Adolfo Farsari – The Man Who Shot Japan

In the 1880s at a time when most Europeans were denied access to the Japanese interior an Italian photographer managed to capture many images of Old Japan. These were then beautifully and realistically hand painted and serve as a remarkable record of a world long since disappeared.

If You Have Never Wanted to Visit Florence, You Will After You Watch This

Florence is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world and once you have watched this you will understand why (that is, of course, if you are not already of that opinion).  Kirill Neiezhmakov, whose work we regularly feature on Kuriositas, has pulled off another genius timelapse/hyperlapse which takes in all the sites of Florence, a city simply brimming with churches, museums and palaces.

Skywalker vs Starkiller: A Star Wars Mashup

What might have happened if Luke Skywalker and R2D2 had been whisked through a wormhole, arriving 30 years in to the future.  Before them lies the Starkiller – already under attack from the resistance – and a huge battle lies ahead.  You may well ask what on Tatoine is going on but fear not.  This is another of Fabrice Mathieu’s amazing Star Wars mashups.  Let’s just hope the studio executives don’t see this and start getting ideas..!

The Amazing Longsheng Rice Terraces

Village elders have a saying in Longsheng: where there is soil there is a terrace. Two hours ride from the city of Guilin in Guanxi province the problem of growing rice on steep hills was long ago solved. From the Yuan Dynasty at the end of the thirteenth century the colossal task of terracing the Longsheng hills to provide a rice harvest began.

Image Credit Flickr User Mark Z

If You Have Never Wanted to Visit Budapest, You Will After Watching This

Budapest is the largest city in Hungary and its capital.  It is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe with a history that goes back to well before the Christian era.  This timelapse (with hyperlapse sections in there for good measure) was created by Sergey Tatarinov, a photographer from Moscow, Russia.  You can see why Forbes ranked Budapest as Europe’s 7th most idyllic place to live.

Hybris

Take a trip around a nature reserve with something of a difference: all the animals within its walls are hybrids.  Above you can see the killer whale penguin hybrid, just one of menagerie caught on camera by a pair of intrepid French journalists (in truth students at ArtFX). However, things do start to get a little worrying when their guide leaves them and they stray where they shouldn’t…

The Spotted Lake of Osoyoos

A short ride northwest of the small Canadian town of Osoyoos there is a body of water which has come to be known in English as Spotted Lake.  It is believed to be the most mineralized lake on the planet with 365 ‘circles’ – one for each day of the year – in a myriad of shapes, sizes and depths. It is an extraordinary natural phenomenon.

Image Credit Flickr User Bryanh

It is called by the Ki lil xw (pronounced Kliluk) by the Okanagan, one of the aboriginal peoples in Canada collectively called the First Nations.  For them, it is a sacred medicine lake and their people have been coming to the lake in search of cures for various ailments for centuries.  There are hundreds of ceremonial cairns surrounding the lake, many of which are so old that they have been buried by time.