Nasa's photo art is out of this world!

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 :-)

Printing big canvas art

Some like things neat and small, others like them BIG! Are you more restrained or do you like to super size things? When it comes to wall art, if you have the space on your wall then it's great to buy big canvas art prints as they will show you mean business with your interior designs.

At Fotoviva Art Prints we can print canvases large enough for most people thanks to our proven expertise and the professional equipment we use. By using rolls of canvas material to print on, we are only limited tot he width of the canvas, which is 1.2m or 47 inches. We can then print image artwork as long as the roll of canvas which is longer than anyone would need!

For most canvases art prints we use the popular wooden stretcher bars for framing but for bespoke canvas prints and large canvas pictures we sometimes have to build custom canvas frames to accommodate the prints. These are just as sturdy and suitable thanks to the expertise of our canvas team.

Read more about large canvas wall art or just head over to the Fotoviva online canvas store.

Buying large canvas prints is a great way to show off fine art in your room.

HDR photography basics by Fotoviva

HDR photography basics: HDR photography

Just had an article published by the great jean-Michel over at JMleclercq photography. It discussed how photographers can use the HDR technique to improve their work, bringing in a wider dynamic range than with traditional photography methods. It also includes a couple of our own HDR images which are available on the Fotoviva site printed on poster, acrylic or canvas.

New HDR Haybale Wall Print

I've been digging through my photo archive and found a haybale image which I really like, but had forgotten about! This one is an HDR image comprised of three separate photos with different exposures, blended together in the great HDR software that is Photomatix.

The picture has been on one of the leading royalty free stock photo sites for a while now and it's generated a fair amount of interest so I'll shortly be adding it to the Fotoviva landscape collection, available to purchase as wall art.

I'm not keen on the overly saturated and halo-esque hdr imagery that some photographers do. Personally I just find it a great way to turn a shot into something resembling how it looked. Hdr works especially well with high contrast scenes like sunsets, where you either end up with a blown out sun or no detail in the shadows. Subtlety is the key with Hdr processing as it can turn an image into a right mess!

Once the hdr image had been processed I moved the picture into Photoshop to tweak the finer detail and create what you see here. So what do you think? If you have an hdr photo gallery feel free to post your link in the comments, it's good to see other photographers work.

My Photography Gallery Profile Page

Finally I have got around to creating individual portfolio pages for the photographers on Fotoviva Art Prints. Mine is the first to be launched so please take a look in my Photography Portfolio Gallery

It brings in all the images I have for sale over on Fotoviva and also includes a short biography about me and my photography. Don't laugh at the photo, it will have to do until I find one better!

All my photo collection are available to buy as canvas prints which are wrapped around a chunky wooden frame and ready to hang. Also acrylic mounts are available which are a more modern alternative to canvases. These are printed on high grade artists paper and sandwiched between two sheets of acrylic panels which gives a great finish. The print is pushed away from the wall thanks to the brushed aluminium fixings in each corner.

Have a look at my images and see if there is anything that takes your fancy.

karmasix Photoblog - Creative Art

I like to explore the web and its usages and one thing I found interesting is Wordpress. As most people who blog will know, this is a blogging software that is free and easy to use and yet very powerful once you get into it.

I have several different Wordpress blogs which are hosted on certain servers but thought I would try the free hosted wordpress.com version, hence my new photoblog called karmasix.

The free version is limited in its functionality and expandability but for most people it is absolutely fine. You can add various extensions and plugins to it for a small annual fee if you want to delve a bit deeper but then you may as well just use the full package and host it yourself as hosting costs hardly anything these days.

I'm using karmasix to present some of my photographic work that I have created recently. Some of it is not what you would call standard photography as I have discovered the joys and creativity that Photoshop and textures can add to an image, bringing it into another visual dimension.

Take a look at karmasix and please feel free to make a comment on the photos I upload. It's always nice to get some feedback on artwork and another eye can point out issues which I may not have noticed when creating and uploading a picture late at night when my eyes are tired!

UKBF - UK Business Forums

If you run a business then there is no better place than the UKBF for learning things related to running a business, helping others and finding answers to questions you might have.

The forum is moderated well and there is a wealth of professionals offering free advice to everyone (and a few plugging their services) but overall it is an active, lively and thoroughly helpful forum for business owners or anyone looking to setup a business in the UK.

Many sub forums are available such as Legal, SEO & Marketing, Accounts and IT. This means no matter what your business related questions is, you are sure to find someone who knows an answer.

There are also over 45,000 members on the UKBF and whilst a proportion of those will not be active members, the forum does seem very active with many posts appearing every day. I've tried a few forums in the past but this one is one of the more helpful ones around and doesn't seem to be spammed too badly with the usual stuff! I've even ugraded my membership to the paid level which gives you even more useful resources for running a business.

Shoot over to the UKBF and see how they can help you.