tribute to dads. Happy Father’s Day! [42 Photos]

Danger Keep Out, why boys need their father

Danger Keep Out! Why boys need their father. Photo #1 by Tom Woodward

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Cool Karst at China’s Shilin Stone Forest: 270 Million Year Old Natural Wonder [35 PICS]

June 6th, 2013 Permalink

Imagine 96,000 acres of forest, then swap out the trees in your mind’s eye for huge karst formations, some of which formed at least 270 million years ago, and that “stone forest” is Shilin in China. Since the Ming Dynasty in 1368-1644 AD, the collections of intricate karst formations and landscapes at Shilin Stone Forest have “bewitched” people; the site became known as the ‘First Wonder of the World,’ according to the China Travel Guide. South China Karst is not one Stone Forest, but made up of many such individual landscapes of all sizes. In fact, UNESCO says South China Karst has “outstanding universal value” and named two smaller stone forests, Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village, both as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Here’s a look at Shilin Stone Forest in China.
[35 Photos]

Lunan County, China, Stone Forest, Shilin

Imagine 96,000 acres of forest, then swap out the trees in your mind’s eye for huge karst formations, some of which formed at least 270 million years ago, and that “stone forest” is Shilin in China. It’s located about an hour away from Kunming. Shilin is dotted with 65 reservoirs and ponds. Photo #1 by Richard IJzermans

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Memorial Day: Weeping Angels at Eternally Eerie Graveyards

May 26th, 2013 Permalink

No matter your religious beliefs or cultural background, we all mourn our lost loved ones. When remembering the departed, we can all be ‘haunted’ by ghosts and specters of memories. Some people are so bereaved that they erect elaborate statues for tombstones. The details and symbolism on headstones are usually created by those still living, weeping and mourning; the monuments capture that sense of loss and pain to be remembered for all time. Graveyards are eerie enough, but other tombs are topped off with curiously spooky and complex reminders, making the cemetery seem like it was created to be a totally creepy and morbid place. Having lost a beloved grandmother and great-grandmother this year, we can feel the pain of loss and the love that went into these grieving angel statues. Angels monuments often offer comfort to those still living, but when they too have passed on and the graves are forgotten, time and weather may play havoc on the tombstones. For Memorial Day, here’s a trip through cemeteries that seem eternally eerie by being haunted by weeping angels and other ghoulish statues standing guard for an eternity. [45 Photos]

Mourning angel and golden leafs of fall, cemetery of Laeken, Brussels

Mourning angel and golden leaves of fall, cemetery of Laeken, Brussels. Stone sculptures as headstones lend a sense of permanence in being remembered. Photo #1 by Eddy Van 3000

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