Michael

The Sheer Geniuses of Red Carpet Style

Models Jessica Stam and Naomi Campbell’s recent nearly-nude looks made waves, but the red carpet trend is by no means new. Get a glimpse at some of the most controversial barely-there dresses from the past here.

Residents in Czech town honor 8 killed in shooting

PRAGUE (AP) — Hundreds of residents of a small town in southeastern Czech Republic gathered Wednesday to honor the victims of the worst shooting attack in the country's history.<p>Braving rain, they lit candles in front of the Druzba, or "Friendship," restaurant in Uhersky Brod a day after a gunman …

Five Guantanamo Yemeni inmates sent to Oman and Estonia

<b>Five Yemeni men held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for more than a dozen years have been transferred to foreign custody, US officials say.</b><p>Four were sent to Oman and one to Estonia. All were captured in Pakistan as suspected al-Qaeda fighters.<p>President Barack Obama has pledged to close …

Mega Flares from a Mini Star: On April 23, our Swift satellite detected the strongest, hottest, and longest-lasting sequence of stellar flares ever seen from a nearby red dwarf star. The initial blast from this record-setting series of explosions was as much as 10,000 times more powerful than the largest solar flare ever recorded. DG CVn, a binary consisting of two red dwarf stars shown here in an artist's rendering, unleashed a series of powerful flares seen by Swift. At its peak, the initial flare was brighter in X-rays than the combined light from both stars at all wavelengths under typical conditions. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger #nasa #sun #solarflare #stars #xray #swift #reddwarf #science

Hubble Finds Jets and Explosions Spiral Galaxy: This new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Sculptor some 13 million light-years away from Earth. It is one of the brightest galaxies in the Sculptor Group, one of the closest groups of galaxies to the Local Group — the group of galaxies containing our galaxy, the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. The image shows its spiral arms and small central bulge. Unlike some other spirals, this one doesn’t have a very pronounced spiral structure, and its shape is further muddled by the mottled pattern of dark dust that stretches across the frame. The occasional burst of bright pink can be seen in the galaxy, highlighting stellar nurseries containing newly-forming baby stars. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts) and the LEGUS Team #nasa #galaxy #astronomy #hubble #hst #milkyway #science

The Bubble Nebula. Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Below and left of the Bubble's center is a hot, O star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and around 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. This tantalizing view of the cosmic bubble is composed from narrowband image data, recording emission from the region's ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms. To create the three color image, hydrogen and oxygen emission were used for red and blue and combined to create the green channel. (Image Credit & Copyright: Bernard Michaud) #interstellarhd

What You Need to Know About Dynamic Range (And How It Can Improve Your Images)

As an unabashed music geek, I am fully aware of the impact of dynamic range as it applies to audio recordings; no matter how great a song may be, I …

31 Fascinating Photography Links for Quick Inspiration

As another exciting week passes us by, Toad Hollow Photography has been seeking to find the best photography and articles to share here with …

Introducing the Easy Preset System for Lightroom

I have always been a bit skeptical about using presets in any image editing software. A preset always produces vastly different results when applied …

Photography Filters: Types and Uses

"the orange" captured by mawanmalvin (click image to see more from mawanmalvin)<p>Filters are very underestimated, and these days since you can add them …

4 Tips for Photographing Bugs and Insects

Sometimes the most interesting things to photograph are right under your nose, even though you might have to look a little harder to see them. Bugs, …

What is the Rule of Thirds?

One of the most popular ways to compose your photographs is to use the rule of thirds. Although the rule of thirds is frequently used by …

How to use your Android as a dSLR remote

Some Android handsets can act as an infrared remote for a dSLR. Here's how to get started.<p>If you're looking for a way to remotely fire your dSLR's shutter but don't have a dedicated remote, maybe your Android device can help you out.<p>What you need:<p>A dSLR<br>• An Android device with IR blaster<br>• A DSLR Remote …