Alexander Augusteijn’s recipe for jaw-dropping pictures: normal flash, computer-controlled photography equipment, lots of patience and lots of spilled liquids. Check out his website HERE for more!

“I started photography back in 1976, mostly black and white which I developed and printed myself.
In the eighties and nighties my photographic activities declined, until I bought my first digital camera, an HP715 point-and-shoot camera in 2001. This boosted my enthusiasm again, and I found myself not touching my analog SLR any more, yet missing its versatility. This made me buy my Canon Digital Rebel (300D) in 2004 and revived my enthusiasm as never before. Missing some features in my 300D I joined the UnDutchables that developed a firmware upgrade enabling most of the 10D features on the 300D. I have dedicated myself to high-speed photography, taking pictures of extremely short events.”

It puts the insignificance of our planet into perspective — a snapshot of earth taken 183 million kilometres away can be seen below, where we appear as nothing more than a glowing white blob! Freaky thinking about how small we really are as individuals isn’t it.

NASA’s orbiting Messenger spacecraft took the image while searching for vulcanoids — small rock like objects that scientists believe float in clusters between Mercury and the sun.

The smaller sphere shaped object next to the earth is our moon.

Messenger has not yet detected any vulcanoids and will only be able to search for them when its orbit drags it closer to the sun. As it travels through the solar system, the spacecraft will complete one fly-by of earth, two of Venus and three of Mercury. It will move into Mercury’s orbit in 2011.

To see the full un-cropped version click HERE!

Suren Manvelyan took these close up shots of eyes, capturing their strange and unfamiliar appearance. Beautiful, intriguing and slightly creepy. Check them out!

Via: SurenManvelyan

Check out these amazing photos taken off the coast of Tasmania, Australia, by photographer Stuart Gibson.

The monstrous cold water surf makes for some spectacular visuals, helped along with the stunning scenery Tasmania has to offer. See more after the jump and visit Stuart Gibson’s website here.

It’s early on in the week so we thought it might be a good idea to kick it off with a bang.

Fire power…if it’s not working, your not thinking big enough.

Hit the jump for plenty more!

Mark Tipple took the stunning shots of swimmers and surfers emerging underwater engulfed in clouds of whitewater while being frequently rocked by the waves himself.

Mr Tipple, from Sydney, Australia, came up with the idea of photographing waves underwater after becoming frustrated with “normal” surf photography, and wanted to capture the moments from a different perspective.

He said: “During a flat spell in Sydney I shot a few small waves with people swimming off to the side.

“The results were pretty graphic and led to people swimming becoming the focus of the series, which was against my initial intention but looked great.

“Most of the people I photograph are just enjoying themselves at the beach and I ask them if they’d mind being in a picture.

“I tell them what I’m doing and show them a few photos and mostly they’re amazed.

“Most of the time I come off worse than the people I’m shooting, generally I’m looking sidewards to track where they are in relation to where the wave is, and tend to pay more attention to them than the wave; which can rock me pretty hard.

“I’m pretty comfortable underwater from years of surfing, and can ride out the waves breaking overhead.

“Most of the credit has to be paid to the camera though, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that most of the time I hold the shutter down and point in the general direction of the people.

Via: Telegraph.co.uk