Fotoviva Art Prints

With today’s 24/7 internet life there is an abundance of information ready at your finger tips for budding and pro photographers alike. Here we have put together a selection of the most active photography forums where you can join up and help out other photographers and learn new techniques yourself. It’s amazing what you can pick up with forums and you may just meet some nice online photo buddies in the process!

ePhotozine
http://www.ephotozine.com/forums
This is a very active photography forum with a large amount of members (their record stats for members online at one time is 4074!). Together with the photography forum there are lots of camera equipment reviews, photo techniques, photography news and even an online store. The forum software isn’t the best though and we’d like to see it updated to make it more user-friendly.

PhotoSig
http://www.photosig.com/go/forums
PhotoSig is another great photo forum with lots of members from around the world that helps create a diverse yet ultimately helpful community. You can also get your own gallery space and ask for critiques on your photography to help you take better pictures. Unfortunately this forum software is lacking too which makes it difficult to navigate.

DcResource
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/
The Digital Camera Resource site was founded way back in November 1997. The DCRP is designed to be an unofficial resource for current and future owners of digital cameras. It is aimed more towards the consumer end, rather than the high end of photography. The forums are nice and clean with plenty of active members that help to make a vibrant community.

Talk Photography
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk
This photography forum is one of the most active we have seen, with nearly 3 million posts! Whatever day you visit, there are tons of active members and discussions going on. You can upload your own gallery images and ask for critiques to help you learn better techniques. The forum software is simple and easy to use, whilst the basic template design doesn’t detract from the main thing – discussion! We like the general lack of advertising that sometimes ruins other forums.

Forums are a great way to interact with other photographers. You can even find photographers that are local to you and organise meeting up for a shoot. Try joining one today, they are all free and full of people just like you that are looking to improve their photographic skills!

Do you know any other photography forums that are worth a mention? Do you run a forum for photographers? Write a comment to let us know…

Ten of the pioneering photos of snowflake crystals that American farmer Wilson Bentley began taking more than a century ago are to be sold in New York.

Wilson A Bentley (1865-1931) is thought to be the first photographer to capture images of single snowflakes on camera. He made thousands of the jewel-like prints, and came to the conclusion that no two snowflakes were the same. This concept caught the public imagination and he published other articles in magazines, including National Geographic, Nature (Journal), Popular Science and the Scientific American. His photographs have been requested by academic institutions worldwide. Bentley poetically described snowflakes as “tiny miracles of beauty” and snow crystals as “ice flowers.”

His photomicrography technique involved a microscope and a bellows camera. Snowflake expert Kenneth Libbrecht said the photos did not meet modern standards because of the “crude equipment” Bentley used.

“But he did it so well that hardly anybody bothered to photograph snowflakes for almost 100 years,” Mr Libbrecht added. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they melted.

Ironically, Bentley caught pneumonia in a blizzard and died just weeks after the publication of his book Snow Crystals.

Chicago art gallery owner Carl Hammer is selling them along with 16 of Bentley’s winter scenes at an antiques show at New York’s American Folk Art Museum.

“They’re remarkably beautiful,” said Mr Hammer.

“There are imperfections on the outer edges of the image itself and on the paper, but the images themselves are quite spectacular.”

Bentley, who was known as The Snowflake Man, wrote in 1925: “Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others.

“Every crystal was a masterpiece of design, and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost.”

Bentley also photographed all forms of ice and natural water formations including clouds and fog. He was the first American to record raindrop sizes and was one of the first cloud physicists.

That’s right, we’re now Twittering for you guys from Fotoviva HQ!  This is a great way for us to keep our customers up to date with new photographic work, special offers and news from the world of Fotoviva Art Prints.

We will also be Tweeting about interesting and fun related news we find such as the arts and photography in general so why not ‘follow’ us to keep in the loop? If you don’t have a Twitter account give it a try – it’s free and fun to use. Just click the logo above to open our Twitter page and click the ‘follow’ button to ensure you have the latest information about our canvas and acrylic prints.

If you have a Twitter account already post your details in a comment here and we’ll follow your tweets too

Fujifilm has announced the release of Wunderbars, billed as “a revolutionary framing system for canvas prints”. Wunderbars offers a new way to create canvas prints – quickly, easily and without the need for specialist tools, Fujifilm says. Each frame has a sprung pin mechanism which automatically stretches the canvas and ensures it remains under constant tension.

Wunderbars’ constant tension stretcher bars are even easier to construct than normal stretched canvas prints. Wunderbars are precision machined so there is no need to measure the frame to get it square or  hit the frame with a mallet to keep it square during stretching, it will always remain square.

The Wunderbars system is touted as a natural progression from traditional stretcher bars and has been developed for photographers and framers from the hobbyist right up to the production canvas framer.

The wood used for Wunderbars is Tulip wood which, unlike pine, is a hard wood with a top quality look and feel. It’s a heavyweight timber with very little knotting. It helps give the completed frame a top quality professional feel. Wunderbars ticks all the environmental boxes too – the wood comes from sustainable sources and it is possible to reset and reuse a frame. FSC wood does cost a little bit more but not so much as to affect a purchasing decision. FSC wood comes from sustainable forests which help protect wildlife and the environment.

Wunderbars canvas frames come in packs of four in a range of sizes from 8inch to 48inch which will limit the canvas print sizes you can offer, but for most people this will be a good starter. It will be interesting to see if photographers try this system or continue to use established canvas printers such as ourselves. Obviously you still need a large canvas printer in the first place to print onto the canvas material. You then have the packaging costs to factor in, not to mention your time taken creating the canvas.

Full marks to Fujifilm though for trying something new. What do you think about the Wunderbars? Will you use them yourself or would you rather not get involved in the canvas printing side of things?