Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Aerial of the ball fields and reservoir in Central Park with Manhattan high rises shrouded in haze.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968658.jpg
  • The vandalized and eroded Assyrian carvings of King Sennacherib palace
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_735401.JPG
  • A morning commuter along Wicker and the Riverwalk.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT5887_1345818.jpg
  • Lightning bolt strikes and a rainbow appears as sun sets during summer storm season. The gate is closed tightly at the end of a long work day.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222813.jpg
  • Aerial view of the Dolomites dusted with snow under a setting full moon at sunrise. The mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbers 18 peaks that rise above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024102.TIF
  • Rays of sunlight pierce the clouds hanging over Sitka Sound and Baranof Island. Southeast Alaska receives about 200 inches of rain a year creating its moody ambiance.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073532.TIF
  • Twilight view of Shi Shi beach and it's sea stacks.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760070.jpg
  • Underwater view of swimmers and a boat at the surface of the ocean.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663065.JPG
  • Sunrise aerial photo showing traffic crossing Juarez-Lincoln International, one of four bridges over the Rio Grande River located in the cities Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, that connects the United States with Mexico.<br />
The Pan-American Highway is a network of road that passes through the America's many diverse climates and ecological types – ranging from dense jungles to arid deserts.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187478.jpg
  • Fog lifts over forested islands and muskeg terrain above Sitka Sound. Tongass National Forest is 17 million acres, the largest temperate rainforest in the world.
    MM7258_20050820_07655.tif
  • Lightning and dramatic storm clouds seen from Ubirr rock.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_968668.JPG
  • Wind and water sculpted desert in the Valle de la Luna. Shadows fall in the Valley of the Moon in the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth where the elements have left an array of oddly shaped polychrome forms in the desolate, eroded desert landscape. The region sometimes goes without recorded precipitation for more than a century.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187507.jpg
  • A tourist walk on top of a worn pyramid above a tomb and archeological site.<br />
The Huaca Rajada, of Sipán, Peru, is a Moche Pyramid near Chiclayo, Peru in the Lambayeque Valley, famous for the tomb of the Lord of Sipán, Peru, excavated in 1987. The ruins of Sipán are dated from 50–700 AD, during the Moche culture.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187659.jpg
  • State Street and the Chicago Theatre on a rainy night.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT5887_1345813.jpg
  • Dressed in elegant formal wear, a bride and groom walk to the helicopter to fly up onto a glacier for their wedding ceremony in Southeast Alaska.
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  • View of a dramatic, stunted and twisted bare tree on Sentinel Dome.
    RANDY OLSON_06103_495737.JPG
  • In spite of the 200 inches of rain the area receives every year, nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. As many as six cruise ships make daily stops - and as many as 500 a year - bringing tourists on the Inside Passage, the route through a network of passages between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry.<br />
One of the stops in Alaska’s Panhandle is the former logging town of Ketchikan. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
    MM7258_20050819_07149.tif
  • Fog drifts over a secluded estuary and the Thorne River on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. The main island includes hundreds of adjacent smaller islands—a total of more than 2,600 square miles with 990 miles of coastline and countless bays coves, inlets, and points.<br />
Fjords, steep-sided mountains, and dense forests characterize the island. Extensive tracts of limestone include karst features.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075048.TIF
  • Cruise ships dock at Ketchikan's harbor, while another waits its' turn. In spite of the 200 inches of rain the region receives every year, nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. As many as six cruise ships make daily stops and as many as 500 a year. The Inside Passage is a network of channels between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry.<br />
The former logging town of Ketchikan, now relies on tourism. Travelers can shop for native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073531.TIF
  • Twilight view of snow-capped Olympic mountains and foothills below.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760088.jpg
  • Campers Elizabeth and Tad Morrow pitch their tent in the rain at Glacier's Two Medicine Lake.
    MELISSA FARLOW_06103_495835.jpg
  • Frosty morning snow on a canoe and trees surrounding a small lake near Mendenhall Glacier.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075064.TIF
  • Mont Blanc rises in the distance behind craggy peaks and ridges. Drifting morning fog lifts revealing the snow-covered White Mountain, the highest in the Alps measuring nearly 16,000 feet. Located in the watershed between valleys in Italy and France, ownership of the summit has been a subject of historical dispute. <br />
The mountain is famous for the emergence of modern alpine mountaineering  after the first ascent in 1786.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024116.jpg
  • View of the iconic Matterhorn and surrounding mountains in the Alps.  First ascent of the 14,692-foot mountain was in 1865 although four climbers died on the descent. <br />
The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes Matterhorn geology in "All About Glaciers." Cirques are rounded hollows or bowl shapes after a glacier has melted away. Aretes are jagged narrow rides created when two glaciers meet eroding on both sides. And horns are created when several cirque glaciers erode until all that is left is a steep, pointed peak with sharp ridge-like Arêtes leading to the top.
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  • Twilight view of Olympic mountains and evergreens in snowy landscape.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760069.jpg
  • An aerial view of Australian landscape with hills, rivers, and rain.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763233.JPG
  • An aerial view of a flooded river and rain storm in distance.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763225.JPG
  • A man seen in rear view mirror and a store through rainy a windshield.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763200.JPG
  • Store window reflections mirror cruise ships arriving to unload shoppers and sightseers in the former logging town of Ketchikan located in Alaska’s Panhandle. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
    MM7258_20050905_12198.tif
  • Clearing fog slowly dissipates above islands and the reflective, quiet waters in Sitka Sound. Alexander Archipelago has around 1,100 islands, which are actually the tops of a submerged section of the Coast Ranges in Southeast Alaska.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075025.TIF
  • Mont Blanc rises in the distance behind craggy peaks and ridges as drifting morning fog lifts revealing the "White Mountain."  It is the highest in the Alps measuring nearly 16,000 feet. Located in the watershed between valleys in Italy and France, ownership of the summit has been a subject of historical dispute. <br />
It is famous for the emergence of modern alpine mountaineering  after the first ascent in 1786. It is easily accessible because of that, unfortunately claims many climbing deaths annually.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024115.jpg
  • Mount Olympus and other snow-capped peaks in the Olympic mountains.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760053.jpg
  • Cold, snow and wind turn a tree into a bleached sculpture.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_754678.jpg
  • Tidal pool and sea stacks in fog on Shi Shi Beach at low tide.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760138.jpg
  • Fog shrouded sea stacks and surf on Shi Shi Beach.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760134.jpg
  • Sea stacks and starfish in fog at Shi Shi Beach.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760077.jpg
  • Mount Olympus and its sister peaks.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_754677.jpg
  • Horseback riders and a collie on the rock strewn beach .
    RANDY OLSON_06414_3357.TIF
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129.JPG
  • Sunlight highlights aspen trees, Populus tremuloides, as their colors turn golden in the autumn. "Quaking aspen" is Colorado's signature tree in the high altitude of the San Juan mountains near Silverton. Aspens grow in large clonal colonies, derived from a single seedling. They spread by root suckers and new starts may pop up 100–130 ft from the parent tree. Each tree may live for 40–150 years, but the root system of the colony can be thousands of years old sending up new trunks as the older trees die off above ground.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705744.jpg
  • Fog rises from the base of the Straight Cliffs that rise up to the Kaiparowits Plateau in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The protected Bureau of Land Management monument spans across nearly 1.87 million acres of public land from the cliffs and terraces to geologic treasures of slot canyons, natural bridges and arches. It’s remote location and rugged landscape make it an extraordinary unspoiled natural area valued by biologists, paleontologists, archeologists, historians and those who love quiet creation and solitude. Grand Staircase was named the first national monument in 1996.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-44.JPG
  • Fog rises from the base of the Straight Cliffs that rise up to the Kaiparowits Plateau in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The protected Bureau of Land Management monument spans across nearly 1.87 million acres of public land from the cliffs and terraces to geologic treasures of slot canyons, natural bridges and arches. It’s remote location and rugged landscape make it an extraordinary unspoiled natural area valued by biologists, paleontologists, archeologists, historians and those who love quiet creation and solitude. Grand Staircase was named the first national monument in 1996.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-43.JPG
  • Mexican Army patrols a foggy stretch of the Pan American Highway that winds through Los Mármoles National Park in Hidalgo state. Tucked in the rugged Sierra Madre Oriental south of Tamazunchale, the park is renown for its sheer marble cliffs and thick pine forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187483.jpg
  • A swan glides across the surface of Jamaica Pond at sunset in in Boston where the Emerald Necklace is a beloved set of parks and connected natural spaces.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968650.jpg
  • Trees alongside Jamaica Pond, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, are silhouetted by the setting sun. A glacial kettle hole, Olmsted preserved much of the existing vegetation and framed the pond in trees and shrubs in the Emerald Necklace. It is a part of a 1,100-acre chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968602.jpg
  • Aerial view of TexasGulf Potash Ponds which are solar evaporation ponds used in the process of mining potash. Potash, a water-soluble potassium salt  is extracted and blue dye is added to increase the rate of evaporation. It is mainly used in fertilizer products but also in the making of soap, glass, ceramics and batteries.<br />
The mine is currently owned and operated by Intredpid Potash Inc and the ponds cover 400 acres of land surrounded by sandstone cliffs and wilderness near Moab.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-3.JPG
  • Cliffs and terraces and colorful layers of rock are illuminated on in an aerial photograph revealing the steps of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The wilderness area is one million acres of public land outside of St. George, Utah. Due to its remote location and rugged landscape, the monument was one of the last places in the continental United States to be mapped.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705693.jpg
  • Castleton Rock is a 400-foot Wingate Sandstone tower standing on a 1,000 foot Moenkopi-Chinle cone above the northeastern border of Castle Valley, Utah. It is a world-renown desert rock formation that has numerous climbing routes and is located outside of Moab.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-34.JPG
  • Morning sunlight fills the canyons and rock formations created by erosion as the surrounding Colorado River sliced through the Colorado Plateau near Moab, Utah. Canyonlands National Park’s stunning vistas in Island in the Sky, are red rock Wingate sandstone <br />
cliffs and spires.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-36.JPG
  • Twilight scene from above snow-covered New York's Central Park. An elevated view shows a curved road planned by Frederick Law Olmsted to create a greater sense of space and mystery about what was to come around the next bend.<br />
Olmsted partnered with Calvert Vaux to plan “Greensward,” and won a design competition to make the what became a beloved urban park. When the idea was conceived, New York was much smaller and no one could imagine the open space surrounded by a city with tall buildings. Olmsted was a visionary and understood that man needed nature to combat the stresses of city life.  Construction began in 1858  and was completed fifteen years later. Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and is now managed by Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit which contributes eighty five percent of the park’s $37.5 budget. More than thirty-five million visitors to Manhattan come to the park annually.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968596.jpg
  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729-1.JPG
  • Far from the war, Sudanese northerners in town for the weekly cattle market have suffered from inflation caused by high military spending. But these northerners just outside of Khartoum are unfazed by a war going on in the south. Northern soldiers kidnap southerners in the refugee ring around Khartoum and force them to fight for the north. The northern Sudanese were much less affected by the civil war than those in the south.
    MM6998_0006.tif
  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729-2.JPG
  • Morning sun kisses the icy tops of winter trees in snow blanketed New York’s Central Park. An elevated view shows a walker following a curved path planned by Frederick Law Olmsted to create a greater sense of space and mystery about what was to come around the next bend.<br />
Olmsted partnered with Calvert Vaux to plan “Greensward,” and won a design competition to make the what became a beloved urban park. When the idea was conceived, New York was much smaller and no one could imagine the open space surrounded by a city with tall buildings. Olmsted was a visionary and understood that man needed nature to combat the stresses of city life.  Construction began in 1858  and was completed fifteen years later. Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and is now managed by Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit which contributes eighty five percent of the park’s $37.5 budget.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968752.jpg
  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729.jpg
  • New Yorkers enjoy Drummer's Grove who have gathered informally in a corner of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park every Sunday afternoon since 1968. The mix of dancers, musicians, and others who listen and participate in the celebratory atmosphere.<br />
<br />
Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted did not envision Drummers Grove in the 1860s when he and Calvert Vaux planned an urban space of meadows, woodlands, and pastoral views to help people connect with nature in New York.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_956187.jpg
  • Tourists explore the salt flats near San Pedro, in the Atacama Desert. Salar de Atacama is surrounded by mountains, and has no drainage outlets. Water evaporates leaving small deposits of crusted salt.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187558.jpg
  • Blue ghostly, silhouetted mountains disappear into the distance of the vast and desolate million-acre wilderness of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705735.jpg
  • Early morning rays of sunlight peek over jagged peaks in the Dolomite Mountains, a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbering 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7139_1024144.TIF
  • Morning fog rises over a summit cross on Zinalrothorn and other mountain peaks in the Alps surrounding the Matterhorn.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024112.TIF
  • Aerial over the parkway in the Cherokee Parks where the Cochran Hill tunnels were constructed to carry traffic under environmentally sensitive areas in order to avoid destroying Frederick Law Olmsted's planned landscape. I64 traffic flows east from downtown Louisville.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968756.jpg
  • Sunlight kisses a snow-dusted peak in the Dolomite Mountains. The mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbers 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems. The characteristic rock of the Dolomites consists of fossilised coral reefs formed during the Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago) by organisms and sedimentary matter at the bottom of the ancient tropical Tethys Ocean.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024145.jpg
  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy ridges and peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
The Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
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  • Morning fog rises from craggy mountain peaks in the Alps surrounding the Matterhorn. The Alps range formed when two tectonic plates of Africa dn Eurasia slowly collided millions of years ago creating some of highest peaks in Europe.<br />
Rugged Zinalrothorn and Weisshorn in the background.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024111.TIF
  • Aerial view of morning fog rising from the Dolomites, a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbering 18 peaks which rise above 3,000 meters. Jagged ridges  are made of  characteristic rock consisting of fossilized coral reefs formed during the Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago) by organisms and sedimentary matter at the bottom of the ancient tropical Tethys Ocean.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024103.TIF
  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains, illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
The Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
    MM7258_20060310_15159.tif
  • South Chilkat Mountain peaks are kissed with warm light at sunset above the Icy Strait. High winds sweep ice and snow from ridge tops creating a landscape that is severe, yet appears serene.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075066.jpg
  • Snow dusted a sequoia tree located in the southern portion of Yosemite National Park. The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite and is home to over 500 mature giant sequoias. The national park idea is rooted in the Mariposa Grove. In 1864 President Lincoln signed legislation protecting the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley for "public use, resort, and recreation." This landmark legislation holds an important place in our country's history and was enacted at a time when the nation was embroiled in the Civil War. For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government set aside scenic natural areas to be protected for the benefit of future generations. Later added to Yosemite National Park in 1906, the Mariposa Grove is a popular feature for visitors.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968657.jpg
  • Snow dusted a sequoia tree located in the southern portion of Yosemite National Park. The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite and is home to over 500 mature giant sequoias. The national park idea is rooted in the Mariposa Grove. In 1864 President Lincoln signed legislation protecting the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley for "public use, resort, and recreation." This landmark legislation holds an important place in our country's history and was enacted at a time when the nation was embroiled in the Civil War. For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government set aside scenic natural areas to be protected for the benefit of future generations. Later added to Yosemite National Park in 1906, the Mariposa Grove is a popular feature for visitors.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968594.jpg
  • Freewheeling four-wheelers trek across Coral Pink Sand Dunes of southwestern Utah. Part state park, part Bureau of Land Management wilderness quality land, the dunes are both playground and battleground. ATV riders fight for wide-open access: environmentalists for rare plant and animal species. <br />
The orange/pink color is from the Navajo sandstone layer formed 190 million years ago in the early Jurassic period. High winds pass through the region whipping sand into piles and water seeped down into the sand, carrying minerals with a mineral composition of iron, calcium carbonate, and manganese which gave the rock warm hues.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-2.JPG
  • A freewheeling four-wheeler flies over the Coral Pink Sand Dunes of southwestern Utah. Part state park, part Bureau of Land Management wilderness quality land, the dunes are both playground and battleground. ATV riders fight for wide-open access: environmentalists for rare plant and animal species. <br />
The color is from the Navajo sandstone layer formed 190 million years ago in the early Jurassic period. High winds pass through the region whipping sand into piles and water seeped down into the sand, carrying minerals with a mineral composition of iron, calcium carbonate, and manganese which gave the rock warm colors.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-1.JPG
  • Delicate rock formations shaped by wind erosion overlook the Grand Canyon. The Navajo sandstone layer formed 190 million years ago in the early Jurassic period. Southern Utah was much closer to the equator and giant, wind-whipped sand dunes dominated the landscape. Polar ice caps melted and the climate changed forming an inland sea that covered the Southwest. Water seeped down into the sand, carrying minerals with a mineral composition of iron, calcium carbonate, and manganese which gave the rock warm colors.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705695.jpg
  • A young hockey player dressed in a red snowsuit heads for the frozen lake in Mount Royal Park. Montreal's city park is beloved by in all four seasons with skiers, skater, hikers and bikers. It is a magnificent urban green space featuring 200 hectares of biodiversity and natural beauty. Inaugurated in 1876, it was planned by Frederick Law Olmsted who is famous for creating New York's Central Park.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_956189.jpg
  • A dirt road cuts through a sagebrush sea to dark, cloudy skies of a distant, looming, rain storm. Sagebrush ecosystems cover vast stretches of western North America creating rangeland habitat for animals such as pronghorn antelope, black-tailed jackrabbits and sage-grouse.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705738.jpg
  • A rushing stream flows through woods blanketed in snow in Niagara reservation that surrounds the area around Niagara Falls. Frederick Law Olmsted, America's first landscape designer, worked with both U.S. and Canadian officials to make a plan to preserve the natural beauty from logging and overuse.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968648.jpg
  • A former wild horse, adopted and trained, now works the Wyoming range with a sheepherder and his dog. Owners find that mustangs are sure-footed on a trail and spook less than domesticated horses.
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  • The most recognized symbol of Monterrey, Mexico is Cerro de la Silla, the saddle-backed mountain range. It is the backdrop behind the modern orange sculptural monument with laser beams, “Faro Del Comercio” or “Beacon of Commerce,” by sculpture Luis Barraz that is a contrast to the traditional cathedral, Baroque style Cathedral of Monterrey. <br />
Beyond Macro Plaza both colonial and contemporary architecture are found on the streets. The third largest city in Mexico, Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo Leon. It is an industrial and commercial city with cultural interests. It’s said that Monterrey faces more to the north and the United States than south to Latin America.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187480.jpg
  • Morning fog fills the valley between snowy, white peaks of the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-25.JPG
  • Fog fills the valley surrounding snowy, white peaks of the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-24.JPG
  • Late day sun lights a meadow in Yosemite National Park. Glaciers carved the Sierra Nevada mountains and creating walls that frame a flat valley floor.  Trees and grasses provide a scenic setting in late fall before the first snows.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968593.jpg
  • Sunlight floods the doorway as Christian worshipers file into Lo Vasquez  sanctuary. They walked during a religious pilgrimage to the Catholic cathedral located near both Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187647.jpg
  • Fog and low-lying clouds fill the valleys surrounding the   snowy peaks of the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-18.JPG
  • Sunlight illuminates stands of golden aspen trees below the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Snow clouds build as late fall comes to Colorado’s wilderness and Populus tremuloides displays brilliant color. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into the steep mountains near Telluride.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-17.JPG
  • Sunlight parts the clouds and illuminates a stand of aspen trees in the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor. Rich greens turn gold on Populus tremuloides as autumn comes to the area near Ouray.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-15.JPG
  • An illusive band of wild horses crests a ridge under a full moon and a night sky. Horse sleep only a few hours a night ever on guard for their safety from predators.
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  • Sunlight parts the clouds and illuminates a snowy peak in the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor.
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  • Morning light haloes the giant conifers in Lady Bird Johnson Memorial Grove in Redwoods National Park. Saved from clear cuts, ancient redwoods, some measuring 300 feet tall, and Douglas fir rise above the forest floor. The park established in 1968, has been under rehabilitation since its' inception to restore 70,000 acres of second-growth forest and remove about 300 miles of abandoned and inaccessible logging roads.
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  • Golden rays of sunrise illuminate rock faces of the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains dusted with snow. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-19.JPG
  • Sunlight parts the clouds and illuminates a stand of quaking aspen trees or Populus tremuloides in the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor. Rich greens turn vibrant colors of gold as autumn comes to the region near Ouray.
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  • This Mexican photographer has been selling Polaroid instant color photographs to tourists at the base of Cascada Cola de Caballo, Horsetail Falls, for 50 of his 73 years. The waterfall makes a dramatic 75-foot drop through Cumbres de Monterrey in Las Cumbres National Park south of Monterrey.  The falls and surrounding park are a draw for Mexican families for picnics.
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  • Sandstone-capped escarpment glows in the setting sun in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. The 280,000-acre wilderness is located at the Utah/Arizona border where the wooded Paria Plateau stretches south and  drops 3,000 feet at the monument’s namesake—the Vermilion Cliffs.
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  • Senegalese fishermen return from setting nets all night in their colorful pirogues. <br />
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Foreign trawlers and an expanding fishmeal industry are increasingly threatening the livelihood of artisanal, Senegalese fishermen, forcing many to migrate to Europe.
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  • Senegalese fisherman holds two large fish before returning from setting nets all night in their colorful pirogues. <br />
<br />
Foreign trawlers and an expanding fishmeal industry are increasingly threatening the livelihood of artisanal, Senegalese fishermen, forcing many to migrate to Europe.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057968-1.JPG
  • Senegalese fishermen return from setting nets all night in their colorful pirogues. Locals who rely on fish as their protein stand in the water to help unload the boat of its catch. T<br />
<br />
Foreign trawlers and an expanding fishmeal industry are increasingly threatening the livelihood of Senegalese fishermen, forcing many to migrate to Europe.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1057968-1.JPG
  • Senegalese fishermen return from setting nets all night in their colorful pirogues. <br />
<br />
Foreign trawlers and an expanding fishmeal industry are increasingly threatening the livelihood of artisanal, Senegalese fishermen, forcing many to migrate to Europe.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7393_1055377.JPG
  • Snow accents the contours of a fresh valley fill at a coal mine site. Tops of mountains are blasted away and flattened to reveal a small seam of coal, and the rock and debris is dumped into V-shaped valleys filling in stream beds.
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  • Hikers walking along the top ridge of a large dune in the Atacama Desert a region in north Chile that is considered the driest place on earth. Located between the Andes and Coastal mountains, the parched desert is formed by wind and erosion.
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  • A blanket is rolled onto the Pitztal Glacier to keep ice from melting and  protect the ski industry in the Alps.<br />
Glacial melts first recorded at the start of the 19th century—a point that also coincides with the start of the industrial age and burning of large amounts of fossil fuels. Since then the glaciers have lost between 30 to 40% of their area and nearly half their volume.  The coverings remind us of little mountains they are creating out of felt.
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  • Hydroseed grass is sprayed on steep contours of a reclaimed mountaintop removal mine site in an effort to control erosion. Reclamation requires mining companies to return the land to it's original contours and plant but little grows on these rocky soils and the operation is often repeated.  Spray-on grass replaces more than 60 tree species that ruled some of the world’s most diverse temperate forests.
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  • Hikers follow a trail in the last light at dusk and climb to the top of weathered desert landscape for a view of the driest place on earth. The Atacama Desert sometimes goes more than a century with no recorded measurable precipitation. The Atacama Desert is considered the oldest desert on earth. On the whole, it has experienced semi-arid conditions for over 150 million years, and the inner core—the driest spot—has been hyper-arid for over 15 million years.
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