Sunday Stills: Explore the Humble Island That Was Traded for Manhattan, the Mysteries of Gothic Cathedrals, and More

Read: The Vatican and climate change View in web browser.   Sunday Stills Issue 42 Sunday, June 28, 2015 PROOF The Humble Island That Was Traded for Manhattan Photographs by Muhammad Fadli Nutmeg was once so rare and coveted that it started wars and inspired modern capitalism. That’s what may have made the small Indonesian island of Run—once a primary source of the spice—a seemingly natural trade-off for a little fur-trading post called Manhattan. Almost 350 years after the exchange, a photographer explores modern-day Run (rhymes with “dune”) and finds a stark contrast from the city that never sleeps. Read the story PROOF Midnight Sun Photograph by Chris McCaw, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York During the Arctic summer, the sun never dips below the horizon but is always on the move. Using a process he discovered by accident, Chris McCaw illustrates just that, embracing the sun’s power to create and destroy as it literally burns a path across his long-exposure images. Read the story ADVENTURE Heal: A Best Friend Says Goodbye Photograph by Lisa Skaff Denali is dying—and he’s pretty sure his best friend knows. Winner of the Best of the Festival award at the 2015 5Point Film Festival, this touching tribute to friendship, loyalty, and beating the odds takes us inside one adventurer’s last days. Watch the video NEWS Meticulous Imperfection Images courtesy Andrew Tallon, Vassar College Art historian Andrew Tallon uses lasers and a bit of faith to map the world’s Gothic cathedrals, including Notre Dame in Paris. The resulting scans have more than a billion bits of data—and reveal that the engineers and architects of the past weren’t as interested in flawlessness as we thought. Read the story YOUR SHOT At Home on the Range Photograph by Shiyu Zhuang David Guttenfelder is known for giving us an unparalleled view of North Korea, but his latest magazine assignment has him chasing bison in Yellowstone National Park. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons he chose Shiyu Zhuang’s timeless deer image while editing a recent Your Shot hashtag assignment on picturing exploration. We’ll have to ask the next time we encounter him in the wild. See David’s other selects TRAVEL Brilliant Work Photograph by Matthew Smith After hours of trial and error, Matthew Smith captured this vivid shot of Portuguese man-of-wars in Bushrangers Bay, Australia. The photo is big in all respects, but the creature is only about the size of your thumb. To capture the blue glow, Smith created his own underwater studio using fiber-optic snoots and diffusers on his flashes. Smith’s photo is competing with other images in the Traveler Photo Contest. Submit your own by June 30 at 12 p.m. EDT. See all the contest entries Discover Your Member Benefits Thank you for supporting our nonprofit work and sharing our belief in the power of science, exploration, and storytelling to change the world. Join now at members.nationalgeographic.com to unlock your FREE member benefits, including exclusive discounts and content. Already a member? Sign in now. Show Your Support: SHOP DONATE SUBSCRIBE TRAVEL BECOME A MEMBER You are receiving this email because ignoble.experiment@arconati.us is signed up to receive National Geographic communications. If you prefer not to receive emails from us, please unsubscribe.   Contact Us | NGS Customer Service | Privacy Policy   To ensure that you receive your National Geographic emails, please add ngs@e.nationalgeographic.com to your address book now. Learn how.   National Geographic | 1145 17th Street N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036 Copyright © 2015 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.