New Zealand is a magical land with or without elves

New Zealand is a magical land with or without elves

Shawn Reeder made this impressive time-lapse of New Zealand after he decided to leave his home to become a film maker travelling around the world. His first stop was the country he always wanted to travel to "for as long as [he] can remember." Looking at this video, it was a good decision.

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Most Beautiful Items: February 14 – 21, 2014

Most Beautiful Items: February 14 - 21, 2014

If I have to look at one more half-melted slushy snowdrift, I’m going to junkpunch the nearest passerby. Luckily, there are things like amazing honeycomb sculptures and insane light installations to bring everyone off the ledge that winter has put them on. Enjoy a little reprieve in the form of the most beautiful items we posted this week.

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Daredevil men fixing a zeppelin in mid-flight over the Atlantic

Daredevil men fixing a zeppelin in mid-flight over the Atlantic

German photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt—one of the greatest artists in the history of the medium—used his Leica to take this stunning photo of a crew repairing the Graf Zeppelin in mid-air, after a storm in the middle of the Atlantic damaged the airship’s skin en route to Rio de Janeiro in 1934. It looks so surreal—like a Magritte painting.

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Sitting on top of the world never looked so good… and terrifying

She may look like the Black Widow sitting atop the Chrysler Building in a scene from Avengers, but she is the fearless Lucinda Grange, a British photographer specialized in sports, portraiture, architecture, travel, and adventure. In her spare time she loves to climb tall structures and explore abandoned buildings, taking some truly amazing photos like the one above.

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Stunning images of the endless buildings and skies of Hong Kong

Stunning images of the endless buildings and skies of Hong Kong

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze is a French photographer who loves Hong Kong. These stunning photos are from his latest book, Vertical Horizon, "a deep immersion into the city’s thick atmospheres and a visual record of its wildly diverse built environment." Some of the buildings seem to go on forever. When I look at them, I feel like I’m go fall into the sky.

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Is a perfectly symmetrical face actually the most beautiful?

Is a perfectly symmetrical face actually the most beautiful?

Beauty is in symmetry. Symmetry is beautiful. Or something like that. But what if that’s not true? Photographer Alex John Beck played around with the idea of facial symmetry by creating perfectly symmetrical composite images of people’s faces in his photography series Both Sides Of. You’ll see two faces in the pictures here, one face is the the left half of a person’s face mirrored and the other is the right side. They’re both symmetrical. They’re not always beautiful.

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Most Beautiful Items: February 7 – 14, 2014

Most Beautiful Items: February 7 - 14, 2014

After a week of snow melts into disgusting slush, you could say that things are very much the opposite of beautiful in New York this Friday evening. But you don’t have to look outside to get your fix of good lookin’ things. We’ve got plenty to sate your appetite right here, from the worlds of art, design, architecture, and more.

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Proof that drones will completely change the way everyone makes movies

I don’t know if it’s the The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony or the slow twisting motion of the quadcopter’s descent, but I really love this first scene from Viktor Mirzoyan’s aerial video over a beige Washington D.C.

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Stunning photos of Lick Observatory by Laurie Hatch

Stunning photos of Lick Observatory by Laurie Hatch

It may look like a movie frame showing an Evil Mad Scientist lair, but it’s just a one-minute exposure photograph of Lick Observatory, as seen from Kepler Peak. It’s part of a series of outstanding shots of this beautiful place by Laurie Hatch. I asked Laurie to tell us about herself and show us her work.

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One of the most stunning space images ever captured

One of the most stunning space images ever captured

This is one of the most dramatic, unique and beautiful astronomy images ever captured by the Hubble Space Telescope: The protostar Herbig-Haro 24, located in the L1630 cloud within the Orion B group, 1,500 light years from Earth. That beam is made by particle jets emanating from the primitive star:

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