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.

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.

Web Tips Magazine has been doing a lot of Flickr Focus on individual photographers.  This time we decided to do one on a group.  The Tilt Shift Maker group.

What is tilt-shift photography?  This type of photographic technique that is used to create special effects when taking pictures.

Wikipedia states

“Tilt-shift photography” refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras, and sometimes specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene. Sometimes the term is used when the shallow depth of field is simulated with digital postprocessing; the name may derive from the tilt-shift lens normally required when the effect is produced optically.

It’s a really cool way to turn your photos into miniature models.

Web Tips Magazine thought it would be really fun to share some of the photos that we’ve found, but before we do that, we found a Photoshop Tutorial for you here to try it yourself.  You can even buy the app from iTunes for your iPhone/iPad.

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

If anyone saw the article last week of “From the City to the Mountains”, you may have recognized this week’s Flickr Focus photographer – Francisco Diez.  Not realizing we were choosing photo’s from the same person until we were uploading to the blog, we just picked the best pictures to go with our subject and it just so happened, that Francisco had about 3 or 4 of those pictures we used.

We instantly thought, we’ve got to do a Flickr Focus on this guy, he’s amazing!  :)

Francisco, currently residing in New Jersey, is no stranger to traveling around the world.  With pictures from places such as Italy, London, Hong Kong and China, to name a few, Francisco’s fantastic talent with a lens will never disappoint.

It’s just like visiting these places through Francisco’s eyes.  He not only captures some magnificent places and moments in time but gives you spectacular detail on the pictures your viewing – way better than anything you’d find in a travel guide.  If your getting ready to head out on an adventure this summer, take a look at Francisco’s photostream and bookmark where exactly you want to go.

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.

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Since it’s been a week or two since Web Tips Magazine has created a Flickr Focus.  We searched carefully to find the perfect person to focus on this week.

Meet Sean McGrath.  Sean is a web developer who handles everything from the front end to the back end, even iPhone Apps.  Sean lives in a small city of Saint John, NB, Canada where he has been his whole life.  

Sean’s love of computers, programming and all things creative is what got him interested into photography and developing.  Photography started as a past time but with the amazing eye and skill Sean shows through his photo’s, we sure hope that he continues to increase the time he dedicates to it.

We recently had a chance to engage Sean a little to find out what drives him, inspires him and we’d like to share some of his quotes with you now…

Q:  Who inspires you and why?

Sean:  ”Everyday people in the world that can rock it just as well as the big shots, especially in photography.  There are so many people out there, that few have heard of, that are just killing it right now.”

Q:  Any personal or professional goals for 2010?

Sean:  ”I’ve currently challenged myself to do a 365 project, and while only 30 days in, it is proving to be a massive challenge.  Seeing that through to the end would be amazing, so for right now – that is my goal.  I’m really hoping that it pushes me further as a photographer and gets me thinking in new and creative ways.”

Well Sean, we’ve seen some of your 365 pictures on your Flickr page and we can’t wait to see the rest.  You have the skills, now you have the fans.  We’re looking forward to seeing more of Sean and his works.  Visit Sean’s website to see more.

Here are some of our favorites from Sean’s Flickr collection.  Thank you Sean for sharing your inspiration with us so you can continue to inspire us all.

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.

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