11/14/2016
Cadiz, Spain
36.531514, -6.299827
Cádiz is an ancient port city surrounded by the sea in southwest Spain. Because the city was constructed upon a spit of land that cannot support high-rises, its skyline has not substantially changed since medieval times. A portion of the “Old City” — an area characterized by narrow winding alleys connecting large plazas and markets — is seen in this Overview.
11/12/2016
Bondi Beach
Sydney, Australia
33°53′28″S 151°16′40″E
Bondi Beach and its surrounding suburb are located in Sydney, Australia. One of the city’s most stunning and popular destinations, the beach gets its name from the Aboriginal word “Bondi” that means waves breaking over rocks.
Source imagery: Nearmap
11/10/2016
Qinhuangdao Port
Qinhuangdao, China
39.933622°, 119.683840°
Here’s one of the most stunning images from the Where We Power chapter of “Overview”. Automated cranes move on tracks at the Qinhuangdao Port coal terminal, the largest coal shipping facility in China. From here, approximately 210 million metric tons of coal are transported every year to power plants in the major cities of southern China. That yearly tonnage is roughly equal to the mass of 3.6 billion people. To see more images from the book and to learn more, click here.
11/8/2016
Washington, D.C., USA
38°53′52″N 77°02′11″W
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C, the building has served as the home of every U.S. president since John Adams (1800). If you’re a United States citizen, make sure you get out and exercise your right to vote today!
Source imagery: Nearmap
Our new book “Overview” contains 70 images that have never been posted on our feed before! Here’s one that captures the natural beauty of Mount Fuji — an active stratovolcano and the tallest peak in Japan, rising 3,776 meters (12,389 feet). As seen in this Overview, Fuji has an extremely symmetrical cone, which is snow‑capped several months of the year. During warmer months, climbing routes make it possible for hundreds of thousands of people to scale the volcano each year.
11/2/2016
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Last night the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, ending a 108-year streak since the franchise won its last championship. Congratulations to all of the Cubs fans in Chicago and all around the world! The team’s home stadium, Wrigley Field, is captured in this Overview.
Halloween
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
39.96839°N 75.172652°W
The haunted house at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is consistently ranked among the scariest Halloween attractions in the United States. The prison operated from 1829 until 1971 and housed notorious criminals like the gangster Al Capone. The facility was also the first of its kind to be constructed in a “wagon-wheel” layout with seven wings of cellblocks radiating from a central hub. Hope everyone has a safe and scary Halloween!
Source imagery: Nearmap
10/22/2016
Arlit Uranium Mine
Arlit, Niger
18°44′N 7°23′E
With just three days until the release of “Overview”, I’m sharing a few of my favorite images from the book. Here’s one from the chapter all about mining, ‘Where We Extract’. The Arlit Uranium mine is located in Arlit, Niger. French nuclear power generation as well as the French nuclear weapons program are dependent on the uranium that is extracted from the mine - more than 3400 tonnes per year.
10/21/2016
Palmanova, Italy
45.904892400°, 13.317671100°
Here’s one of my favorite images from the 'Where We Design' chapter in “Overview”. The town of Palmanova, Italy is recognized by its concentric layout known as a star fort. The rationale for this construction was that an attack on any individual wall could be defended from the two adjacent star points by shooting the enemy from behind. The three rings that surround Palmanova were completed in 1593, 1690, and 1813.
10/20/2016
Sydney, Australia
33°51′31.2″S 151°12′50.5″E
The Sydney Opera House hosts more than 1,500 shows each year in its various performance halls, drawing a total attendance of approximately 1.2 million people. While the buildings famous “shell” design appears uniformly white from a distance, it actually features a subtle chevron pattern composed of tiles in two colors: glossy white and matte cream.
Source imagery; Nearmap
10/19/2016
Southern California Logistics Airport
Victorville, California, USA
34°35′51″N 117°22′59″W
Here’s one of my favorite images from the Where We Waste chapter of “Overview”. The Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California contains an aircraft boneyard with more than 150 retired planes. Because the demand for jumbo jets has dropped significantly in the last two decades in favor of smaller, more affordable twin‑engine planes, many large aircrafts such as Boeing 747s have been retired. The dry conditions in Victorville – located on the edge of the Mojave Desert – limits the corrosion of metal, meaning planes can be stored here for years while they are stripped for spare parts.
10/17/2016
Andes Mountains
32°51'6"S 70°8'16"W
Los Caracoles Pass, or The Snails Pass, is a twisting mountain road located in a remote section of the Andes Mountains on the Chilean side of the border with Argentina. The path climbs to an elevation of 10,419 feet, has no roadside safety barriers, and is frequented by large trucks.
10/13/2016
Mona Vale Beach Pool
Mona Vale, NSW, Australia
-33.6787655, 151.3160979
Check out this incredible shot of the ocean pool at Mona Vale Beach, located in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. There are a number of public ocean pools in New South Wales, offering stunning areas to swim, situated on the rocky coast, with waves splashing into the pool.
Drone photographer: @gabscanu
10/11/2016
Plaça de Tetuan
Eixample District, Barcelona, Spain
41.394921°N 2.175507°E
Plaça de Tetuan is a major square located in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Spain. The area characterized by its strict grid pattern, octagonal intersections, and apartments with communal courtyards.
10/10/2016
Salt ponds
San Francisco Bay, California, USA
37.5106531, -122.053325
The salt evaporation ponds seen here cover roughly 10 square miles (26 square km) in San Francisco Bay, California, USA. Salt is extracted from the water here through a lengthy process. First, water from the bay is channeled into massive basins where it begins a transformation into brines. Over five years, the brines evaporate, concentrate, and travel several miles before they are collected as pure salt crystals. The massive ponds get their vibrant color from a particular species of algae (Dunaliella) that thrives in extremely salty water and produces a red pigment.
Source imagery: Nearmap
Our thoughts are with the people of Haiti following the loss and damage the country is facing in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. In the city of Jeremie, it is estimated that 80% of the buildings have been flattened by the storm. We encourage you to check out the link below to learn more about how you can help. Unfortunately, we don’t have any imagery yet of the areas most affected by the storm, so this Overview shows houses covering the steep hillsides of the Killick Stenio Vincent neighborhood in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
https://weather.com/news/news/hurricane-matthew-how-help
10/6/2016
Richmond, California, USA
37.9137118, -122.368161
Cars are unloaded and parked at an automobile terminal in Richmond, California, USA. In 2015, 17.5 million cars and light trucks were sold in the United States, raising the total number of registered vehicles in the country to roughly 253 million.
Source imagery: Nearmap
10/5/2016
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
35°11′46″N 106°35′51″W
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is currently underway in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. The annual, nine day event is the largest event of its kind in the world with more than 500 balloons. This incredible overview, captured by Alexandra Grumblatt, captures an event known as a “mass ascension” when all participants launch in two waves, filling the sky with hundreds of balloons at once.
10/4/2016
Yuanyang Rice Terraces
Yuanyang County, China
23°09′32″N 102°44′41″E
Rice paddies, constructed in steps, cover the mountainsides of Yuanyang County, China. Cultivated by the Hani people for the last 1300 years, the slope of the terraces varies from 15 to 75 degrees with some having as many as 3,000 steps. As we’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about prints, I want to mention that this Overview, and many others, can be purchased directly from our website in the Printshop section!
10/3/2016
Niagara Falls
Canada / United States
43.077305°N 79.07562°W
Niagara Falls is the collective name for three waterfalls that straddle the border between Ontario, Canada and the United States. Horseshoe Falls is seen here. The falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 165 feet (50 m). The Maid of the Mist, also visible here, is a boat that has carried passengers into the rapids below the falls since 1846.
Source imagery: NearMap
9/29/2016
Marrakesh, Morocco
31.633080724°, -7.986173343°
The medina quarter in Marrakesh, Morocco is characterized by its winding, maze-like streets. Because the intricately connected honeycomb of alleyways narrows to less than a meter wide (~ 3 feet) at certain spots, the area is generally free from car traffic.
9/28/2016
Chicago, Illinois, USA
41.8798146,-87.618203
Sailboats are docked at DuSable Harbor in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The facility is located on Lake Michigan in the heart of the city’s downtown area and contains 420 slips for boats between 30 to 60 feet in length.
Source imagery: Nearmap
9/27/2016
Newark, New Jersey
40°40′54″N 74°09′02″W
Shipping containers are stacked at the Port Newark Container Terminal in Newark, New Jersey, USA. The massive facility handles over 600,000 shipping containers every year and has begun expansion projects that will increase annual capacity to 1.1 million containers by 2030.
9/23/2016
Sun City, Arizona, USA
33.6189504, -112.291099
Houses, built in concentric circles, make up a section of Sun City, Arizona, USA. When the development opened on January 1, 1960, the event attracted a crowd of more than 100,000 onlookers and the "futuristic development" was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
9/22/2016
26.386332°, – 80.179917°
Residential development is seen in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. Because many cities in the state contain master-planned communities, often built on top of waterways in the latter half of the twentieth century, there are a number of intricate designs that are visible from the Overview perspective. Boca Raton is home to roughly 91,000 residents.
9/21/2016
Delhi, India
28.614656°, 77.057758°
Delhi, India contains approximately 16 million residents. The neighborhoods of Santosh Park and Uttam Nagar, both pictured here, are home to some of the city’s poorest people and contain its most built-up and densely populated land. Numerous studies have shown a correlation between the wealth of a residential area and its total number of trees and the amount of green space. This Overview is a particularly striking example of that trend.
9/13/2016
Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange
Los Angeles, California
33.9287°N 118.281°W
Today I'll be traveling throughout the freeway network of Los Angeles, well known for its massive interchanges (and traffic). The Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange is a stack highway interchange located near the Athens and Watts neighborhoods in South LA. This junction is composed of five levels that scale to a staggering height of more than 40 meters (132 feet).
9/13/2016
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles, California, USA
33°56′33″N 118°24′29″W
This morning I’m flying to Los Angeles for a couple of days through the city’s international airport, commonly referred to as LAX. Last year, the facility handled nearly 75 million passengers, making it the seventh busiest in the world.
Ever wondered how the moon affects the tides of water on Earth? Long story short, it’s gravity. As the moon orbits the Earth, it exerts a gravitational pull on the Earth. Since the Earth is significantly larger, it doesn't actually move towards the moon, but the water on it's surface, being liquid, does move. Photo of the Atlantic Ocean, captured via drone Benjamin Grant
To celebrate yesterday’s launch of “Overview” in the UK, here is a mesmerizing view of residential development in the London suburb of Dagenham. Thank you to everyone who has ordered the book, left an Amazon review, or simply helped to spread the word about the project so far. As I write this in New York, it is very powerful to see this idea resonate not only across the pond, but across the globe. If you have friends in the UK that you think would enjoy the Overviews or the book, a tag or share would be enormously helpful to keep the momentum going. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, wherever you are in the world!
9/8/2016
Glacial melt
Skafta River, Iceland
63.7751116, -18.09628
Glacial melting and flooding occurs every year by the Skafta River in Iceland. As the water travels down towards the North Atlantic Ocean, incredible patterns are created on the hillsides. Rising lava, steam vents, or newly opened hot springs can all cause this rapid ice melt, leading to a sizable release of water that picks up sediment as it flows down from the glaciers.
The Space Shuttle Challenger rises through the skies above Florida on February 3, 1984.
With the first release of my book tomorrow in the United Kingdom, I have been doing a lot of thinking about why I started this project in the first place. To sum it up in one word, it has always been about perspective. Through space travel or satellites or simply bringing ourselves to a more elevated viewpoint, we can discover new ways to see our world like never before. I think that exercise can be healthy, it can be challenging, and ultimately, it can be beautiful. For me, it has been such an amazing adventure to work on this project and this book and I can’t wait to see where it will take us next. Photo courtesy of NASA