Our previous Flickr Friday theme was #WhiteSpace, and here is the weekly selection of your submissions.
With the abstract theme we presented you, the results just had to be diverse: We saw beautiful monochrome shots but also wonderful colored ones. We saw literal white spaces, (nearly) empty white rooms, just glimpses of white spaces in otherwise dark scenes, and the beautiful classical white spaces from the world of design. Let the full beauty of white and white spaces enchant you in the Flickr Friday group pool.
Also check out your galleries where other members of the Flickr Friday group are curating their favorites of the theme.
The world of fairy tales, enchanted forests, ancient locations and creatures as well as magical stories is central part of our new theme #OnceUponATime. We’re looking forward to your submissions. If you’d like to be featured in next Friday’s selection here on Flickr Blog, you have time until the announcement of the new theme on Friday to take your shot and submit it to the Flickr Friday group. If you would like to curate your favorites as well, show us your galleries.
To call Ben Heine’s photography “cool” or even “eye-catching” is a bit of an understatement. His images are mesmerizing. Ben’s Pencil vs. Camera series perfectly blends illustrations in surprising but clever juxtapositions. The end result offers viewers a glimpse into an imaginative and surreal world.
“In my work, I’m really trying to interact with the viewer,” the Belgian artist tells The Weekly Flickr in the accompanying video. “I want to make them laugh or smile, and if I can, surprise people so that he or she doesn’t understand how it’s made. I’m having so much fun and I want them to feel the same.”
“Pencil vs. Camera” mixes drawing and photography, imagination and reality through illusion and surrealism. Ben says the idea was the result of a long graphic exploration and the evolution of his artistic ability.
“The initial idea happened randomly while I was writing a letter in 2010,” Ben explains. “When I held the letter up to put it inside an envelope, I noticed the paper was transparent enough that I could see my television in the background. I suddenly saw two images working together: the words on the paper and the action of the television. It was surreal, and I instantly thought I could do something with this.”
“The very next day I made Pencil vs. Camera #1,” Ben says. “It wasn’t very creative, but it was the beginning of this new concept. Since then, it’s evolved into more and more complex drawings, and it’s always changing into something bigger and better.”
The process behind the series is very simple. Ben draws a picture by hand and then takes the photo of the drawing at a specific location. His hand is almost always visible in the image to represent the connection between viewer, artist and artwork.
“The drawing has to be nice, and the location where I’m taking the photo has to be interesting,” Ben says. “When I edit my photo, like every photographer, I’m always adjusting. Since these are raw images, I’m adjusting the light, the colors, the contrast – everything. In some cases, I adjust the composition because I want the final image to be perfect!”
In “Pencil vs. Camera”, Ben generally focuses on architecture, portraits and animals. Among many others, the main themes he approaches are love and friendship.
“Love and friendship are the main things I’m trying to express in my art because they are a reflection of what I love the most in life,” Ben says. “I’ve made many photos showing duos… either two people or two animals in love or in a friendly situation with each other. It’s a beautiful feeling.”
There is also a lot of illusion and surrealism depicted in Ben’s art. Throughout his career he’s been influenced by famous artists like Rene Magritte. Ben says he likes to play with shapes, geometrics and create illusions with tricky objects and perspectives.
“One of my favorite images shows a lion jumping out of the image,” Ben says. “I took this photo in Tunisia and drew in a lion jumping and appearing. The picture is unfinished, because I mainly wanted to attract the attention of the viewer on the lion’s roar. I liked the powerful effect of this image – you know the lion’s screaming and shouting. For me, graphic art can sometimes be dull, but this image is powerful.”
The reactions Ben’s received from his series has been extremely positive. He credits the reception and encouragement to Flickr.
“I started posting my pictures in 2006, and since then, the feedback from other members has helped me to improve my work,” Ben admits. “I really strive to create a new form of art. For me, it’s very important to be innovative and do something different. I’m having fun only because I’m trying to surpass myself daily. I want people to see I’ve given my utmost best in each of my images.”
Do you want to be featured on The Weekly Flickr? We are looking for your photos that amaze, excite, delight and inspire. Share them with us in the The Weekly Flickr Group, or tweet us at @TheWeeklyFlickr.
Global celebrations earlier this month for the Mid-Autumn Festival featured a lot of fanfare, and Hong Kong hosted much of it. The well-attended Lantern Wonderland attraction in Victoria Park included the “Rising Moon” centerpiece display, a spherical structure containing thousands of recycled plastic bottles illuminated by light effects that imitate moon phases. Meanwhile, the three-day Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance took place in Causeway Bay. The tradition features a straw dragon with incense sticks spanning about 218 feet. According to a centuries-old legend, it’s a performance that keeps the plague away by appeasing the son of the Dragon King.
Explore popular pictures of insects, and you’re bound to find the mantis. Easily recognized by their distinctive forelegs and triangular face, these bugs eat pests with such aggression that they inspired two Chinese martial art styles. Mantises are even pampered as exotic pets by their devoted fans, unlike their closest relatives, cockroaches and termites. More than 2,400 species comprise their Mantodea insect order, including the uniquely camouflaged ones that mimic vegetation.
For our first installment of #TwitterTuesday, we asked you to share your favorite photo from your first week on Flickr with us. For some of us this was surely a wonderful walk down memory lane. These are some of our favorites from your submissions.
Thanks to everyone who participated. We will be back with a new theme next Tuesday.
Every September the annual Great Reno Balloon Race (GRBR), the world’s largest free hot-air ballooning event, takes place in Reno, Nevada, and this year had plenty of talented photographers in attendance to capture the mass ascension and balloon-filled sky.
It’s the first ever #TwitterTuesday! We want you to dig into your Flickr archives and find the hidden gems that you have uploaded in the past. We’re sure you’ll love the great photos that are just waiting to be rediscovered in your photostreams.
Our first #TwitterTuesday theme is My First Week on Flickr. It’s an easy one, to get us all started.
Whether your first week was all digital or analogue or a mix, we want you to share your most interesting, beautiful or moving shot from the past with us. From now on, we will announce a new theme every Tuesday and you have the rest of the day to pick your favorite shot from your photostream and share it with @flickr on Twitter.
The weekly selection of your entries will be showcased right here on the Flickr blog. Don’t forget the most important part is to use the hashtag #TwitterTuesday both on Flickr and Twitter when you share your photo so we can all enjoy our collaboration and build the selection of the week.
What’s the easiest way to share your photo, you ask?
Desktop:
If you haven’t done so already, go to your sharing settings and click connect to link your Flickr account with Twitter:
You’ll be asked by Twitter to authorize your account; click the Authorize button. After you have successfully linked your accounts, go to the photo you’d like to share and hit the share button .
Select Twitter and enter your tweet including the #TwitterTuesday hashtag. We will automagically append a shortened flic.kr URL leading to your photo.
Mobile:
Find your photo in your photostream (our first theme might require a bit of scrolling), click the share icon, select Twitter, then type and send your tweet. Again, don’t forget to add the #TwitterTuesday tag.
This time, the competition received a record number of over 1200 entries from 49 countries. The best of these exceptional photographs – winners, runners-up or highly commended in the competition’s different categories and special prizes – are showcased in a free exhibition in the Royal Observatory’s Astronomy Centre which is open to the public from 19 September 2013 until 23 February 2014 from 10.00 – 17.00.
Without further ado, here are the winners:
| Guiding Light to the Stars from markg<<,
overall winner of the competition and of the Earth and Space category.
The full moon that welcomes the beginning of autumn is known as the harvest moon, and many of you captured it’s beauty from various locations and famous landmarks. Balancing on top of Japan’s Mount Fuji to rising above the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, the moon’s position a couple days ago helped create some splendid nightscapes.
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