Stunning Nature Photography in Website Design
Mother Nature provides beauty every day in almost every part of the world. Perhaps it was a beautiful sunrise this morning where you live, or maybe you watched an ant carrying a leaf 10 times its own size. Relatively few of us are lucky enough to be able to look out of the window and see a sweeping coastline, an amazing mountain range, a jaw-dropping waterfall or a meandering river.
That is why we are fortunate that photography was invented – to bring these wonders of the world into our homes visually. It is a delight when we land on a website with nature images, and here is a selection of some of those sites.
The Beauty of Nature in Web Design
Let’s Travel Somewhere
This site is dedicated to bringing the beauty of the world in photography, collected in one place. The brain-child of Nisa Maier, she says she wants ‘to capture the essence of every country on the planet through stunning photographs and gripping stories.’ User are invited to contribute to this site.
Kassandra Bay
Kassandra Bay Resort and Spa is located on the Greek island of Skiathos. A stunning coastline on the Aegean Sea greets you when you land on this page.
Pixel Bytes
This agency use an animated night-sky image of lightning over a mountain range. A stunning effect.
Region Wasserfallen
This is the official tourist site for the Wasserfallen region of Switzerland. They have a slideshow of 3 images of their region on the landing page.
Montigo Resorts
A stunningly beautiful coastline is captured in this full screen image on the Montigo Resorts home page. Really makes you want to visit!
Ghost Recon
This site is promoting a video game – Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, and the military men are photographed atop a stunning mountain range, taken from above.
Forty Spotted Gin
This Tasmanian gin manufacturer uses an animated waterfall image to imply the fresh and thirst-quenching properties of their drink.
Lake County
The Lake County official site has some stunning images throughout, but the predominant attraction is California’s largest freshwater lake.
Massy Vins
This Swiss vintner uses a stunning photograph of the vineyard area.
Tripaya
This vacation booking site uses an aerial photograph of a stunning coastline.
Cat Cay
Cat Cay is a private island and yacht club in the Bahamas. They use this aerial photograph of the island for the main image on their site, and it doubles up as a navigational menu with icons dotted around it.
Uni Sapon
A most beautiful image of a sunlit forest greets you when you land on this page.
Kyle Thacker
Kyle Thacker is a designer from Vancouver, and I am guessing this beautiful monochrome image of a mountain range is one of those that can be seen from Vancouver.
Sunnhordland
Sunnhordland is a district in Norway, and it is well known that the Norwegians enjoy amazingly beautiful scenery – and on this site we get to share some of it.
Chris Diamond Architect
Is somehow seems strange to see a slideshow of beautiful nature images (presumably taken in Australia) for an architect’s site, but that is exactly what you will find on this one.
Costa Navarino
Costa Navarino is a development in the Messinia region of Greece, incorporating luxury hotels, golf courses and private residences, among other facilities.
IUQO
This site uses animated real clouds on their hompage – you feel as if you are flying through them, and it can be a bit much if you stay on this page too long!
Pixel Pink Design
This German design agency use a very pastel shades photograph of fluffly clouds, with the tagline ‘Don’t underestimate simplicity’.
Into The Vineyard
The amazingly beautiful photograph used on this landing page needs absolutely no introduction – simply stunning.
Massis Tea
Similar to the above example, this English tea blending company use an amazing landscape photograph to greet you when you arrive on their site.
Conclusion
Nature photography has always been popular for wallpapers, screensavers, etc., and the trend of full screen background images has seen them become more and more popular in website design for topics that have not much to do with nature as well as those that do.
Have you used nature photography in any of your projects? Would you consider using a nature-inspired full screen image for a design that is not related to nature? Please share you thoughts and links with us in the section below.
