The Photamateur

Elephants Love

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:44:00 +0100

New Year Celebration: Auckland, New Zealand

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:21:00 +0100

Auckland’s trademark Sky Tower bursting into sparks at the top. Kind of reminds you of a sparkler, doesn’t it?

New Year Celebration: Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:18:00 +0100

Lighting up the skies and the river with not just city lights, but also the lively fireworks for the new year.

New Year Celebration: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:54:00 +0100

Fireworks against the magnificent backdrop of Malaysia’s capital city Kuala Lumpur, featuring the Petronas Twin Towers.

New Year Celebration: Dubai, U.A.E

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:38:00 +0100

Sparkly fireworks by the classy architecture of Burj Al Arab, the 27th tallest building in the world. It is also the tallest hotel in the world at the time of completion, but the fourth tallest as of today.

Snow Dagger

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:28:00 +0100

Once snow falls on the ground Aurora photography becomes much more fun. The lighter and more fitting foreground gives Aurora images much more character than the non snowy ones. This image taken near Vik, Iceland the blowing snow had formed interesting patterns on a edge of a frozen lake.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0100

In this image taken with a fish-eye lens, the traditional Regent Street Christmas Lights 2011 in central London's main shopping area are switched on as fireworks explode overhead on November 8, 2011.

The Statue of Liberty

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0100

The "Tribute in Light" shines above lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, and One World Trade Center in New York. 2011 marks the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Raise Hands

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:47:00 +0100

Supporters of incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo raise their hands in a show of support at a rally in the Yopougon district of Abidjan, Ivory Coast on January 9, 2011. Gbagbo refused to recognize the results of a long-delayed election that he lost, and a long period of conflict ensued before he was removed from office.

Homelessness around the world

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:17:00 +0100

Boston conducted its 32nd census of the city’s homeless population earlier this week. A report to the United Nations in 2005 stated there were an estimated 100 million homeless people in the world, and an additional 1.6 billion living without adequate housing. Here are some images of homelessness across the globe, collected from wire images this year.

Athens

New Delhi

Cairo

Kabul

Barcelona

New York

Guatemala

Las Vegas

New Delhi

Paris

A black rhino is transported by helicopter in South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:01:00 +0100

Nineteen of the critically endangered animals established by the WWF Black Rhino Range Expansion Project were moved from the Eastern Cape to a new location in Limpopo province.

The Amur Tiger

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:01:00 +0100

A female Amur tiger, Iris, licks its 7-week-old cub during one of their first walks in an open-air cage at the Royev Ruchey zoo in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The Amur tiger is an endangered species.

Lightning flashes

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:49:00 +0100

Lightning flashes around the ash plume of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain near Entrelagos, Chile.

The love between Love and Psyche

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:37:00 +0100

According to one of the most romantic of the Greek and Roman myths, the lovely Psyche had through her great beauty incited jealousy in the heart of Venus herself, the goddess of love. Venus had a son naned Eros (sometimes called Love or Cupid) whom she used to inflame the hearts of men and women to love or hatred. Venus dispatched Eros to inspire Psyche with the love of some base creature but when Eros saw her, he himself was smitten with love and failed to carry out his mother's orders. he caused Zephyr to waft her away to his own palace in a beautiful secluded valley. There he came to her each night in secrecy, having whispered to her that she must not seek to know his name. Psyche had two sisters who became envious of the manner of life which the unknown lover had bestowed upon the youngest of the three. Working upon her fears and her curiosity, they induced Psyche to light a lamp while her lover was asleep and to gaze upon him. When pyche did so, she saw not a monster as they had predicted, but the most handsome of all youths. In her excitement she let fall upon his shoulder drops of burning oil from the lamp. Eros awoke and vanished without farewell. In her despair Psyche went to Venus to beg forgiveness and to offer to do deeds of penance. Venus was unforgiving and assigned the most difficult of tasks to the beautiful girl, but Eros rescued her and at his entreaty she was received among the gods who united the lovers in marriage. The myth was aptly selected by Canova for the subject of this romantically appealing statue.

Paris during sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:22:00 +0100

Panorama of Paris from the Sacre Coeur.

Lunar Eclipse

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:55:00 +0100

On 10 of December the longest lunar eclipse in over ten years animated the night sky. The red hue resulted from the sun's light passing through the earth's atmosphere.
Viewers in Asia had the best view, while those watching in Europe saw part of it at moonrise, and North Americans caught part of it as the moon set.

The work has no age

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Wed, 7 Dec 2011 00:28:00 +0100

The Exhibition of Steve McCurry at the Macro (Rome)

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Mon, 5 Dec 2011 20:51:00 +0100

Museo d'arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO) will host a large exhibition of Steve McCurry's photography from December 3, 2011 until April 29, 2012. Fabio Novembre, one of the major players in the project, has curated the exhibition and preparation. The photos were not chosen with space-time criteria, but they were organize on the basis of similarity of subjects.

"What is important to my work is the individual picture. I photograph stories on assignment, and of course they have to be put together coherently. But what matters most is that each picture stands on its own, with its own place and feeling."

(Cit. Steve McCurry)

Love for Frogs

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 16:02:00 +0100

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 22:29:00 +0100

There's still time! The deadline for entries for this year's National Geographic Photo Contest is November 30. Photographers of all skill levels (last year more than 16,000 images submitted by photographers from 130 countries) enter photographs in three categories: Nature, People and Places. The photographs are judged on creativity and photographic quality by a panel of experts.

The color of fortune

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:49:00 +0100

A farmer travelling with his load
Picked up a horseshoe on the road,
And nailed it fast to his barn door,
That luck might down upon him pour;
That every blessing known in life
Might crown his homestead and his wife,
And never any kind of harm
Descend upon his growing farm.

World Population: Where it's thick and where it's thin

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:53:00 +0100

The growing population of the world, now estimated to be over 7 billion, marks a global milestone and presents obvious challenges for the planet. There are extremely densely populated cities and sparsely populated countries. China is the most populous country with India following closely behind.

Rome at Christmas Time

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:05:00 +0100

A historic vote in Sudan

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:25:00 +0100

South Sudan, currently part of Sudan - the largest country in Africa, is holding a historic referendum this week following a 2005 peace treaty, where its citizens will decide whether to remain unified, or for South Sudan to secede and become a new nation. The 2005 treaty brought to an end decades of civil war between the Islamic north and predominantly Christian and animist south. The south is expected to vote by around 99 percent to secede from the north - which will also give it a majority of Sudan's oil. Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir has stated he would honor the vote, whatever the outcome. Should the vote to secede pass, the hard work of defining borders, working out how to share oil revenue and more will have just begun. Collected here are images of Sudanese people participating in this week's vote.

A Southern Sudanese voter casts her ballot at a local polling station on the outskirts of Juba on January 09, 2011 on the first day of a week-long independence referendum expected to lead to the partition of Africa's largest nation and the creation of the world's 193rd UN member state. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

A handout picture released by the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) on January 3, 2011 shows a UN helicopter airlifting voting materials to Tali in the central equatorial state on January 2, 2010, a week before balloting begins in Southern Sudan's long-awaited referendum on independence. (TIM MCKULKA/AFP/Getty Images)

Southern Sudanese sisters sits in a bus as they arrive in Bentiu after a three-day drive from Khartoum on January 9, 2011, on the first day of a week-long independence referendum expected to lead to the partition of Africa's largest nation and the creation of the world's 193rd UN member state. Tens of thousands of families are traveling back from the north as many believe the referendum for independence will split Africa s largest country in two. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

A southern Sudanese security guard stands outside a polling station in Juba as local residents queue on January 9, 2011 to vote in the first hours of a week-long independence referendum. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

A mother and her daughter walk to a polling station during the second day of voting for the independence referendum January 10, 2011 in Juba, Sudan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A Southern Sudanese man waits with his baby in a bus bound for south Sudan in al-Analdus area in the outskirts of the capital of Khartoum on January 6, 2011, days before a referendum on independence for south Sudan. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

A Southern Sudanese family waves to relatives from a train to Baher Al Gazal State in South Sudan, in Khartoum January 9, 2011. Southern Sudanese are heading home to the south in such convoys, organized by humanitarian groups in the south, to ensure their vote counts in the independence referendum. (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Southern Sudanese voters lean on a wall as they wait to vote at a local polling station in Juba on January 09, 2011 on the first day of a week-long independence referendum. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

A southern Sudanese woman from Nuer tribe shows her registration card as she waits in a line outside a polling station in Bentiu, capital of oil-producing Unity state on the border with the north, to vote on January 9, 2011. Unity state was the scene of deadly clashes between the southern army and renegade militiamen in the run-up to the referendum. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

Southern Sudanese people are seen through a Southern Sudanese flag lining up to cast their votes in Juba, Southern Sudan, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

A southern Sudanese voter shows the purple ink on his index finger after voting at a polling station in the southern town of Bentiu, capital of oil-producing Unity state on the border with the north, on January 9, 2011. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

Abeer Osman, The granddaughter of former Prime Minister and President of Sudan Ismail al-Azhari stands near the residence of al-Azhari, which is partially covered by a black cloth to protest against separation in Khartoum January 10, 2011. (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

A southern Sudanese police officer on security detail outside a polling station in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Pete Muller)

Southern Sudanese line up to vote at dawn in the southern capital of Juba Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Pete Muller)

Merry Christmas from The Photamateur

noreply@blogger.com (Fabrizio Brandi) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:40:00 +0100