Photo Friday: Cotton Candy Tree

Photograph courtesy Russell Watkins, U.K. Department for International Development, featured in National Geographic

In 2010, heavy monsoon rains dumped almost ten years worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week.  It is estimated that one-fifth of Pakistan was under water, 20 million people were affected and the total damages cost around $43 billion.

An intriguing effect of the floods was that the spiders and other insects crawled into the trees to escape the rising water.  Because the waters took so long to recede, many of the trees became cocooned in cotton candy shrouds of spiderwebs.  

Photo Friday: Peter Lik's Tree of Life

Do you know Peter Lik?  He's this amazing adventurer that kind of reminds me of a cross between Crocodile Dundee, McGyver and the Marlboro Man.

He's best known for his incredible panoramic landscape photography.  He currently has 13 galleries, has sold over $200 million of his work and now has his own TV show, "From the Edge."

If you are lucky enough to have a Peter Lik Gallery in your area, I highly recommend checking it out.  His images are so saturated and alive, they're look like they're illuminated from within.  They radiate.  I'm serious.

I must warn you, if you go, and especially if the sales associates let you see his work in the viewing rooms where they adjust the lighting, you will want to purchase one.

Here's the piece I'm crazy in love with.  It's called "Tree of Life."
It costs a mere $250,000.

Tree of Life by Peter Lik

Sigh.

Photo Friday: Frozen Forest

Here's today's photo of the day:

Beech Forest, Germany
Photograph by Martin Hertel, Your Shot
Beech forest in wintertime. Fichtelgebirge, Bavaria, Germany.

I moved away from the cold to a place where winter consists of 70 degree weather and non-stop rainbows, but this photo reminds me just how beautiful cold can be.

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Happy Friday!