Photo Of The Day: Kalalau Beach

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Kalalau Beach – the name alone sounds like something that might bubble out of your mouth in an overheated tropical stupor.

Or maybe these are just the words of someone living in a rainy place.

Some context: two weekends ago, London was dreamily hot. As I reclined on a flannel sheet in Victoria Park in the afternoon shade, drinking a Pimm’s Cup and gazing at Londoners of all types and creeds, all deeply intoxicated by summer, it occurred to me that lazy, hot weekends are the point of life. All this all-weather hardiness is just for show. What we all long for is a perfect day outside under hot clear skies.

Not really, but I felt it then. And I remember it today, gazing out the window at rainy, cold (57 degrees!) London. This romantic image of Kalalau Beach on Kauai, shot at sunset by Flickr user Buck Forester, reminds me of how I felt that day.

Upload your best images to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. We choose our favorites from the pool to be Photos of the Day.

Photo Of The Day: Antelope Canyon

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Antelope Canyon, in Arizona, is a much photographed bit of the American landscape – a place so distinctive and photogenic that it’s been featured in many a portrait of the American West. Antelope Canyon is located on Navajo land in Page, Arizona, close to the Arizona-Utah state line.

This particular image was snapped by Flickr user oilfighter, who has lots of other striking images of the American West in his personal Flickr archive.

Upload your favorite photos of the American West to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr, and make sure to enable downloading. We choose our favorites from the pool to be Photos of the Day.

The Golden Gate Bridge Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary With Lots Of Sparkle

by Jessica Marati on

Few American landmarks are as recognized, photographed and beloved as the Golden Gate Bridge, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this weekend with a full slate of free performances, festivals and fireworks displays around San Francisco and the Bay Area.

The weekend’s festivities were the highlight of a full year of celebrations, which included exhibits, lectures, performances, concerts and film screenings dedicated to the iconic landmark. One thing visitors shouldn’t expect is unrestricted pedestrian access; city officials learned their lesson from the bridge’s 50th anniversary celebrations, when more than 300,000 people crowded the main thoroughfare causing the center portion of the bridge to flatten out.

In appropriate fashion, the bridge also received a touch of “sparkle” for its 75th, in the form of a new art and science installation called Solar Beacon, which opened on Sunday. According to the Los Angeles Times, the installation involves a set of remote control mirrors positioned on top of the bridge’s towers, which have the capacity to reflect narrow beams of light across the San Francisco Bay. The installation will also be participatory; residents are invited to log onto Solar Beacon’s website and input a particular place and time, and the project will direct the light’s beam there.

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[flickr image above via Argent_G37S]

World’s Largest Chocolate Sculpture To Go On Display In California

by Melanie Renzulli on



California dessert and pastry school Qzina has just broken the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Chocolate Sculpture. Modeled after the Kukulcan Mayan pyramid in Chichen Itza, Mexico, the chocolate pyramid took more than 400 hours to construct and weighs 18,239 pounds.

Qzina’s chocolate “architects” built an exact scale model of the Mayan temple to celebrate the school’s 30th anniversary and to pay homage to 2012, the supposed end of the world according to some interpreters of the Mayan calendar. Measuring one-thirtieth the size of the original Mayan temple, the solid chocolate replica stands at six feet tall with a symmetrical base of 10 feet by 10 feet. Every last detail, from the number of steps up the sides of the temple to tiny figurines modeled to look like Mayan tribesmen, was created out of chocolate. More amazing photos of the chocolate pyramid are available in this Flickr set.

The chocolate sculpture goes on display on June 4, 2012, in the Qzina product showroom in Irvine, California, and will be destroyed on December 21, 2012, the last date on the Mayan calendar. “The method for destruction is yet to be determined,” according to the Qzina website.

By the way, the previous world record for a sculpture made of chocolate was held by Italian chocolatier Mirco Della Vecchia, who built the Duomo of Milan out of 10,736.5 pounds of chocolate.

Photo Of The Day: Zebra Canyon

by Jessica Marati on

Most travel photography fans are familiar with the striking, sun-dappled images of Arizona‘s famed Antelope Canyon popularized on computer desktop backgrounds around the world. But few people are acquainted with Zebra Canyon, its less popular, less crowded but equally fetching neighbor in Utah, captured excellently in today’s Photo of the Day from Flickr user oilfighter. Named because of its vivid pink stripes, Zebra Canyon is also referred to as a “slot” because of its narrowness – our intrepid photographer even had to leave his pack at the entrance!

Do your natural wonder photos belong here? Upload your favorite shots to the Gadling Flickr Pool and your image could be selected as our Photo of the Day.