Summer is finally here and it’s about time! The time of year we’ve all been desperately waiting for – summer fun, friends, family and good times! WebTips Magazine is all about that and we’ve called on our friends from Flickr once more to provide a little inspiration for us and in some cases reflection.

Have a gander and tell us which one is your favorite or you can even send us some of your favorites to include in this post.

As the summer holidays are approaching, most people will be sitting down to plan how they want to spend their vacation time. Web Tips Magazine has come up with some of the top vacation past times. Would you like to go on a cruise, take the fishing boat out, get out that classic car and dust her off, or even to the extreme – to travel to Europe and see some of our World’s History. Of course there is always the typical taking the family to Disney, and the not-so-typical ones, like getting out your telescope and seeing how far it will reach. What ever you might decide to do, we hope that these visual aids will give you some ideas – provided by some very talented photographers from Flickr.

We’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the amount of extremely talented artists of every form is abundant at DeviantArt – so much so that we feel compelled to start a new Deviant Art section at Web Tips Magazine.

Our first Deviant Day artist is *sandara – this Singapore artist uses a mix of CG and photoshop to create some stunning pieces of video game fan art, and traditional looking painted fantasy scenes that really capture an essence of the character and locations. Sandara has a fantastic collection of work available to view at DeviantArt and also on her own website – however the DeviantArt account is updated far more frequently.

When you think of the word “Designer”, you typically think of what?  Web, print, art or maybe even fashion?  But do you ever think of bridges?  Think about it.  Someone had to design the plans to come up with the general structure of the bridge that would be  functional, safe and durable to withstand all seasons.  But the beauty of designing the bridge is not generally in it’s functionality, but the visually stunning personality that brings the bridge to life.

Building a bridge from blueprints to the exact object could be a lot like building a website.  You want it to make people go “OH WOW” when they see it.  It needs to age well – you can’t go building new bridges every other month and you certainly wouldn’t want to do that with your site.  But of course, most importantly – it needs to have user functionality – to provide the user with that of which they seek – in the sense of a bridge…it’s to get to the other side.

To regular people, like most of us using the bridges, they are simply just that – just a bridge, a thing that gets us from one place to another.  To bridge the gap.

To some creative communities they are seen as forms of art – let’s take a look at some appealing creations of Art now from our friends – Flickr.

Seeing things in detail, even everyday objects we take for granted, can take on a whole new appearance, and sometimes with extraordinary detail and colors. Macro photography, that is the art of taking very close photos of small objects such as flowers, insects and even everyday household objects can often take on a whole new persona. With colors as rich as nature can produce, and details beyond what our general vision allows us to see, it opens a door to an almost surreal world.

“Photography where the size of the subject on the capture plane is similar or greater than the real size of the subject” – Benjamin Townsend Photography

We have scoured our favorite place for inspiration, Flickr creative commons, to find some fantastically rich images produced by some simply amazing photographers for your enjoyment. We’ve also gathered a few links to tutorials on how to set yourself up and take some amazing images for yourself. Enjoy and behold the wonders of the miniature world.

Tutorials

Basic Macro Photography

Macro Photography Tips for Point and Shoot Digital Cameras

A Short Course in Macro Photography

Macro Photography Tutorial

Photojojo’s Guide to Macrophotography

Macro Photography Images

Recently in Vegas, we stumbled into a gallery at Caesar’s Palace.  It was absolutely amazing and those words – do not do justice for these works of Art.

Peter Lik is an brilliant photographer.  We were in awe just walking through the gallery.  He travels all over the world and takes shots that you’ve never seen before and never ceases to out-do himself on the next shot. You cannot appreciate the beauty of these pieces until you are stood in front of a high gloss, framed, eight foot canvas set against a dark background with super lighting.

Sadly, we were unable to get an exclusive interview with Peter, but we were so excited to spread his beauty around, we just wanted to give him a shout out.  Peter has galleries all over – Aspen, Key West, Hawaii, New York, Rocky Mountains, Las Vegas and then some.

If you go to Peter’s web site, you will find a complete list of galleries.  Do yourself a favor and check out his galleries – I guarantee you that you will walk away a better person!  :)

And Peter, Web Tips Magazine is a huge fan and if you listening – congratulations on the Master of Photography award for your excellence in photography! You can see more of Peter’s work on his website, I highly recommend clicking the link, you will be amazed and inspired I’m sure of it!

As the season is changing so are our surroundings.  Spring is coming, birds are chirping, and yes way off in the distance we are actually starting to see some green patches.

There are all different types of landscapes.  Which one inspires you the most?

Maybe your a city person and love to gaze at the city lights flickering at night.  Or maybe the way the city comes to life at the break of dawn?

Do you prefer more of the country setting?  Watching wild life as they graze in the meadows.  Or more likely as they duck out in front of your car and cause you to swerve and panic!  :)

Then there’s the sea life.  The way the water sounds as it crashes up on to the beach or if your lucky enough to have a boat?  The way the sunset seem to go on for miles and miles?

Let’s not forget about the picturesque scenery of the mountains?  The still motionless exile.  Just you and the breeze.  The mountain is just  1 step away from walking in the clouds.

So why not join Web Tips Magazine as we travel the world from the City to the Mountains with beautiful HDR photography from Flickr Creative Commons.

Posted by Francisco Diez

Posted by Francisco Diez

Posted by Francisco Diez

Posted by Linh rOm

Posted by Jeff Pang

Posted by Jsome1

Posted by mescon

Posted by Tycho Moon

Posted by JT40D

Posted by linh.ngan

Posted by francesco sgroi

Posted by Kurdistan KURD

Posted by lrargerich

Posted by JT40D

Posted by Xenix815

Posted by Jasen Miller

Posted by lrargerich

Posted by tupolev y su camara

Posted by Francisco Diez

Posted by Burning Image

Las Vegas, Nevada – the lights, the sounds, the people.  What a place!  Vegas isn’t just about the hopes of going and coming home a winner though.  We just came back from Vegas and it was my very first trip.  Since I was too busy loosing money, I didn’t get to capture the essence that is the ‘City of Sin’.  So I searched Flickr and found some awesome HDR images.  Some of the images you will see can inspire you to keep going back for more.

Let’s explore Vegas through some of the amazing images created for us in HDR by people from across the world.

Posted by shoebappa

Posted by Talke Photography

Posted by MarkoShoots

Posted by cammyjams

Posted by Daniel Raphael Cooper, the Sorry Shutter

Posted by cammyjams

Posted by 1suisse

Posted by Jose Antonio Blaya Garcia

Posted by jculverhouse

Posted by cammyjams

Posted by sm3287

Posted by 1suisse

Posted by Stuck in Customs

Posted by Stuck in Customs

Posted by thruCJzEyez

Posted by mapaolini

Posted by Digit AL

Posted by John Pozadzides

Posted by Patrick Powers

Posted by Roger Quayle

Posted by leduardo

Posted by Wasabi Bob

Posted by Stuck in Customs

Posted by slideshow bob

With most of us across the country snowed in and just about snowed out, we hope that Mother Nature is taking a long sleep as she’s been a very busy lady lately.

To follow through with nature’s mood, let’s take a glance at some astonishing HDR images of nature at it’s finest (or worst as the case may be) from the Creative Commons area at Flickr.

HDR Images on Flickr

Posted by Stuck in Customs

Posted by captainkimo

“]

Posted by [Adam Baker

Posted by .: sandman

Posted by Chantal Steyn

Posted by Stuck In Customs

Posted by alexkess

Posted by Stuck in Customs

Posted by homer4k

Posted by CraigAllen

Posted by Elite PhotoArt

Posted by homer4k

Posted by Xavier Fargas

Posted by Xavier Fargas

Posted by hjjanisch

Posted by deansouglass

Posted by Xristoforos aka Shooting Dog

Posted by sjardine

Posted by deansouglass

Posted by sjardine

UPDATED 3/4/10:  See the contest winner here!

A timeless classic from the original Lewis Carroll 1865 book and the animated movie from Disney in 1951 to the new 2010 Disney live action movie, ‘Alice In Wonderland‘ has been a childhood favorite for many generations.

For a cast of characters that are now some 145 years old, it’s interesting to take a look back in time just to see how the initial lithograph illustrations, up to Disney’s full motion, computer enhanced version have altered the appearance, and display trends in illustration through many different mediums over the ages.

Competition Time!

For our first competition, we want to send 1 lucky winner (with guest) to the movies to watch the new 2010 Disney’s Alice In Wonderland.  The prize will be supplied as a $50 USD Moive Tickets or Fandango gift certificate.

All you need to do is pick your favorite character from the book (or movie) and illustrate in any style you choose and send your entry by email to the madhatter@webtipsmagazine.com by 3/1/10.  Judgeing will be completed by the Web Tips Magazine staff with all decisions being final.  Winner and runner-ups will be featured on our site.

Follow us down the rabbit hole and through the magical land that is a ‘Wonderland Of Illustration’…

Alice

Mad Hatter

The Queen Of Hearts

Cheshire Cat

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

White Rabbit