Photorific Theme

2009 in photos (part 1 of 3)

A Dog belonging to Rhonda O’Hearn of Sandown, New Hampshire waits before the start of a 60-mile race at the Can-Am Crown sled dog races in Fort Kent, Maine on Saturday, February 28, 2009.

(via The Big Picture)

National Geographic’s International Photography Contest 2009

Nazroo, a mahout (elephant driver), poses for a portrait while taking his elephant, Rajan, out for a swim in front of Radha Nagar Beach in Havelock, Andaman Islands. Rajan is one of the few elephants in Havelock that can swim, so when he is not dragging timber in the forest he is used as a tourist attraction. The relationship between the mahout and his elephant usually lasts for their entire lives, creating an extremely strong tie between the animal and the human being.

(via The Big Picture)

Watching the H1N1 flu pandemic

Sheila Garcia, 3, has her temperature taken on her forehead before visiting a patient at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford in Palo Alto, California, Monday, Oct. 19, 2009. Hospitals around the country are turning away child visitors at the door, restrictions that aim to limit spread of H1N1 flu to patients sick from other causes.

(via The Big Picture)

Big Picture, The year 2008 in photographs:

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanoes are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them. Picture taken May 2, 2008. (Carlos Gutierrez)