Earth Day: NASA invites people to #PictureEarth, click away at the world around them

With Earth Day less than a week away on 22 April, American space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invited people to celebrate the planet through a #PictureEarth contest. Photographers — whether you’re a professional, an amateur, or someone who cares little for “photography” — are invited to share images of the life, natural beauty or motion around them. For inspiration, NASA’s blogpost announcing the contest said the contest will welcome “blooming flowers, ancient trees, colourful insects, furry and feathered animals, crashing waves, molten lava, puffy clouds, frozen ice, and warm sunlight,” among other things in nature. [caption id=“attachment_6461951” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] An Earth Day montage for some inspiration. Image courtesy: NASA[/caption]

How do you #PictureEarth?

NASA wants contestants to capture anything in nature that can answer: What makes your location on Earth special? Where is the colour of our living planet seen? Is there a texture or pattern in your surroundings? What makes Earth our home in the vast universe? The photographs can be shared with “#PictureEarth” on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on 22 April along with the photo location to qualify. NASA plans to then showcase the best of the lot in videos and composite images of natural beauty from around the world. “Our satellites and instruments #PictureEarth daily. Some take visible light photos, much like your camera. Others peer into the infrared, microwave and radio spectrums, which our human eyes can’t see,” the blogpost reads. “Each satellite picture reveals a small detail of the land, water, atmosphere, and life on Earth…a single brushstroke in the masterpiece that is our home planet.” And now NASA is turning to you and me to add pieces to its super-massive photo puzzle of our Planet Earth.