Barren Gallery

100 years of the RAF

No 26 Squadron Bristol Belvedere HC.1, based at Khormaksar, Aden, delivers supplies and mail to a remote location in the mountainous Radfan area of the country.
The RAF Belvederes were involved in combat in Aden Emergency and Borneo (during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation).
Twenty-six Belvederes were built, entering service as the Belvedere HC Mark 1.
The Belvederes were originally designed for use with the Royal Navy but were later adapted to carry 18 fully equipped troops with a total load capacity of 6, 000 lb. The aircraft could operate through only one engine in the event of an emergency. In that case, the remaining engine would automatically run up to double power to compensate.
*Some of these images have had some dodging and burning done and have been retouched to remove detritus and dust and scratch marks only*

© Crown copyright

Dead trees and sand dunes in blistering hot sunlight at Deadvlei, Sossusvlei Salt Pan, Namib Naukluft National Park, Namibia

The iconic Deadvlei in the Namibian desert is truly a special place on this planet. I had woken at 4am this morning and was first in line waiting to enter the national park of Sossusvlei Namibia. Upon arriving at the parking area I then proceeded with a long tiring walk in soft dune sand to arrive at Deadvlei which is nestled in between some very large dunes. The sight is quite spectacular yet almost ghostlike and being the first person there I had plenty of time to size up an area I had seen so many photographs of over the years. The textures, shapes and constrasts are indeed quite something and I decided to try something different with this image. I waited until the sun was a bit higher to achieve what I had in mind. I specifically wanted to express in an image the feeling of being in the desert under the blazing african sun with not a drop of water in sight. This was taken at 9am in the morning and the mercury was already approaching 30 Degrees Celsius. Image taken with a Nikon D3s, Nikkor 14-24mm lens @ 14mm, ISO 200, 1/200, f/22. Raw and Processing adjustments included Exposure, Vibrance/Saturation, Noise Removal, Curves and Sharpening

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Lunar surface, artwork

Lunar surface. Computer artwork of a view across the surface of the Moon towards Earth in the distance. The Moon has no atmosphere to scatter sunlight, as a result the lunar sky appears black at any time of day. Another consequence of the lack of an atmosphere is that surface temperatures vary widely, from 100 degrees Celsius during the day to minus 170 degrees Celsius at night. It is thought that the surface is buried under a 16 miles thick layer of shattered rock, dust, and debris from over four billion years of meteorites, micrometeorites, and comets striking the moon's surface

© WALTER MYERS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY