Photographer Page

Peter Essick

The northern lights shimmer above snow-covered candle spruce trees in Finland's Oulanka National Park. A story in the June 2009 issue displayed the stunning landscapes of the beloved national park in all four seasons.

Argentina's Perito Moreno Glacier spans almost 100 square miles, and stands 200 feet above Lake Argentino. Scientists believe the glacier, one of dozens of ice fields in Patagonia's Los Glaciares National Park, is 18,000 years old.

In Oulanka National Park, Finland, a whooper swan prepares for takeoff in the morning mist. The swan, whose wings can span up to nine feet, is the national bird of Finland.

A splash of azure, of the kind Darwin noted, is reflected in a bay in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. The Darwin mountain range, named for the young naturalist by Captain FitzRoy in 1834, rises above it.

Adélie penguin parents take turns sitting on their nest to keep the eggs warm. Constant care in their extremely cold habitat is crucial to chick survival.

In Miyama, a quiet town on the west coast of Honshu Island, Japan, a young boy stops to look at a turtle on the side of the road.

A canoer paddles the Milwaukee River through the city’s Lincoln Park. Outlined as an Area of Concern in 1987, the zone once suffered heavy pollution, but is now rebounding. “We only encountered one other canoe during our morning paddle,” says photographer Peter Essick, “even though we weren’t far from a large metropolitan city.”

The Colorado River has eroded these schist formations into fudge-like shapes and shades. Schist, a metamorphic rock, contains mineral crystals that can be seen by the naked eye.

There's no proof that chemicals wafting from factories triggered breast cancer in three women who lived in Richmond, California. But Marleen Quint, with graphic proof of her ordeal, suspects living in sight of the plants was a factor. "My mother is 79 and has all her body parts." Quint, Wanna Wright, centre, and Etta Lundy hope to force a nearby oil refinery to reduce "flaring" of excess gases.

Sunrise warms the icy southern end of the Andes during a rare break in the weather in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park. The Andes mountains, which span the entire western coast of South America, formed when the Nazca plate subducted under the South American plate.