As lovers of image, this is quite simply breathtaking. We were told about a website belonging to Parisian artist, Guido Mocafico, who produces some literally stunning images. When we visited the site it was one of the rare ones which makes us stop, gather around a screen and click each image. Every one of them.

The ones which we felt compelled to show you first are the Serpent series, which are, as we mentioned at the start of this post, breathtaking. Scientists argue that our brains are hardwired to be scared of snakes (amongst other things) but when they are presented in this manner, you can’t help be see them as stunning examples of how nature can make colours and beauty that man could never make up.

The image shown above is of Dendroaspis jamesoni jamesoni, or Jameson’s Green Mamba – or so I am informed, a snake which comes originally from Burundi, living mainly in trees.

After we discussed it a little, we realised it was the context in which the snakes are all photographed which makes this series of shots so special. Think about it, you usually see snakes in their natural habitat (or a mock up of it’s natural habitat at least) but these are all photographed against a black background, which is obviously containing them and forcing the shapes they are making, usually long, curved and lithe, square and angular. This forces them to become a real abstraction of themselves and results in some amazing images.

This is a website which we would really recommend a visit to for this series alone, but the rest of the photos are as good, so have a look and see what you think. (Clicking the image above will take you to the site of the artist.)

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There are up-sides and down-sides to every single product, the most successful ones being those with less downs. Usually. Not always anyway. But this is one of those products which I would have been very interested in when travelling recently, despite its obvious down-side. I use a really, really good Manfrotto which, granted, is a little large, but stays still in a howling gale, but I had to leave it at home on a recent trip to New York due to baggage limitations and stuff like that.

The product you see above is the new Zipshot from Tamrac. It’s a self assembling mechanism, it pops up from a small form factor in a second and allows (apparently) relatively good stability. It will handle a camera and lens combo of up to three pounds (which for you Continental types is around 1.25Kg.) not much, but it would certainly be great for holding video cameras steady for long shots of landscapes or to create time lapse videos.

It’s available now from many places for around $50-60 US it is certainly worth it for those people who hike or travel extensively.

Everybody says nice work Tamrac, it’s a great thing to have in our camera bag in the office.

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While we are talking about bugs (see previous post – here), here is a little something, something to make you see them in a different way too.

Photographer and videographer Charlie McCarthy produced a video which is simply stunning. By taking a series of long exposure photographs of fireflies flitting around a street light a very surreal video is made when he put them all together. Coupled with a perfect soundtrack, the video is only 43 seconds long but leaves you wanting much, much more.

If you click on the image you can see the video for yourself – posted on vimeo.com – and have click around on Charlie’s channel to see his other works.

Everybody says great work Charlie, it’s great to see how long exposure work can be given an original twist and make something new, good work fella!

First in our new batch of inspiration is a whole bunch of stunning photography by a very talented artst called Bela Bosodi. Everybody stumbled upon her work whilst researching editorial photographers for a project we are working on, and it’s fair to say we were taken aback by just how different her style is.

The bold use of colour in the Editorial section and simple shapes contrasting with products is simply stunning. Her editorial work for clients such as Tatler and Elle are so simple that we have to file them in the “why didn’t we think of that” box we keep under the desk in the corner here at Everybody Towers. (The reason we didn’t think of that, is we were too busy trying to do clever things rather than keep it simple, and achieve much more)

Her work is well worth five minutes of anyone’s time and is easy browsing too, so hit up the picture above to go to her online portfolio.

Everybody says, great work Bela, we’re keeping an eye on our female colleagues’ magazines to try to spot more!

Just a quick post this time, nothing much to say other than we wanted to show everyone these amazing photographs from the Indian born photographer, Justin Ponmany. The works shown here are somewhat strange but are quite beautiful and original in their execution.

It’s been a while since we saw portraiture so captivating and Everybody really recommend you take a few moments to check out these stunning photographs, as usual, click the picture above to see the images.

Every now and then we have a look around the worlds photographers’ work to see if there is anything new or inspiring kicking around their websites. Every now and then out of those now and thens, one really sticks out as a great and wonderful photographer. With a broad body of work which encompasses everything from people to landscapes, this time Tim Gasperak, based in San Francisco, is that stand out photographer and Everybody wanted to show you his work.

The Image shown above is one of 15 images on his website from a trip to Iceland, which is a great looking place to start with, but the manner in which Tim has captured this stunning place is quite incredible. Having looked at the landscape for years as a source of inspiration, these photos leave me with a sense of scale which is so oft lacking in many landscape shots I see.

Everybody just wanted to say well done Tim. You can see more of his work by clicking the picture above to go to his site. The four selections on show are well worth a good look around.

Everybody loves a good piece of communication and once in a while a great piece comes along which demonstrates its purpose extremely well. The work of artist/photographer Chris Jordan is amazing in many ways, not least the lengths to which he goes to get a point across. His latest work is a series called “running the numbers” which illustrates a wide range of statisics from the United States in a visual manner. In the artist’s own words it is intended to remove the anesthetizing effect of statistics upon the reader and push them to think more and realise the quantities involved.

For example, the piece above is, at first glance a great replication of the wonderful work of pointilism by Georges Seurat from 1884, called ‘Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte’ which everyone knows from many places including “Ferris Bueller’s day off”. Chris Jordan’s work from 2007 is Titled “Cans Seurat” and shows the number 106,000. Nothing too spectacular yet, but when you look closely, the piece is made from exactly that many used drinks cans and represents the number of cans consumed every 30 seconds in the USA.

Other pieces range from the number of Disposable paper cups used every 15 seconds in the US (410,000) to the number of deaths caused by guns in the US in 2004 (29,569). The pieces are all large format photographs

Everybody has been a sucker for great information design for years, but this takes it to a whole different level. Well done Chris. We want the Barbie doll print for our wall.

Once in a while a photographer comes along with a portfolio which inspires us. This is one of those cases, Julia Galdo is an American photographer, born in Florida and working for a broad range of clients, her work is beautiful. Stunning portraits and lighting to melt you, used by fashion magazines and other fashionable clients. Have a look at her website to get a glimpse of a true artist. Very inspiring work which evokes thoughts of the American Artist/photographer Gregory Crewdson through the detail and story told in each image.

Everybody says well done Julia.