First of all Happy New Year to all of you!
When a year finish is quite common to create photogalleries that try to resume what has happened in the last twelve months in a visual story. One really good has been prepared by The Big Picture which is a wonderful site run by Alan Taylor, and a great resource for news stories in photographs. One of the few sites where you can enjoy news pictures in sizes bigger than the common micro internet ones.
As usual I've selected just the 25 pictures that are related to SeaWayblog's topics:
water and everything related to it: sea, snow, fishing, aquatic animals and so on
In some cases pictures correspond to subjects that I've already discussed on SeaWayBLOG, if so clicking the caption you will be redirected to that post page.
Enjoy the tour.


The right hand of a young visitor is silhouetted against a jellyfish exhibition hall at the Ocean Park aquarium-amusement complex in Hong Kong on January 20, 2008. (REUTERS/Victor Fraile)


An aerial view of floods caused by Tropical Storm Hanna is seen in Gonaives, Haiti on September 3, 2008. Haiti's civil protection office said 37 of the 90 Hanna-related deaths had occurred in the port city of Gonaives. (REUTERS/Marco Dormino/Minustah)


A Kosovo Albanian man in the Kosovo town of Stimlje, south of the capital Pristina, tries to rescue his horse after it veered off the road and fell into a river March 26, 2008. (REUTERS/Hazir Reka)


A firefighting airtanker drops Phos-Check fire retardant over the Gap fire as more than 1,000 wildfires continue burning across about 680 square miles of central and northern California, on July 3, 2008 near Goleta, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)


Buildings and debris are seen floating in the Cedar River against a railroad bridge Saturday, June 14, 2008, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 24,000 people from their homes, emergency officials said. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)


Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate can form. (Irfan Khan/AP)


Mateja Robnik of Slovenia negotiates a track of the women's giant slalom FIS World Cup event in Maribor, Slovenia January 12, 2008. (REUTERS/Petr Josek)


A competitor dives from the 14 meter-high bridge over Drina river during annual high diving competition in Bosnian town of Visegrad July 12, 2008. (REUTERS/Stringer)


Locals and tourists walk around the Dutch ship Artemis which ran aground on the beach of les Sables d'Olonne, southern French Britanny, western France, March 10, 2008. The boat had been driven onto the coast by the wind blowing more than 130 km per hour. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe)


Internally Displaced People leave Kibati heading north from the city to their villages, Kibumba and Rugari, north of the provincial capital of Goma, Congo, on November 2, 2008. Several thousand people displaced in the fighting between rebels and government troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo began returning home Sunday as a ceasefire held, an AFP correspondent on the scene reported. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)


A single home is left standing among debris from Hurricane Ike September 14, 2008 in Gilchrist, Texas. In its brief, but eventful life, Ike wreaked enough havoc to be blamed for over $31.5 billion in damage and nearly 150 deaths across the Caribbean and Gulf Coast. (David J. Phillip-Pool/Getty Images)


Cyclone Nargis victims huddle in torrential rain as they await assistance in Dedaye Township, southwest of Yangon, Myanmar on May 19, 2008. Political resistance to outside aid and a slow response by the government worsened an already devastating situation - an estimated 146,000 people lost their lives. (REUTERS/Stringer)


Afghan youths dive at a swimming pool on Wazir Akbar Khan hill in Kabul on June 24, 2008. Temperatures in the Afghan capital are approaching the 30 degrees Celsius mark as the summer sets in in Central Asia. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images)


Firefighters battle a blaze at the Namdaemun gate, one of South Korea's most historic sites, in central Seoul, on February 11, 2008. An arsonist started the fire, destroying the gate - the oldest wooden structure in Seoul, first constructed in 1398 and rebuilt in 1447. (Kim Jae-hwan/AFP/Getty Images)


Duncan Zuur of the Netherlands rides a wakeboard across flooded Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy as the recent "acqua alta" (high water) reached a depth of 1.56 meters (5 ft, 1 in.) on December 2, 2008. (REUTERS/Handout/Euro-Newsroom.com/Joerg Mitter)


Thousands of sportsmen and women are seen on their way from Maloja to S-Chanf near St Moritz in south eastern Switzerland on March 9, 2008 as they participate in the annual Engadin skiing marathon. (AP Photo/Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella)


A rescue helicopter prepares to hoist aboard surviving Japanese climber Hideaki Nara near the summit of Aoraki Mount Cook in New Zealand on December 5, 2008. A Japanese climber stranded for six days just below the summit had died just hours before rescuers reached him and a compatriot, local media reported. The two Japanese climbers were forced to huddle in a tent 50 meters below the 3,754-meter (12,349 feet) peak, as poor weather and high winds foiled attempts to rescue the men by helicopter. (REUTERS/The Christchurch Press/John Kirk-Anderson)


A firefighting airplane drops water on the burning Turkish ship Undadriyatik in the waters near town of Rovinj, Croatia in the northern Adriatic Sea on Feb. 6, 2008. (AP Photo/FILE)


Fishermen try to catch fish during the Argungu fishing festival in Nigeria on March 15, 2008. Over 30,000 fishermen from different parts of Nigeria and neighbouring West Africa took part in the final of the yearly Argungu fishing festival in Kebbi, northwestern Nigeria. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images)


A diver practices in the new National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China on Aug. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)


People drop lines in holes on a frozen river at an event to fish trout in Hwacheon, South Korea, about 20 km (12 miles) south of the demilitarised zone separating two Koreas, northeast of Seoul January 13, 2008. More than 1,000,000 people attend at the annual ice festival which lasts for three weeks in January. (REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won)


A polar bear shakes his body to remove water at the St-Felicien Wildlife Zoo in St-Felicien, Quebec on March 6, 2008. (REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger)


In this Jan. 11, 2008 photo, eagles await transfer to a warm U.S. Fish and Wildlife warehouse after being rescued from the cold in Kodiak, Alaska. They were among 50 eagles which dove into the back of an uncovered dump truck full of fish guts and became too wet to fly away. (AP Photo/Jay Barrett)


Kerby Brown rides a huge wave in an undisclosed location southwest of Western Australia July 6, 2008, in this picture released November 7, 2008 by the Oakley-Surfing Life Big Wave Awards in Sydney. Picture taken July 6. (REUTERS/Andrew Buckley)


Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama waves to the crowd at a rally in the rain at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

To explore more pictures see the gallery here:
The year 2008 in photographs @ THE BIG PICTURE
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REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV

When this photograph was taken, in Beijing, there was
a thick fog that cut visibility to a few dozen metres and paralysed flights in and out of the national capital on Wednesday, disrupting China’s week-long Lunar New Year celebrations.
But indeed it created a magical atmosphere, and the photographer do his share, perfectly composing the picture; with the bridge, the reflection and the passer-by all in the ideal position.
This kind of wonderful bridges are typical of Chinese and Japanese garden. They are called Moon Bridges and are built in stone or wood.
As part of formal garden design the bridge will be placed where its reflection is seen when the water is still. The half circle is intended to reflect in the calm water below the bridge, creating a full circle between bridge and reflection, a reference to the shape of the full moon. This picture clearly do justice to this concept.
The most famous chinese moon bridge is the Jade Belt Bridge also known as the Camel's Back Bridge, an 18th century pedestrian Moon bridge located in the Summer Palace in Beijing, one of the six famous bridges of the Kunming Lake.
In my opinion however the anonymous one, pictured in this shot, with its simplicity is even better, or maybe is just the magic of a foggy morning in the park..
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Another Advertising with animals. This time it's a celever campaign by Mitsubishi playing with the differences and the similarities between animals ans some not-living counterparts. My favourite is the one with the snake and the garden hose, great idea!



Click on the images to enlarge them

Agency: BBBDO, Santiago
Executive Creative Director: Joaquin Bascuñan, Fernando Riveros
Creative Director: Emerson Navarrete
Art Director: Emerson Navarrete, Silvio Vildosola, Sebastian Caceres
Copywriter: Christian Alvarado, Rodrigo Cid, Andres Jamasmie
Illustrator: Ricardo Salamanca
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"What's that... huh.. thing?" is probably the first thing many people would say looking at the picture above, and the second of course would be: "Is that real?".
Yes it's real and it's not a spider under one of those diet/energy-giving bars made of muesli, seeds and fruits. Infact this picture has been shot underwater and the protagonist is just an amazing insect called caddisfly, and its case.
Maybe, you can better understand it, looking at the ventral side of another caddisfly:

caddisfly
©Bedwetting in Australia via Flickr

If you have never heard about caddisflies, don't worry, I'm just going to explain you:

THE CADDISFLIES

Caddisflies ( image on the left © 1997 David Funk ), also known as sedge-flies or rail flies (Order Trichoptera, from Greek trich, "hair", and ptera, "wings") are small moth-like insects having two pairs of hairy membranous wings. They are closely related to Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and the two orders together form the superorder Amphiesmenoptera. Caddisflies have aquatic larvae and are found in a wide variety of habitats such as streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, spring seeps, and temporary waters (vernal pools). The larvae of many species make protective cases of silk decorated with gravel, sand, twigs or other debris. What you've seen in the first two pictures are just these protective cases (and in the first picture I've to say that the pink pebble near the head of the caddisfly really seems like a fancy cute hat...!)

The adult stage
As I've said before, in their adult stage, they are just like little moths, usually quite featureless and banal but sometimes more colourful and garish (without reaching the beautiful levels of butterflies and moths)

caddisfly
©Glenn Firebaugh

caddisfly
©macrodomo via Flickr

caddisfly
©Tauromardo via Flickr

The larval stage
By the way what make them really amazing is their larval stage:
Caddisflies are considered underwater architects because most species use silt for building throughout their larval life according to three behavioral groups based on this use of silt: retreat-making caddisflies, case-making caddisflies, and free-living caddisflies. Those that build retreats build a net or retreat from silt and other materials and use it to catch food items such as algae, aquatic invertebrates and zooplankton from the flowing stream. Case-making caddisflies make portable cases using silk along with substrate materials such as small fragments of rock, sand, small pieces of twig, aquatic plants, or sometimes silk alone. Many use the retreats or cases throughout their larval life, adding to, or enlarging them as they grow. Free-living caddisflies do not build retreats or carry portable cases until they are ready to pupate.

The most interesting are for sure the case-making caddisflies. Using for their cases what they find in their own habitat, they could reach a good level of camouflage:

caddisfly

Usually cases go from "niggling" to "quite disgusting" looking like excrements of bigger animals:

caddisfly
©Frank Greenaway/Dorling Kindersley

By the way what made them so special is that being made with what the larvae find on their way they sometimes could be quite unusual like this one made just with pieces of leaves:

caddisfly
Copyright © 2006 Donna Hollinger

Some caddisflies instead build their cases using just their own silk looking like these:

caddisfly
© 1997 James C. Hodges, Jr.

Caddisflies can often be found in very numerous colonies:

caddisfly
© Jason Neuswanger www.troutnut.com

Finally, if you are fishermen, you probably know that caddisflies imitations are used in Fly Fishing to catch trouts and other species. Imitations have reached amazing levels of realism:

caddisfly
©Graham Owen


THE ARTIST THAT CONVERTED CADDISFLIES INTO JEWEL CREATORS

caddisfly
caddisfly
Photos Jean-Luc Fournier. Courtesy Art:concept, Paris, and Zero Gallery, Milan.

Now that we know what caddisflies are and what they are able to do., I want to tell you about the crazy idea of an artist called Hubert Duprat that having thought that being able to control what kind of materials larvae would get in contact with, then you woud also be able to control somehow the final look of the case. So he had the outlandish idea of converting caddisflies larvae in authentic jewelry creators!
Having been in the past a naturalist he knew that the larvae are remarkably adaptable: if other suitable materials are introduced into their environment, they will often incorporate those as well. So in the early eighties he started to collect the larvae from their normal environments and took them to his studio. There he gently removed their own natural cases and put them in tanks filled with his own materials, from which they began to build their new protective sheaths. When he began the project, he only provided the caddis larvae with gold flakes. Since then, the larvae have enjoyed various semi-precious and precious stones, including turquoise, coral and lapis lazuli, as well as sapphires, pearls, rubies, and diamonds:

caddisfly
caddisfly
caddisfly
Photos Jean-Luc Fournier. Courtesy Art:concept, Paris, and Zero Gallery, Milan.

Is the precious case the work of the insect or the work of the artist? Did the caddis larva owe nothing to the artist (who is simply the author of one noise among the thousands of other noises in its environment) or is the caddis worm merely the executor of the artist’s project?
What it's sure is that whatever you think about Durat's idea this is the only known case of animals creating luxury objects for men and even if it seems quite odd it has really amazed me.

caddisfly
caddisfly
caddisfly
Photos Jean-Luc Fournier. Courtesy Art:concept, Paris, and Zero Gallery, Milan.

In this video you can even see Durat caddisflies on the job:




Further reading:


Nature
  1. Trichoptera Tree of life web project page about caddisflies. You can find a lot of scientific and naturalistic info about Caddisflies
  2. Catalog of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates Battle Ground School District webpage. You can find many pictures of caddisflies larval stage
  3. Caddisflies DK Images gallery. A rich gallery of Caddisflies images
  4. Caddisflies by Karen Blankenship Exhaustive page about Caddisflies
  5. Insect Order Trichoptera Troutnut.com (Website about Fly Fishing for trout) article. Info and underwater pictures about trichoptera
Art
  1. Trichopterae Cabinet (Quarterly Magazine of Art & Culture) article about Hubert Duprat's "Larva Art". You can find info about Duprat's work
  2. The Wonderful Caddis Worm: Sculptural Work in Collaboration with Trichoptera Leonardo (Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology) article. A conversation between the artist Hubert Duprat and art critic Christian Besson.
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People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li

In winter time Ice Sculptures exhibitions are quite common and could be really amazing. In China, lately, are used to go the whole hog and so for the 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival they have sculpted a whopping whole city of ice, with even multitracks ice slides, Walt Disney's alike castles and pagoda temples, everything marvellously enlightened creating colourful dreamlike sceneries.
The Festival will take place in Harbin from January 5th 2009 while these pictures were taken December 23rd by REUTERS photographer Sheng Li and can be seen in this Reuters Gallery:
Frozen City

People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
People visit ice sculptures for the upcoming 25th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival at a park in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province December 23, 2008. REUTERS/Sheng Li
REUTERS/Sheng Li
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