Glowing Balls Of Light Created in Camera (no Photoshop!) by Denis Smith.

The Ball of Light is a photographic project by Southern Australian (Adelaide) photographer Denis Smith. Using a single long exposure and moving a light source around in the air to create the ball, Denis has taken traditional photography (no Photoshop or special processing is used) and added a new dimension with these beautiful creations.




Whether taken indoors or outdoors, daylight or nighttime, the glowing orbs of light are both mystical and hypnotic. Some of the following images have been cropped, to see the full sized images, check the links at the end of this post.
















In the photographers own words:
The Ball of Light floats in space transforming various locales into mystical portals bursting with otherworldly colours and energy. The contrast of the glowing spheres with the straight precise lines of the settings pulls in the viewer, triggering a sense of imagination and wonder. It's ethereal and still organic, and at the same time bold and almost blunt. The Ball of light fits into and augments it's settings without being overwhelming.

"There is so much post processing of photography today, I wanted to create something that was real, yet unreal. No pixels are added or subtracted from the Ball of Light images.



Living in South Australia has inspired me as a person and as a photographer. The constantly changing country side, the incredible landscapes and beautiful city give me no end of scope to work with. I dream of searching the planet for the Ball of Light. It has enlightened my life, perhaps it may bring joy to others."

Ball of Light website

See his Ball of Light flickr images here

You can order prints of these and more images here

Mounted Life. Stunning Taxidermy Photography By Danielle van Ark.

The Mounted Life is a series of photographs by Royal Academy of Arts graduate Danielle van Ark. She visited the storage and archives of museums around the world and found animals in surroundings and environments so far from their natural habitats she was struck by the inherent contrast and photographed them.

The series makes the most of the juxtaposition of wildlife and industrial imagery. The images are disturbing, funny, haunting, confrontational and even touching in their composition and subject matter.

























above images courtesy of Nowness, Danielle van Ark and Foam Editions

You can purchase some of the above prints at Foam Editions

Danielle van Ark graduated in 2005 from the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Since then she has been living and working in New York and the Netherlands. The artist now wields backstage access to 33 museums across Europe and North America, and she aims to package the entire collection into a book.

See more of her work here.

Contact Info:
danielle@daniellevanark.com
NL +31 (0)6 28 25 45 78
US +1 917 374 2714
Studio:
Nieuw en Meer
Oude Haagseweg 131 achter
1066 BV Amsterdam

Winged Goddesses. Psyche II - Nudes & Butterflies By Carsten Witte. [NSFW]

Pysche II is a series of photographs by Hamburg-based photographer Carsten Witte, whose work often combines elements of nature and flora with the female form. The second in his Pysche series combines two forms of natural beauty; the female body and the wings of butterflies. The images are treated with special tinctures and laboratory techniques that give them shining, glittery and shadowy effect turning them into sensual fairies, both magical and delicate.















Carsten Witte, born in 1964, is the venerable priest of beauty. Already as a little boy of three he slack-jadedly gazed after beauties that where passing by when he was walking at his mother’s hand. Many years later, after he had attended the Bielefeld school of photography, worked as assistant for renowned photographers and started his career as a freelancer with his own studio in 1989, he could finally dedicate himself exclusively to his perfect esthetics [sic] at taking shots of beautiful woman’s bodies, their eroticism and chasteness and the sensual play of shadow and light, whereas he has never betrayed the deference to the beautiful creature.







Numerous national and international fashion and lifestyle magazines engaged the master of modern form finding and even in the advertisement Witte distinguished himself with the subtle and extremely reduced structures in his images. "It’s always faces that fascinate me and this mysterious purity of really beautiful people," he said.





Since 1999 Witte is increasingly engaging in art. In 2003 he produced a series of timeless fantasies with female nudes who were always accompanied by a flower stalk. Witte says "The basic idea of these juxtapositions of nudes and plants is very formal and puristic. Form, color and transience are reduced to a common denominator."





Since the year 2000 Witte keeps working on the highly respected series of works "Gold." By means of secret tinctures and a special laboratory technique his icons of beauty have been attired in mysterious shimmering black-golden coats. The play of shadow and light, black and gold gives the images complexity, depth and a subtle charm. Witte calls this phenomenon "timeless absorption."





Carsten Witte's beauties are naked but never bare. They rather seem to feel secure in the superposing shadows. The interpretation of his works is basically left to the beholder but as a matter of fact he is subtly directing the view through his mise-en-scène. An US magazine called him the "David Lynch of fashion photography." His images are mystery plays, you never know exactly what is going on. Carsten Witte offers the parts but everyone has to solve the mystery himself. -- Tatjana Countess Doenhoff



Carsten Witte will be exhibiting his Beauty Collection opening February 21st, 2011 at the Monika Mohr Galerie


Carsten Witte on Behance