Up close and personal with a playful Leopard Seal in Antarctica. Photo by Paul Nicklen.

Paul Nicklen is used to getting the tough shots. Born and raised in one of the only non-Inuit families in a small Arctic village in Northern Canada, he cut his teeth amid frozen tundras and slippery ice floes, and now he’s one of the most daring members of National Geographic’s team of photographers.

In his latest book, Polar Obsession, Nicklen details his journeys among the wildlife of the poles, which includes stunning shots of walruses, whales, polar bears, narwhals and leopard seals. In a recently released video accompanying his amazing photograph above, Nicklen describes an incredible four-day encounter with a 13-foot long leopard seal.

When first spotted, this particular seal was one of the biggest Nicklen had ever seen. Leopard seals are very playful creatures but are commonly perceived as aggressive and ferocious, a view Nicklen wants to change. So he decided to jump into the frigid water to get a closer look, only to have the giant ocean predator swim up to him, drop a penguin from her mouth and grab his head and camera in her jaws. Luckily, she released him and swam off to get him a present: food.

“I think she realised I was a useless predator in her ocean, probably going to starve to death,” says Paul in the video. “I think she became quite panicked and started trying to feed me weak penguins, then dead penguins, then she started showing me how to eat the penguins and pushed them into my camera which I think she thought was my mouth.”

In the end, Nicklen found the encounter to be an eye-opening experience. “I had a top predator take care of me and nurture me,” he said. “It’s the most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer I’ve ever had.”

To see Nicklen tell his own story, check out this video from National Geographic.

X-ray and infrared light peer through celestial dust to reveal the core of our galaxy.

A new image pulled from three high-powered telescopes offers a never-before-seen view of the insides of our Milky Way Galaxy.

The Hubble and Spitzer telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory have joined forces to bring us an incredible image that reaches way beyond the capabilities of the human eye. The image was unveiled by NASA yesterday to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, marking 400 years after Galileo first looked towards the stars with his telescope.

All three observatories had a hand in the image by looking at different parts of the light spectrum: the Chandra X-Ray Observatory satellite focused on the x-ray light (the blue and purple aspects in the final photo), the Spitzer telescope looked at the infrared light (the redness) and the Hubble telescope looked at near infrared light, which is closest to the visible part of the color spectrum (yellow). All three part were combined in the final, multi-wavelength image seen above.

As you can see, the final image is an astounding panorama of the center of our universe, and is one of the most detailed pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy ever produced. To get the full effect of the photograph, select schools and planetariums around the country will display giant six-foot-by-three-foot prints of the image.

To see more amazing images of space, check out this montage of shots captured from the Hubble telescope.

Well dang– nothing like fresh work! Jeff Flindt sent me this shot of Kelly Slater yesterday, casually saying “I shot this photo this morning.”

Nice work Jeff, say hi to Kelly for us! Bet sure to catch our video here

Sunset, Hermanus South Africa, originally uploaded by marc silber.

This was almost my last shot, ever! I was so intent on catching this shot, that I started to cross the small highway, instinctively looking first to my right to see if any cars coming–but this being South Africa, drivers were on the other side, as I started to step out –woosh along came a car going very fast that pushed me back. (This was how Winston Churchill was seriously injured by a car while crossing Fifth Avenue in New York in 1931.)

As you see, this shot has deeper meaning for me. I’m very glad it wasn’t Marc Silber’s last shot!

Colors and patterns can be wherever you find them: trees, grass, sky, or in this case, snowboards.

one red candle…

We have a house designed by Ellis Jacobs, understudy of Frank Lloyd Wright, with lots of angles…

leaves