Art Photos mixed

Eric James Leffler photo

Emmanuelle Brisson photo

Jean Pierre Augier

Timisoara
Parcul Alpinet
photo by Siky Marco

photo by repin-valen

The Bridge To Nowhere
Le Ellison photo



Photograph of Key Bridge during the “great fog of 2013″ in Washington DC.

One night back in January the Washington DC area got to experience some really heavy fog. Not really normal for us around here. Occasionally we’ll get some light fog, but this was really really thick. Over course that meant going out to take pictures! The same night I took the pictures of Meet Me In The Fog and The Fog Of War photographs was out in DC at the Potomac Boat Club (PBC). PBC sits on the Potomac River right next to the Francis Scott Key Bridge. On the opposite shore is Rosslyn, an area of Arlington, VA. At times the fog was heavy enough that you could barely see the first support on the left in the photo. All of Rosslyn and Virginia across the river was completely gone.

The water was still enough that night that it gave a nice reflection of the lone boat in the water. When this shot was taken you could just barely make out some trees and lights on the opposite shore.

I’ve been involved in photography since 1989. I’ve shot weddings, done product photography, headshots, portraits, but what I’ve really enjoyed doing is making hi-resolution, panoramic, or “artistic” HDR images. Here you can see some of these images I've taken, if you'd like to purchase a print of any of them please checkout my website, http://www.metrodcphotography.com

Le Ellison

Erdinc Altun painting, Turkey
Looks like a photo but it is painting. Very realistic one.

Heaven's Trail
Thomas Zimmer photo
Shot at the island Sylt, North Sea

"It was at the west coast of the island Sylt, North Sea. I was there from 4pm to 8pm. Yes, 4 hours. It was November and sunset was at 4:30pm. It was ice cold, with a heavy wind blowing from the sea. I made several great photos until it was getting dark. There was no moon at this time and later on the milky way appeared in it's glory. I shot until I was literally unable to use my fingers any more. Stupid me, I forgot my gloves.
Finally, I decided to leave the place. Batteries were nearly empty, I was hungry and frozen. So I packed the camera stuff, and made my way back to the car, which was a long walk in the dark.

At that time it was pitch black. I walked over the dunes and took the wooden stairs down. I took a last look back. An amazing view showed up. The Milky Way was right above the stairs. But I was so exhausted, hungry and cold. I almost wanted to give up, but then I made a last effort, and tried a final shot.

It looked good, but something was missing there. I first tried to light up the stairs with the flashlight. Looked better, but not what I wanted. It needed a human being in the image. Unfortunately, nobody was there for miles except me. So i set up the self timer, fired it and run up the stairs with the flashlight on. On top, I shut off the light and tried to stand still for 30 seconds, the exposure time.
I did not notice that the shutter opened while I was running with the flashlight on. So the final photo had the last stairs illuminated. Later on, in the hotel room, I noticed my fault. But it looked good. The light lead the viewers eye to the small person under the stars. At that time I had the strong feeling that I've got something very special."
Thomas Zimmer

After
Francesco Romoli photo

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Francesco Romoli Interview

Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Francesco Romoli. I’m 36 years old and I was born in Pisa, Italy. As a child I wanted to be a musician. I play the acoustic guitar and studied music theory. During adolescence I played and sang in a punk band, but then my life took a different path. Now I just play to relax.

I fell in love with computers in 1998 and then I started to work on net-art. I have a degree in computer science and I studied computer science and mathematics at the University of Pisa.

With photography and visual art, as with the music, I can express what I cannot say. My other passions include skydiving and travel.

How did you get into photography?
I got into photography a few years ago. Recently I studied photography at the center of contemporary photography, Fondazione Studio Marangoni in Florence. But the post-production techniques are self-taught.

For some time I dedicated myself to the landscape, but then I realised that it was not for me. I wanted to create something that did not really exist.

Tell us a bit about the sort of work you do, how did you get the idea to merge photography and other mediums together?
My style is a mix between photography and digital graphics. I make much use of Photoshop. Of course, my studies have helped me to fully understand this too and it was not very difficult for me to learn how to use Photoshop. I like to experiment with different techniques. The result is very interesting.

What is the inspiration behind your 'Imaginary towns' project?
'Imaginary towns' stems from the desire to create desolate and surreal landscapes.

I like to imagine things that do not exist. I'm a big fan of science fiction and fantasy. The many books I have read certainly have influenced my style.

I am passionate about contemporary art, plus I read lots of books and magazines. I love artists like Sharrie Lavine, Barbara Kruger and Richard Prince. An artist that I really like is Maggie Taylor.

Talk us through how you'd' set up and put together an 'Imaginary towns' shot.
To make the images in the Imaginary towns series, I used an external flash and a Canon 430EX ii.

The buildings were simple cardboard boxes. After you get the shot of the cardboard box with optimal light, the next step is to go to Photoshop and cut out the background.

Playing with masks and using appropriate blending, I superimpose various city images to the cardboard box.

The last step is to create a surreal look - I usually use the Nik Efex Pro filters.

Do you have any advice for photographers wanting to branch out into merging mediums?
I do a lot of photo-manipulation. The most important thing is that the subject and the background lights are consistent and do not have big differences in terms of brightness. This is the most important thing to achieve, good realism in your shots.

It's very important to cut out subjects. Usually I prefer to use the pen tool, although it does take quite a bit of time. To achieve many of my works I use some textures and I play a lot with blending modes and opacity levels to get what I want.

Another very important technique to create a sense of realism is the creation of shadows. Usually I create a new layer, and draw the shadow with a black brush set to a low opacity.

What do you have planned for the future?
At the moment I'm working on a new set of images. The series is called 'Freaks' and the main subjects are members of my family. I gathered all the photos of my family, especially those taken before the war, and I digitized them with a scanner. What I get are surreal images with a vintage look.

For more information on Francesco and his work, visit his website.

Early Morning
Waiting for Sunrise

Young Sung Bae photo
Seoul, Korea - South Korea