Planet Earth

If you were not tuned in to the American premiere of the series Planet Earth on Discovery Channel, you truly missed out. This series uses nature footage in HD collected over 5 years to convey the world's landscapes and ecosystems as you've never even imagined seeing them. They use high tech cameras and film to slow down the attacks, follow the hunts from above and transform months to minutes. The clip above is from the show and show a great white hunting (and capturing) a seal. The attack takes one second but is slowed down to 1/40th that speed. This article in Wired reports on some of the never-before-used techniques employed for this series.

The series originally aired on BBC and has been re-narrated for our American ears by Sigourney Weaver. The look this series provides at nature is truly awesome and breathtaking. It constantly challenges my presumed ideas of what is possible and how varied life is. It will make you want to go back and watch over and over until you finally overcome disbelief. In a time of high tech graphics and special effects, the use of technology to capture the realest of occurrences is the most stunning of all.