Friday 19 June 2015

Silver Falls State Park in Oregon, United States



Silver Falls State Park is a state park in the Oregon, United States , actually located near Silverton, around 32 kilometers east-southeast of Salem. It is the largest state park in Oregon with an area of more than 9,000 acres, and it includes more than 39 kilometers of walking trails, of around 23 kilometers of horse trails, and 6.4 km bike path. The waterfall 14 km Canyon Trail/Trail of Ten Falls runs along the banks of Silver Creek and by ten waterfalls, from which the park received its name. Four of the ten falls have an amphitheater-like surrounding that lets the trail to pass behind the flow of the falls. The Silver Falls State Park Concession Building Area and the Silver Creek Youth Camp-Silver Falls State Park are separately listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. The park's most visited waterfall is South Falls, a 177-foot cascade. Remote Double Falls, however, is listed as the highest waterfall in the park, plunging 178 feet in a small tributary side canyon deep within the Silver Creek Canyon. Silver Falls City formed in 1888 and was primarily a logging community with a few homesteaders, and the area was extensively logged. The small lumber town of Silver Falls City sat atop the South Falls, and as the land was cleared, a local entrepreneur sold admission to the Falls area, with attractions such as pushing cars over the falls and even hosting a stunt with a daredevil riding over in a canoe. By 1900 a Silverton photographer, June D. Drake, began to campaign for park status, using his photographs of the falls to gain support. (Drake Falls was later named for him. In 1926, however, an inspector for the National Park Service disallowed the area for park status because of a proliferation of unattractive stumps after years of logging.

In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that the Silver Falls area would be turned into a Recreational Demonstration Area. Private land that had been logged was purchased, and workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps were employed to develop park facilities, including the historic South Falls Lodge, completed in the late 1930s. It was used as a restaurant from 1946 until the late 1950s and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Silver Falls State Park Concession Building Area in 1983. The Silver Creek Youth Camp Silver Falls State Park was also added to the National Register at this time. In January 2008, supplemental legislative session, Fred Girod of the Oregon House of Representatives sought federal designation of the area as a national park via a house joint memorial to the United States Congress, but the bill died in committee. The history of the canyon's formation originates about 26 million years ago to the Oligocene period, when most of Oregon was covered by ocean. After the waters of the ocean retreated around 15 million years ago, the flood basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group covered the sandstone that had been the ocean floor. The softer layers of sandstone beneath the basalt sheet eroded over time, creating pathways behind some of the waterfalls that Civilian Conservation Corps workers widened to make safe for public use. Another geologic feature are many tree "chimneys" or casts, formed when hot lava engulfed living trees and disintegrated them. Moreover within the park are many waterfalls, including ten along the Trail of Ten Falls (marked * in the table below) and five more below the confluence of the North and South forks of Silver Creek. Volunteers inspired by the beauty and history of Silver Falls have been active there since establishment of the park in 1933.

Therefore, in 1986 the peoples and the park staff envisioned a mission and established the Friends of Silver Falls State Park, Inc. The main mission is "to further the educational and interpretive opportunities available to park tourists; to promote the preservation, protection and enhancement of the historical, natural, and entertaining resources within the park; and to assist in the implementing park improvements and educational programs compatible with the nature of Silver Falls State Park. As a result, this private and public partnership has created a more meaningful park experience for the nearly one million annual visitors to the park, far beyond what state park funding alone can provide. Since 1992, volunteers of the Friends of Silver Falls State Park have operated the Nature Store in historic South Falls Lodge. This store offers a variety of books, clothing and souvenirs in keeping with the park's nature theme. 

The organization has also been accountable for much of the interpretive signage along the Trail of Ten Falls. Other goals of the Friends include compiling oral histories from those who have memories of the park region, keeping alive the history of Silver Falls City, recognizing the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and 1940s, maintaining the park's historic district, and continuing to place interpretive signs throughout the park's more than 9,000 acres.

Thursday 18 June 2015

Nohkalikai Falls India



The tallest plunge waterfall is Nohkalikai in India, with a height of 1115 feet.  Nohkalikai falls is located near Cherrapunji, which is one of the wettest places on Earth. This waterfall is fed by the rainwater collected on the summit of somewhat small plateau and decrease in power during the dry season in December till February. The waterfall has formed a plunge pool with rare green colored water. In Khasi language it is called Jump of Ka Likai, which is actually connected to a legend about local women Likai who jumped off the cliff next to the fall. Nohkalikai Falls made a dramatic free leap from a fairly well-forested drainage into a rocky base accompanied by a pretty blue pool. The most of the waterfalls in the Cherrapunjee area had really lost their luster outside of the monsoon season; this waterfall seemed to have maintained its performance. 

Nohkalikai Falls plays the part of a dramatic legend even if you haven’t yet heard the terrible tale that led to its christening. It thunders down and crashing almost brutally on to the rocks below. Nohkalikai is one of the five tallest waterfalls in the country, it roars, swollen with water, so that you can hear it right at the viewing gallery, a fair distance away. You can’t make a spontaneous visit to the bottom of the falls either. It involves a difficult trek over a number of days through the forest. Moreover the weather adds to the drama, making it almost difficult to see the falls without a layer of fog clinging to the cliff or floating protectively around the drop.

 The village nearby Nohkalikai Falls is name “Rangjyrteh” the women Ka Likai resided but had to remarry after her husband died.  She was in deep financial crisis with her infant girl with no means of income. Then she decided to become a porter herself. When she had to go out for work, then her work required leaving her daughter unattended for long intervals, but when she’d be at home, she has spent most of her time with her daughter by taking care of her. Therefore, when she married second time, she couldn’t pay much attention to her second husband. Her husband could not bear her ignorance, and feel jealous of infant and one day he decide to kill her and cooked her meat after throwing away her head and bones. 

Thus, when she returned home, and she saw nobody in the house but except for a meal that had been prepared. She wanted to go look for her daughter but she ate the meat as she was tired from work. Ka Likai generally had a betel leaf after her meals but she found a detached finger near the place where she normally cut betel nuts and betel leaves. She immediately realized what had happened in her absence and went furious and got mad with anger and grief and started running as she swung a hatchet in her hand. She ran off the edge of the plateau and the waterfall where she jumped from was named Nohkalikai Falls after her.Source: Charismatic Planet


Tuesday 16 June 2015

Roma, Italia - 4K Rome Timelapse

Timelapse film produced in Rome, Italy from 12/31/2014 to 01/04/2015. More than 17.250 RAW-Pictures were taken with the Canon EOS 5D MK II and MK III with the Canon EOS 24-70mm 2,8, Canon EOS 24-70mm 2,8 II, Samyang 14mm and Canon EOS 70-200mm 2,8 II. Postproduction with Adobe Lightroom and LR Timelapse. Music by krizmental / homecookin.de. Produced in Spring 2015.

Roma, Italia - 4K Rome Timelapse from 3motion on Vimeo.

Melbourne 2015 - Travel Timelapse

A travel timelapse / hyperlapse video (holiday in Melbourne) - visited 23 to 31 March 2015
Facebook - fb.com/thetimelapseguy
Instagram - instagram.com/pettypoh13
Twitter - twitter.com/pettypoh
Prominent locations include
Queen Victoria Market, Yarra River, Flinders Street and Train Station, Federation Square, Bourke Street, Docklands, Southbank, Eureka Skydeck, St Kilda, Luna Park
Equipments include
Nikon D7100 (Nikon 10-24, Sigma 17-50 and Nikon 75-240)
iPhone 5S (testing instagram hyperlapse)
Samsung Galaxy S5 (testing 4k video)
Music - Chasing Time, licensed from Premium Bea

Melbourne 2015 - Travel Timelapse from pettypoh on Vimeo.

Friday 12 June 2015

An Abandoned Fishing Village in Gouqi Island Slowly Taken Over by Nature



Human beings are used to developing the natural world into settlements but here's what happens when nature adopts to take it back. An abandoned fishing Gouqi Island belongs to a group of approximately 400 islands recognized as Shengsi Islands, and forms a part of the Zhoushan Archipelago. It is located outside of Hangzhou Bay, and it is the largest archipelago of China. The seaside village now lies empty since it was more economical for the fishermen to move and work on the mainland where they can catch easily be transported and sold. 

Thus, traditionally Zhoushan had been dependent on heavily on its main industry, which is fishing, given Zhoushan is the largest fishery in China. These days the secondary and tertiary industries have been developed, which Zhoushan's economic base has been mostly varied? Ship building and repairing, shipping, light industry, tourism and service industry grow to be the major contributors of local economic output. Therefore, several fishing villages have nowadays become abandoned, and some of the best preserved villages are located in Gouqi Island. Moreover, with the magnificent lush greenery and plant creepers crawling all over the buildings and houses, it looks for the entire world like nature has reclaimed what was once part of the manmade world now it's no longer required. 

The Shengsi Islands are a famous tourist destination, and have been described as a paradise for seafood lover; it is still an important fishery area that entices over 100,000 fishermen every winter. These beautiful photographs have taken by Jane Qing, a creative photographer based in Shanghai; take us into this lost village on the stunning archipelago.Source: Charismatic Planet















Saturday 6 June 2015

The Saar Loop at Mettlach



The natural beautiful Saar River rises in the Vosges mountains on the border of Alsace and Lorraine, in France, then river flows northward through western Germany to its confluence with Mosel river, near Trier. Thus, inside Germany the Saar River pursues a winding course until it reaches a barrier in the form of Hunsrück, a low mountain range made of hard quartzite rock. Quartzite is a hard, metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Moreover, sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure frequently related to tectonic compression. The river, impotent to carve a way through the rocks, creates a full 180-degree turn and cuts a deep U-shaped gorge through the densely wooded mountains. Furthermore, this astonishing hairpin bend situated above Mettlach is called the Saar Loop or Saarschleife in German, and is one of the most famous sights of Saarland. The river flows comparable for a long stretch in the opposite direction before turning left and ongoing its northward journey towards Mosel River. The superlative views of Saarschleife are to be had from Cloef, a rocky viewpoint at the apex of the Saar loop about 180 meters above the river. An eye-catching panoramic viewpoint has been built here for the sake of sightseers.

Therefore, on the wooded ridge within the Saar loop, lie the Church of St. Gangolf and the ruins of the 12th century Montclair Castle. The castle is located about 290 metres above sea level on the high ridge of the Saar loop, the so-called Castle Hill. Hence it can be reached by boat. Both on the inside as well as on the outside loop, runs a continuous walking and bike path. The Saar Loop is also recognized as the Great Saar loop at Mettlach, for further downstream in the municipality of Taben-Rodt, the Saar river makes another loop called the Small Saar loop, though not as remarkable as it’s bigger brethren.