Fotoviva Art Prints

So the Fotoviva Art Collection continues to grow from strength to strength and we have just reached our 300th image. No prizes to him but Martyn Starkey’s equestrian picture ‘White’ is the photograph which happens to be the 300th - and what a shot it is!

A truly magical atmosphere was created with the sepia toning and elegant composition of the horse that shows the grace and beauty these magnificent creatures possess. If you like horses this is an art print you really must own! It is available printed on canvas, acrylic or poster art in a range of sizes to suit your walls.
Congratulations to Martyn and to the rest of the Fotoviva team who continue to help build the ‘quality not quantity’ collection with stunning photographic art that makes your jaw drop!

Andrew Gibson, one of the Fotoviva Team who specialises in travel photography, has posted on his photo blog about some inspiring photojournalists who each have a collection of photographs from South America that will amaze you with their thought-provoking style.Take a look at their images which certainly are not the usual photographic work you would find on the internet, more like works of art from days gone by. While you’re there you can find more interesting posts from Andrew about travel photographers and general photography tips and tricks to help improve your own skills.

Tim Wallace has been busy adding new Automotive Art Prints to the Fotoviva Collection with some stunning Aston Martin and Mini Cooper S photographs. These are not just car pictures but works of automotive art that bring out the passion and beauty of these cars. Check out the new prints and see Tim’s own video from YouTube.

Today marks EarthShots.org’s 500th photo of the day! To celebrate they have created a special page with all 500 photos displayed as a mosaic… it is an impressive exhibition of photographic prowess. View 500 days of Earth Shots here:

www.earthshots.org/500

Looking back through Earth Shots’ first 500 photos, you can’t fail but be amazed by the sheer variety and quality of images that have featured. Earth Shots has transformed from a plain website into a thriving community of photographers who like to share their work with the world.

If you would like to be featured in the next 500 days of Earth Shots then you can enter your photos here.

If you look closely you will see the ‘Rising Swan’ picture in there. I could provide a direct link but it’s worth having a look through each image as there is some truly inspirational work there! Make yourself a cuppa, put your feet up and enjoy 500 great shots from around the world

This month we are showcasing a wonderful black and white photograph by Andrew Gibson entitled ‘La Recoleta Angel‘. It was taken in the Cementerio de Recoleta (Recoleta Cemetery in English) in Buenos Aires. It’s one of the cities main attractions and the cemetery is special because only the richest and most famous Argentines are buried there. It’s very expensive and they say it’s cheaper to live the high life in Buenos Aires than to be buried in Recoleta. One of its most famous inhabitants is Evita, otherwise known as Eva Perón, second wife to the Argentine President Juan Perón.

Andrew’s monochromatic high contrast post processing has produced a gritty, gothic styled finish which really stands out. This angel is one of our favourite art prints and it can be seen in the black and white photography section of the website, where it is available in various sizes as either canvas or poster art print.

Our specialist flower photographer Jacky Parker has just had her wonderful ‘Rain Bells’ image awarded 1st prize in the Plant Portrait category of the prestigous Royal Hoticultural Society Photography Competition. It took the panel of judges two days to decide on the 19 winning photographs in the six competition categories but Jacky’s beautiful shot deservedly came through on top.

The competition is sponsored by the Medici Gallery in London, where it will be on display in the middle of January 2008 for one week and also in the RHS gardens Wisley spring through to autumn next year.

You can find the winning photo in our Floral Category and it is available to buy as a gallery wrapped canvas picture or ready to frame fine art poster print.

Congratulations to Jacky!

A 16 billion pixel image of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper has been posted on the internet, giving art lovers a detailed view of the 15th Century work. The image is 1,600 times more detailed than those taken with a typical 10 million pixel digital camera. Experts will be able to see segments as though just centimetres away and examine otherwise unavailable details.

The posting comes amid claims a new system aimed at protecting the piece from Milan’s pollution is not working. The original work is displayed in the Italian city’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Art curator Alberto Artioli told Associated Press news agency the new resolution avoided the graininess when zooming in to regular photographs.

You can see this work of art in all its 16bn pixel glory at www.haltadefinizione.com

“You can see how Leonardo made the cups transparent, something you can’t ordinarily see,” he said. “You can also note the state of degradation the painting is in.” That degradation has been the subject of controversy this week. An Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reported that a sophisticated monitoring and filtration system introduced during a restoration of the chapel in the late 1990s was not preventing particles or substances that could damage the work being brought in by visitors.

The Last Supper was painted by Leonardo da Vinci at the end of the 15th Century and, because of the experimental techniques he used, parts of the masterpiece subsequently peeled off and were badly damaged. The BBC’s Frances Kennedy says the paper reported that equipment monitoring air quality inside the refectory showed that levels of fine particle pollution had tripled in the past two years. It quoted experts suggesting these particles could settle on the work, eventually creating a dark misty layer.

More than 350,000 people visit the painting each year, and together with pollution levels rising year by year, this monster of an image may well be recorded now forever thanks to digital imaging.

Our Photo of the Month is a new feature where we showcase photographs of outstanding quality and beauty. For October we are presenting an incredible image by Tim Wallace called ‘Northern Tide’. This is such a dramatic photograph with wonderfully vivid colours. Tim says “Northern Tide is part of a set of images that I’m working on to produce contemporary photography using an old weathered chair, basically in places that you would not expect to find a chair.”

“This shot was taken just next to the pier at Saltburn on the North East coast at the very early hours of 4:50am as the sun was rising. The chair was placed in approx 3 inches of water as the tide started to wash in as I wanted a soft flow of water coming through the chair towards the viewer. It’s one of my favourite shots in the series and I think its quite peaceful overall with a gentle feeling of space.”

You can purchase this photographic art piece on canvas or as a poster from the Fotoviva store at www.fotoviva.co.uk. We also have more of Tim’s contemporary and landscape photographs available and you can check out his new photoblog here.

If you are interested in space and all the unkown that goes with it, you could add Astronomy Picture of the Day to your bookmarks for a daily feast of photography that is literally out of this world. Each day NASA bring a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Today’s stunning digital view, entitled ‘Sagittarius Triplet‘, is actually a collaborative composite recorded by 2 cameras and 2 telescopes about 2 thousand miles apart! The deep, wide image field was captured under dark Arizona skies. Both M8 and M20 were recorded in more detail from an observatory in Pennsylvania. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae, with contrasting blue hues, most striking in the Trifid, due to dust reflected starlight. These three bright nebulae are often featured in telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way.

And how about this for incredible stats - all three nebulae are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant. The expansive M8, over a hundred light-years across, is also known as the Lagoon Nebula.

NASA certainly has the technology to shoot some incredible images that reach deep into space. Their telescopes and observatories are so advanced these days that they can - excuse me, just had to get it in - boldly go where no man has gone before! Forget pictures of the moon, head over to APOD and see what lurks in the far reaches of our galaxy

Just came across this image from the National Geographic website and had to make a post about it. It’s certainly an usual image and fair play to the photographer - I don’t fancy being in his shoes, even if there is a glass screen between the two of them! From the article:

Vallejo, California, May 30, 2007—Cats swimming may seem about as likely as pigs flying, but Odin the tiger is proving the exception to the rule at a U.S. theme park.

Raised by humans at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom outside San Francisco, the white Bengal tiger has been diving for dinner—happily, according to his trainer—since he was a cub.

Big cats in the wild aren’t known to be generally fond of water, though they have been photographed bathing or hunting in the wet stuff from time to time.

Bengal tigers with white fur are extremely rare genetic aberrations. Because the propagation of white tigers in captivity requires inbreeding, their presence in zoos, parks, and theaters is controversial among animal-welfare groups.