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The winners of the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024 were recently announced in London, revealing stunning images including the overall winner (above) by Rafael Fernandez Caballero, which shows a Bryde’s whale about to engulf a swarm of sardines. In Caballero’s winning image, the sardines are forming what is known as a “baitball,” which is a defensive tactic to ward off predators.

As we threaded through the Beagle Channel, I wondered if this icy continent could live up to the lofty expectations I’d formed since childhood. Growing up reading the tales of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, and Ernest Shackleton, Antarctica became a place of myth in my mind. Would it be as awe-inspiring as those stories made it seem?

A lifetime of experience on this planet leads us to believe that a clear sky is always blue. Certainly the clear daytime sky is always some shade of blue. As day ebbs into night and our color vision fades away, the last color we see in the sky directly above us is blue; as night gives way to dawn, the first sky color we see above us is once again blue.

Those who eschew social media may not have noticed the deluge of AI-generated landscape and nature images to be found online these days. Guided by prompts provided by the human “creator” that describe what the image content and style should be, these AI-spawned images are often created with the intent of producing maximum impact, “wow-factor,” and generation of “likes and shares,” though the scenes they depict commonly depart from the realistically plausible or possible in significant ways.

Mud and invisible gas. I’m not sure there are two less photogenic things to capture in nature, but they were central characters in my recent long-term photography project documenting permafrost thaw in the Siberian and Alaskan Arctic. Permafrost is defined as soil that has been frozen for more than a year, and it can be found in a vast belt circling the Arctic.

A poignant photo of a polar bear sleeping on an iceberg (above) has captured the People’s Choice Award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards. The touching image, named “Ice Bed,” was shot by Nima Sarikhani of the UK in Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago.

For venturing out of the beaten path, Channel Islands National Park is one of my favorite hidden gems in the National Park System. Almost undeveloped, the islands offer a rare opportunity to experience primeval and wild coastal California landscapes and seascapes. Fewer than 90,000 land on the islands each year, making Channel Islands National Park one of the least visited national parks in the country.

If you’ve wondered what life was really like for some of the world’s best outdoor photographers, the below video from National Geographic is a good place to start.