Palisade Head Cliffs on Lake Superior

Well, Palisade Head is a large rock formation on the North Shore of Lake Superior in the Minnesota. Palisade Head is located at milepost 57 on scenic Minnesota State Highway 61 in Beaver Bay Township, Lake County, about 86 kilometers northeast of Duluth and 5 kilometers east of Silver Bay. Palisade Head rising above an intermediate point, which is covered by a mixed forest of white spruce, mountain ash, aspen, paper birch, and oak. Palisade Head is under developed site, where there’re no improvements except for an access road, antenna tower, short-term parking, and some low rock walls near the edge of the cliffs. At Palisade Head, you can watch thousands of different species migration along the shoreline in the fall season.

Moreover raptors can frequently be seen soaring over the cliffs, the nest of Peregrine falcons, Bald eagles nest in the area, and thousands of hawks. There are beautiful trees are sparse, but plenteous wild blueberries and, less frequently gooseberries. When the sun is full shinning, there are majestic views of the Sawtooth Mountains, Split Rock Lighthouse, the Bayfield Peninsula, Apostle Islands of Wisconsin, and the ship traffic on Lake Superior. It is a regional center for rock climbing with many routes up the lakeshore cliffs, were used for more sinister, albeit fictional purposes in The Good Son, and partly filmed on location at Palisade Head.

Palisade Head is formed from a rhyolitic lava flow which was extruded approximately 1.1 billion years ago.  The flow some 200 feet thick formed tremendously hard volcanic rock which resisted a billion years of erosion which cut down surrounding formations. This was formed both Palisade Head and Shovel Point. The feature is a shallow headland, with Lake Superior to the southwest, and northeast. Its high point is more than 300 feet above the lake level; and lakeside cliffs stand up to 60 meters above water level. Source: Wikipedia

“Kit-Mikayi” Mysterious Rock Formation in the Town of Kisumu in Western Kenya

Kit-Mikayi is a rock formation a tor almost 40 m high. Kit-Mikayi means “The Stone of First Woman” & “Stone of First Wife.” It is also called “Kit Mikayi”, “Kitmikayi”, and “Kitmikaye” is situated about 29 km west of the town of Kisumu in western Kenya. It is about one kilometer from the Kisumu-Bondo road, however, the sign board is on the gate of Kit Mikayi primary school and entrance is via N’gop-Ngeso primary school. The legend behind Kit Mikayi, which in Luo dialect means "the stone of the first wife", is that: Long time ago, there was an old man by the name Ngeso who was in great love with the stone. Every day when he woke up in the morning, he could walk into the cave inside the stone and stay there the whole day, and this could force his wife to bring him breakfast and lunch every day. The old man became passionately in love with this stone to the extent that when people asked his wife his whereabouts, she would answer that he has gone to his first wife hence the stone of the first wife. Moreover, local inhabitants living around the stones are recognized as the Luo-Kakello clan.

This place is associated with sacrifices and various legends from pre-Christian times, particularly stories explaining the meaning of the name. Kit-Mikayi is a regional point of sightseeing interest, exclusively among the neighboring Luo tribes. It also has become a famous local pilgrimage place for followers of the Legio Maria sect who come to the rock for several weeks at a time. Futhermore, the unique stone structure represents the Luo cultural polygamous family which had the first wife’s house (Mikayi) built further in between on the right hand side was the 2nd wife’s Nyachira house though the third wife’s Reru house was built on the left hand side of the homestead.

This rock also is seen to have a nuclear family whereby the father “Ngeso” being the middle stone followed by the bulky Mikayi “first wife”, and then second wife “Nyachira” and then followed by third wife “Reru” and further in front they’ve the child which is representing “Simba” the house for the first born boy in the homestead. From a long time, this stone has been a holy place for the villagers to worship in times of trouble. Kit-Mikayi is really a cluster of rocks is a mystery, because there are some stones, which are mysteriously hanging in the air by mysterious reasons, still influence the life of residents. Apart from stunning shape and patterns of the rocks, tourists are really surprised at the eerie environment at the footsteps of the cave and huge trees that grows horizontally leaves the impression of unnatural features. Kit-Mikayi rocks are so huge and heavey, as no human being could have arranged them in a spectacular style in which they’re appearing. Therefore, there are numerous spectacular rock formations which abound with myths and mythologies. In the past, only men were allowed near the rocks, but tourists are these days very welcome.

 Source: Wikipedia

The Lost Pyramids of Meroe in Sudan

This is the lost city of Meroë in the sands of Sudan, inside the ancient citadel of the Black Pharoahs with beautifully maintained pyramids as impressive as their more famous counterparts in Egypt. It is situated 125 miles north of Sudan’s Capital Khartoum is rarely visited in spite of being a Unesco World Heritage site. The Sudan tourism industry has been overwhelmed by economic sanctions imposed over the conflicts in Darfur and other regions though the famous pyramids of Giza, the Sudanese site is largely deserted. Although, sanctions against the government of President Omar al-Bashir long-running internal conflicts limit its access to foreign aid and donations, while also hampering tourism. Al-Bashir's government, which came to power following a bloodless Islamist coup in 1989, has struggled to care for its antiquities. The barren site famous as the Island of Meroë, as the ancient, long-dried river ran around it, once served as the principle residence of the rulers of the Kush kingdom - one of the earliest civilizations in the Nile region and recognized as the Black Pharaohs. The height of these pyramids is ranging 20 to 100 feet tall, believed to be built between 720 and 300 B.C. 

                                                                                                         

 One photographer Eric Lafforgue said, Egypt doesn’t have the monopoly on pyramids, as Sudan has several of them, and discovers new ones are on regular basis.   The entrances usually face east to greet the rising sun. Therefore, the most beautiful and impressive pyramids form the Meroë Necropolis. However, UNESCO World Heritage describes the site “The heartland of the Kingdom of Kush, a major power from the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D.” It is also explains that the property comprises of the royal city of the Kushite kings at Meroe and the nearby religious site of Naqa and Musawwarat es Sufra.

Well, Meroë and others bear the marks of more recent history, with several marked out by their flat tops and the result of being dynamited by Italian explorer Giuseppe Ferlini, who is in 1834, came here and pillaged the site. Thus, the pyramids bear decorative elements inspired by Pharaonic Egypt, Greece and Rome. Though, overeager archaeologists in the 19th century tore off the golden tips of few pyramids and diminished some to rubble. In the recent times, local’s inhabitants reported just a few tourists with white camels roaming the place, watched by a handful of security guards. Moreover, Qatar has pledged $135 million to renovate and support Sudan's antiquities in the last few years, but Mr Omar said Sudan still receives just 15,000 tourists per year. Source: Dailymail

Iguazù Falls By Erwin Olmos

I took this footage's on a trip to the Iguazû Falls (Argentina and Brazil). This small video can not shows its magnificence. I'd like to encourage all the people should pay a once life time visit  to this amazing natural world heritage. It's really a breathtaking scenery. You'd enjoy a lot to see real nature.
Hope you like it.!!!!!
Gear: Canon 7D with 70-200mm, 50mm and 15-85 lens. Manfrotto tripod and a small badly slider.

Iguazù Falls from Erwin Olmos on Vimeo.

4K / UHD "Seen By My Eyes", Hong Kong Time-lapse By Franso

Well, more than one year, I’ve been to places away from the hustle and bustle city and taken pictures of Hong Kong’s natural scenery, the wholesome, natural side of Hong Kong. These thousands of pictures have been turned into this time lapse video. I want to display that we can still find this wonderful natural scenery such as sunrise, sunset, starry nights and even clouds in our Hong Kong. Indeed it is very sadly, upon the ever rising demands of urban developments, it’d be really a question of seeing such stunning natural scenery of Hong Kong in the future. 

Just as the lead-in “What is depleting is not the shutter but time” of my new publication “The Lovely Hong Kong Seen by Me” says, I won’t mind killing the shutter of my camera, as long as I can capture things that I see today as a review in the future. 

Licensed Music: Saturn by Sleeping at Last
Equipment: EOS 5D2, EOS 6D with several EF lens
Motion Control Unit: Skyler Linear Tracker 1.2m
Big thanks: Gitzo HK, Skyler, Columbia
Special thanks: Phoenix TV
Edited and available in Cinema 4K and UHD.
Contact: fb.com/franso


4K / UHD "Seen By My Eyes", Hong Kong Time-lapse from Francis So on Vimeo.