Strahov Monastery is a Premonstratensian abbey founded in 1143 by Bishop Jindřich Zdík, Bishop John of Prague, and Duke Vladislav II. It is located in Strahov, Prague, Czech Republic. In 1670 Jeroným Hirnheim, a philosopher and theologian became the abbot of Strahov. His greatest work, which has survived to the present days, was the building of the new library, so-called Theological Hall (seen above) completed in 1679.

Strahov is one of the oldest Premonstratensian monasteries still in existence in the world. Since its establishment in 1143 it has been a working concern more or less continuously. It has survived fires, wars, revolutions and the wrath of various regimes, but whenever the members of the order couldn’t live in their monastery buildings, they gathered in other places until they were allowed to return. Today around 70 monks live a quiet life here. [Source]

The Strahov Library houses over 200,000 volumes, of which 3,000 are original manuscripts. The library is made up of two halls (Theological Hall and Philosophical Hall) linked by a passageway. The Theological Hall with its impressive stuccowork contains mostly literature of a theological nature and thousands of editions of the Bible. [Source]

Carnovsky is a Milan based artist/designer duo comprised of Francesco Rugi and Silvia Quintanilla. In their ongoing series entitled RGB, the duo create incredible artworks that completely transform when viewed through different colored filters. Carnvosky explains:

“RGB is a work about the exploration of the ‘surface’s deepness’. RGB designs create surfaces that mutate and interact with different chromatic stimulus. RGB is an ongoing project that experiments with the interaction between printed and light colours. The resulting images are unexpected and disorienting.
 
The colors mix up, the lines and shapes entwine becoming oneiric and not completely clear. Through a colored filter (a light or a transparent material) it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. The filter’s colors are red, green and blue, each one of them serves to reveal one of the three layers. [Source: carnvosky.com]

Carnovsky have not only exhibited the RGB series at solo shows around the world, but they have experimented on different surfaces and canvases such as scarves, wallpapers, skins and framed prints. You can see their complete body of work at their official site, carnovsky.com
 
[via The Creators Project by Vice]

5th November 2010 – 5th March 2011: Carnovsky’s exhibition at Direktorenhaus, Berlin, is structured in three different scales, from the large to the small, from an architectonic scale, to an object one, passing through the prints.
 
In the architectonic level one of the gallery’s rooms has been set up with a large installation made of wallpapers and colored lights: It is a sort of “fresco” made with contemporary technologies, “frescos”, but instead of being static, they are in mutable and fluctuating, capable of creating an ambient in continuous movement. [Source: carnovsky.com]

For Milan Design Week 2013, Carnovsky continues the RGB project experimenting new designs, new materials and new technologies, continuing the journey begun in 2010 on the interaction between printed and light colours. The main theme is the landscape in its different meanings.
 
Atmospheric landscapes, architectonic and perspective landscapes, emotional landscapes, ephemeral landscapes in continuous movement. In the colonnaded courtyard the Atmospherics series is presented for the first time, a series of sky landscapes and meteorological phenomena. The whole series comprises more than 20 pieces. [Source: carnovsky.com]

28th July 2011 – 30th October 2011: We have always wanted to explore the concept of “Jungle” or really tangled, intricate and dense tropical forest. The jungle subject, with its exuberant, twisted and redundant vegetation that hides bizarre creatures, lends us to the exploration of another theme: the night. For the first time in fact we are presenting some pieces from a new series that represents an evolution of our RGB project: RGB – The black series. They follow the same original RGB principles but inverted, so it works over a black background and, looking through the filters, lights or transparent materials in the three colors, the worlds appear on negative. [Source: carnovsky.com]

In this incredible sighting, we see a tree completely stripped of its bark after being struck by lightning. The photograph was taken by Redditor Fidget08 who says he noticed the tree on his way to work this morning. The photo was submitted a mere 4 hours ago on Reddit and has quickly ascended to the top post on the front page, amassing a staggering 468,000 views at the time of this posting.

The photo was taken outside of Hennessy Hall (The Mansion), a 100-room Georgian-style building designed in the 1890s by Stanford White. It replicates a wing in Henry VIII’s Hampton Court and is located at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey.

National Geographic invites photographers from around the world to enter the 2013 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest. The grand-prize winner will receive a 10-day National Geographic Expedition to the Galápagos for two aboard the National Geographic Endeavour. The contest, which is open now, ends Sunday, June 30, at 11:59 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UCT) (6:59 p.m. ET, US).

Eligible contestants can visit www.nationalgeographic.com/travelerphotocontest to submit photographs in any or all four categories: Travel Portraits; Outdoor Scenes; Sense of Place; and Spontaneous Moments. The entry fee is $15 (USD) per photo, and there is no limit to the number of submissions per entrant. For details and official contest rules, visit http://on.natgeo.com/16mfbpm.

“Our photo contest turns 25 this year, making it, we believe, the longest-running travel photo contest in the world,” said Keith Bellows, National Geographic Traveler magazine editor in chief. “In the last few years it seems as if the quality of shots has taken a quantum leap forward. The pictures increasingly reflect a more sophisticated way of seeing and interpreting the world, making the judging process more difficult. We encourage photographers to enter their work and compete against the best.”

Judging consists of two rounds of evaluation based on creativity and photographic quality. The second-prize winner will receive a seven-day National Geographic Photography Workshop for one in Santa Fe, N.M.; the third-prize winner will receive a six-day cruise for two on a Maine windjammer schooner. Seven merit prize winners will receive a print of their photo, matted and framed by the National Geographic Imaging Lab, and a $200 gift certificate to B&H Photo.

National Geographic Traveler photo editors will showcase their favorite entries every week at www.nationalgeographic.com/travelerphotocontest. Visitors to the site can view all entries and share them with family and friends through Twitter and Facebook as well as download wallpapers and complete jigsaw puzzles featuring contest entries.

The Galápagos Expedition, in which the grand-prize winner will participate, is a unique experience to join National Geographic aboard the National Geographic Endeavour or National Geographic Islander and experience up close encounters with unique species such as flightless cormorants, marine iguanas and domed giant tortoises. The trip is part of National Geographic Expeditions, the travel program of the National Geographic Society, which provides guided trips spanning all seven continents and more than 60 destinations.

Below you will find a gallery of some of the National Geographic Editors’ favorite animal images to date. Enjoy!

Our first morning game drive on Safari in South Africa brought us this magnificent leopard. He was bathed in the orange hues of the sunrise and it was breathtaking.

Whale shark encounter in the Bohol Sea, Philippines.

I clicked this photo as the Osprey was taking off from his perch.

A surprise companion, the Pacific Tree Frog, lurking in the lichen.

A family of snow monkeys cuddling up together for security and warmth. They appeared very protective of one another and seemed unsure of my presence.

A cafe outside of Aquas Calientes in the Cuzco region of Peru has perches for wild parrots that come and feed on seed and fruit left out for them. This curious little fella was peeking out from behind a leaf to get a better look at me. Apparently he was entertained by the odd human with the camera because he let me get only a few inches away, where my ring light could better illuminate his beautiful feathers.

I have seen alligators and turtles together in ponds before, but never like this! I was at Bluebill Pond in Harris Neck NWR when I saw what I thought was an alligator sunning itself on a stump. As I got closer I realized that it was actually perched on the back of a turtle! I wish I had been there to witness how this surprising esprit de corps had come to pass!

This picture was taken on a game drive in the Addo Elephant National Park, the third largest national park in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The park contains a wide diversity of fauna, flora and landscapes and incorporates semi arid landscapes all the way to a marine reserve. These zebra were so calm and you just got the feeling they wanted to be photographed!

Two vultures in action from Massai Mara in Kenya while they are fighting.

This photograph was taken while I was on vacation in South Carolina. It was a rainy miserable day until I happened upon this alligator hanging out in a local pond.

Picture took on March 27 with a Nikon D90 + zoom 80-400 mm – 400 mm – ISO 800 – 1/3200 sec – f 7.1.

Sea Lion on Pacific Coast of Oregon

This is one of the Big Major Cay’s pigs swimming in the clear, turquoise waters of the Bahamas. Pigs are great swimmers!

Two newly hatched Gentoo Penguin chicks get their first glimpse at the Antarctic wilderness.

A two-year old Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) of the Sabinyo family, plays in the bamboo forest of Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. In 1981, this population fell to 240 because of rampent poaching and habitat loss. Today the population is estimated to be around 800 and rising and this photograph represents the exciting turn around and hope for the next generation. Thank you to the conservationists, rangers and educators working to protect these magnificent cousins of ours and their habitat in the Virunga massif.

In this stunning photograph by Agustin Rafael Reyes, we see cherry blossoms in bloom in the Tszuki Ward of Yokohama, Japan.

In Japan, the traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers in bloom is known as Hanami. In most cases it refers to cherry blossoms (“sakura”) and sometimes plum blossoms (“ume”).

From the end of March to early May, sakura bloom all over Japan, and around the first of February on the island of Okinawa. The blossom forecast is announced each year by the weather bureau and is watched carefully by those planning hanami as the blossoms only last a week or two. [Source]

Back in 2010, artist and photographer Rä di Martino ventured into the Tunisian desert to find the abandoned movie sets from Star Wars. The desert location was used in 1976 to film Lars Homestead on Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine. In Martino’s series entitled NO MORE STARS, she explains:

“This is a series of photographs taken in the abandoned movie sets of the film saga Star Wars, filmed through the years in different locations in the south of Tunisia. Unexpectedly those sets have been left on location, probably because in the middle of nowhere and because no-one from the local authorities complained and therefore after years some of it have now become ruins, almost as some sort strange archaeological sites. The particular hot and dry climate has helped maintain intact many parts of the sets, or buried under the sand just sections of it. The sets visited are in four different locations.”

While the series of photos were taken years before, in 2012 a group of Star Wars fans raised money to restore the abandoned movie sets. You can read more about the project on NBC News.

Martino was born in Rome in 1975. She received her BA in Fine Art Media from the Chelsea College of Art and her MFA in Fine Art Media from the Slade School of Art in London. She currently lives in New York City and has had group and solo shows since 2002. You can see her complete portfolio at radimartino.com and radimartino.tumblr.com

[via PetaPixel]

Designed by Roderick James for himself and his family, the Seagull House features this incredible oak frame barn with arch-braced collar trusses. The barn consists of a painted Douglas Fir studio and a bolted Douglas fir conservatory overlooking the river creek. Verandas, balconies and timber cladding complete the exterior.

The Seagull House is located in Devon, England and was designed, built and converted in 1987.

In her series entitled Harm Less, artist Sonia Rentsch creatively assembles a variety of plant parts into various handguns and bullets.

A 2002 graduate of industrial design from RMIT university (Australia), Rentsch has worked for a diverse range of clients including the L’oréal Melbourne fashion festival, the Sddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) & Christian Dior (UK). More recently she worked for the creative house Moth Design (Melbourne), before a rendezvous in berlin where she transitioned to film & still life set design with Sarah Illenberger and Sarah Horton.

To see Sonia’s entire portfolio, check out her official website at www.soniarentsch.com

In this capture by photographer Archie Campbell, we see his sister’s silhouette in a plant. The technique is known as multiple exposure, in this case it’s a double exposure (since it’s composed of two photographs). Posted earlier this week to Flickr, the image has amassed a staggering 1.14 million views thanks to a front page on Reddit.

This is arguably the most delicious looking wrapping paper in history. While I must concede my exposure to food-related wrapping paper is limited, surely this design must be in contention.

The wrapping paper set was the brainchild of Sarah Fay and Justin Colt, two Penn State grads now based in New York, who together have formed a wrapping paper company called Gift Couture. Last year the pair launched a Kickstarter campaign to help start their company and print 1000 sheets of the their first design, the hamburger wrapping paper set. The campaign raised $16,713, more than double their initial goal of $7,900.

A recent surge in popularity has completely depleted their stock and they are sold out at the moment, so you’ll just have to wait and enjoy the pics below :)