Stunning Silhouette Photography

Why are silhouette photos so irresistably charming? Personally, I think it's because there's a lot of stories to share behind the black-and-white splashes or the black-and-yellow combinations. I am undeniably drawn closer to silhouette photos whenever I look at them, and there's this feeling of wanting to know more about how the image was taken, just like in the photo below:

Don't you just want to know why the man is holding balloons in the dark?

That's just one sample of stunning silhouette photography; there's actually more where that came from, and Digital Picture Zone has 30 of that to share. Click here to see the other photos.

Image aggregated from Flickr user Thomas Hawk, via DigitalPictureZone. Please contact Thomas Hawk for permission to use the photo for personal or commercial purposes.

Vramak's Fantastic Digital Art

I just love the creative portfolio of this guy:

He's just amazing. It seems that everything on his gallery has been the product of a gnawing idea that has plagued his creative mind for some time. The results are just priceless--even his Flickr profile info is amazing! :

"You are free to add graphic-filled comments, invites to group pools, totally irrelevant (but very flattering) comments and of course genuine comments. :-)

You can also add me as a contact for the sole purpose of expanding your contact list.

You can also fave my pics simply because you want me to fave some of your pics.

To put it in simple terms, you can do whatever you wish to do and I'd be totally cool about it. :-)

C'mon! We all know Flickr's just for fun. Flickr's never really gonna make us better artists. It makes us better plagiarists tho. ;-)"

I love the attitude :)

To view the rest of Vramak's wonderful gallery, click here.

Image and text parts aggregated from Vramak's Flickr photostream and profile page. Please contact the photographer for permission to use the images commercially.

Valley Photos

So a photographer takes only scenic shots of a place. That's fine, that's normal. But when a photographer suddenly sees a place in a different light and starts churning photographs that depict life that's anything but ordinary, then you got art--which is exactly what blogger and photographer Vanda Nagy (if that's her real name) has done which has transpired from her move to L.A.

In her own words, Vanda describes the neighborhood that has been captured by her camera:

"The neighborhood is going through changes. The over inflated real estate market and the new subway line stretching from the Valley to Downtown have started making this generally uncool area of the Valley more attractive. And thus gentrification has started creeping over the hills. It's a mixed bag. Ratty old commercial buildings get bulldozed off, but in the process the mom-and-pop shops, some of which have been there for decades, get forced out of business. Neighborhood stable, Bob the printer finally gave up the fight with cheap home printers and increasing rents, and closed shop for good. Iliad Books, the best bookstore in the Valley fortunately stayed open, but was forced to move."

Very interesting observation, and even more interesting photos over at her gallery--and they don't even need captions for explanation.

To view the rest of the photos, click here.

Incidentally, on June 10th, Vanda Nagy's blog was reco'ed by Blogger's Blogs of Note. Click here to read her very entertaining blog.

And I hope I was right when I used "her" :D

Image and parts of text were aggregated from Valley-photo.com and is copyright by Vanda Nagy. Please contact the owner for commercial use of the image.

Light Painting

This is what photography is all about, that is, using light to your advantage. :D

As it seems, not everyone knows how to tinker with the dials and buttons on most digital cameras, so most shots are fired with the usual setting-- Auto + Direct flash. And if you haven't noticed it before, this is the usual setting they use when they take a photo of you for your driver's license, or worse, when police take a mug shot of you. Not exactly the best combination when taking outdoor shots at night. That's where the slow shutter setting comes handy. You just mount the camera on a tripod, fire away and let the light "paint" the picture for you (for about 5 to 10 seconds).

Or, you can get crazy with "light"--flashlights, LED lights, blinkers, the works!--and craft up a creative night shot, just like what these guys did:

So there! Get creative!

For more ideas on light painting, you can check out this cool gallery at Creative Nerds by clicking here.

Images aggregated from Creative Nerds and are copyright by its respective owners. Please contact them for permission to use the images commercially.

Greek Photographer Arrested in London

Say what???

Photographers are in abundance right now because DSLRs have suddenly become cheap like mobile phones. Photographers are also running into different troubles because of this hobby, as evident in this news I came across with over the web:

The Greek photographer Pericles Antoniou from Athens Greece, was arrested in London England during the Greek Orthodox Easter for taking photographs of a girl in the London Metro.
Mr. Antoniou, who has a 25-year experience in artistic photography, was sent to jail, shoeless and was not allowed to communicate with any of his family; he is expected on a hearing soon this month.
Mr. Antoniou is also a member of Greek Caravan of Solidarity, which was featured in http://www.tvxs.gr

As he claims in his letter to the Greek Ambassador in England, he was visiting London England due to the Greek Easter seasons, and as a “tourist” he took his camera and rushed to the streets of the British capital city seeking themes to shoot. While on the subway, the mother of a child complained about the fact that he was taking photos of her underage daughter. Mr. Antoniou apologised to the mother and erased all photos which depicted her daughter. However, the father of the youngster was not satisfied with this, and on the next train station asked for the help of police officers, who arrested the Greek visitor.

Careful, careful!

To read the rest of the article, click here.

And guess what--the charges against him were dismissed! To read the rest of the article, click here.

Parts of the news aggregated from DPReview.com.

The Curious Case of Harbour In A Bubble

Saw this in Flickr. The picture, entitled "Harbour In A Bubble", was taken by a certain (username) Johnnieb.

Doesn't it make you curious--as in, just curious--to know the whats, hows, and whys of this picture? I know I do.


To view the rest of this talented guy's photosets, click here.

Image aggregated from Johnnieb's Flickr page and is copyright by the photographer. Kindly contact him for use of the image.

Henry Lim Photography

I have come across this photography aphorism on the world wide web just one too many times:

"It's the Indian, not the arrow."

In a nutshell, it means one can get amazing shots regardless of the camera gear used because the key to getting good photographs is within the photographer's ability to capture a moment, or tell a story within a frame. Etc, etc. And with that said, I think Henry Lim was able to bring out the essence of that little phrase with his impressive gallery of photographs taken with a Sony Digital Camera. This was between 2002 to 2005 when camera megapixels were merely borderline 4. Here are some samples of his fabulous shots:

Give this man a DSLR!

To view the rest of his gallery, click here.

Images aggregated from Henrylim.org and is copyright by Henry Lim. Please contact the site author for use of his photos.

First Camera Phone Photograph

This is the first image taken and transmitted with a camera phone and was done by Philippe Kahn, inventor of the first camera phone solution.

To read his full interview and his description of how photography linked to wireless technology changes the way we share images and ideas, click here.

Image copyright by Philippe Kahn

Aggregated from Click.si.edu

The Fish Eyes of Dietrich

There's just something in fish eye lens distortion that fascinates me...there's so much, in fact, that when I started in photography, it's one of the first few lenses I bought.

And then I came across username Dietrich's Flickr pool and was even more fascinated. The way he used the fish eye lens to his advantage was amazing. Check out the gallery of this very talented guy, just click here.

image copyright by Dietrich

Don't forget to also check out his Year In Photos 08 set...That's even more riveting.

Info aggregated from Flickr.com