When I share images created by other photographers, I attempt to bring you some of the biggest names in the business, as well as some great pros who are not so well-known, some amateurs who are very well-known via social media, and still other photographers who are not at all known. The photographers below are not among the best known, but are among the best.

Today’s title is WOW for a reason. More and more often I am wowed by what I see as far as photographic imagery is concerned. All of the pictures below are excellent and some are wows.

One of the most powerful forms of image making, is a product of the “less is more” philosophy“. I subscribe (often) to that formula myself, and John Pham’s image of a Lady Bug Beetle on a flower is a great example of that. Clean and simple.

Close-up photography is often beautiful in it’s examination of the details of color, shadow, texture and form. Sometimes the best way to describe a super-macro that reveals those things is WOW.  John Kimbler made this incredibly detailed macro of a newborn Red Mason Bee emerging. Even at these magnifications, with images that teach us natural history lessons as this one does, composition can transform a text book picture into a work of art.

Chollet Patrick is the artist who brought us this pretty picture of a unique waterfall. If you look carefully, this image was made from within a cave. It seems the water is headed on an underground journey. How amazing it would be to follow that path to its conclusion.

If clean and simple is right for insects, as well as birds and other such subjects, than a mixture of colors, patterns and textures must be bad….right?  Not necessarily. This colorful and active image of a Rainbow Lorikeet is as artful and charming as any clean and simple image. You will notice, there seems to be a natural coordination of colors, and blending of subjects here. That makes what could be confusing to the eye, pleasing instead. Guy Verkroost is the photographer.

WOW. I’m not going to pretend that there is no photoshopping going on here. Just the same, while the color might have been spread around a little bit, I believe it to be natural to the scene. The composition is outstanding and the moment is extraordinary. For those of you who live in my part of the world, this is Lake Superior, Wisconsin, during a winter sunrise. Ernest Petit Rovira is the sharrer of the picture and he calls my home state, Wisconvin. While Ernest shared this image on Google Plus, I do not know who actually made the picture.

I know that much of of the “wow factor” in the pictures that I currently am seeing, can be attributed to the amazing sensor resolution, and large mega pixel size of today’s cameras. Just the same, you still have to be there to make the picture. The photographer still composes the image, and makes the choices that separate really good technical pictures, from art.

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For those of you who belong to my Flickr group called (of course) Earth Images, I want to congratulate you for reaching the 1,500 member plateau. It just goes to show that no hard work and very little dedication on my part can still produce success, thanks to others.

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I think that all who call themselves Christian, and much of the rest of the world, know something about Jesus and the Cross.  It’s usually Jesus died for my sins and that’s about it. The only way to truly understand it, is to go to the source and read the meaning of it all through God’s Word, called the Bible.

Ephesians 5:2
And walk in love, as Christ also has Loved us, and has Given Himself for us as an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a Sweetsmelling Savior.  (Christ fulfilled all of the symbolic blood offerings [and other non-moral laws] of the Levitical system [Hebrews 10:8]. He fulfilled these by becoming an Offering for sin, on the Cross. The “Sweetsmelling Savior” describes the atoning Sacrifice as it was/is accepted by God.

God did not give us Easter, but he surely did give us the reason why we (Chrisitans) honor it.

Happy Easter and God Bless,                                                                                                                Wayne