Self Portraits of Mars Rovers

A few days ago, NASA released this beautiful panoramic image of the Martian Landscape. While majestic by itself, the view is enhanced by the presence of the newest Mars Rover, Curiosity, in the middle of the picture, on top of the hill overlooking the whole planet. The photograph shows just how far NASA has reached in terms of being able to beam back images of robots on other planets, but this picture isn't the first self picture of a robot on Mars. These are some of the self-portraits of all Mars rovers to date.

To start with, the image above shows the Mars Pathfinder which landed on Mars in 1997. The mosaic is centered around the fixed lander called the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and prominently shows the solar cells which powered the station. While technically not a rover, the Pathfinder package did contain a mobile robot named Sojourner which can be seen in the upper left-hand corner near Yogi Rock.

The Sojourner rover lasted only 83 sols (Earth days), but the Pathfinder mission was considered a success in that it was the first endeavor of its kind since NASA launched the Viking Program in 1976. Aside from the scientific findings of the planet's surface, the program proved that the airbag-method of landing was feasible. The small robot Sojourner also showed success in being able to maneuver on a foreign planet.

The above self photograph was taken by the rover Spirit (more formally known as Mars Exploration Rover - A) in 2007, midway through its life on Mars. The rover  is one of two identical Mars rovers, the other being Opportunity. The rover was launched from Earth in 2003 and it arrived on Mars in early 2004.

The rover's panoramic camera shows the heavy dust build up on its solar panels, which greatly affected its ability to charge its batteries (this earlier self-portrait shows what the rover would look like with relatively clean panels). While strong winds would sometimes clean away the dust build up, this tendency to gather debris on itself would have a detrimental impact on the rover's life. The robot became stuck in soft soil in 2009, but continued to perform in a stationary position. Spirit sent its last communication in 2010, and NASA formally ceased communications attempts in 2011, after 2,208 successful working sols.

This last, shadowy portrait shows the still active Mars Exploration Rover B, also known as Opportunity, the twin brother of the Spirit rover. While the two robots landed on Mars at about the same time in 2004 (albeit in different locations), only Opportunity has continued to perform consistently, surpassing its original 90-sol mission. The rover celebrated it's 3,000 sol in the middle of last year, and it's still being used to explore the Meridiani Planum somewhere around Mars' equator.

On the other hand, the header photograph shows the youngest of the Martian rovers, Curiosity. This robot is about the size of a sedan, a mammoth compared to the earlier sojourner which was only the size of a milk crate. Curiosity's mission is to investigate the climate and geology of Mars, and help determine whether the planet's environment is conducive to microbial life.

For more information about these self portraits of all Mars rovers, check out the NASA's JPL Mars Exploration Rover homepage and mission page. For more photographs from beyond Earth, check out the Outer Space category of this blog.

Dragan Markovic: Stones & Skies Cityscapes

Sometimes, the best subjects are those that are most often ignored. Landscapes have often been a great source of inspiration for artists and photographers alike, but the urban jungle also offers plenty of great scenes. Streets, buildings and shadows can all combine to make for great compositions when taken with the right light and at the right angle. Dragan Markovic proves this with his Stones & Skies cityscapes.

Dragan Markovic is a commercial photographer who has spent the last four years focusing on architectural and urban photography. In his ongoing cityscapes project entitled "Stones & Skies", Markovic takes to the streets and captures the city from a different point of view. For him, the city is a stage from which different scenes can be played out.

In these photographs, Markovic goes back to the basics of photography by focusing on composition. The simplicity of lines and colors are all too often ignored in the hustle and bustle of the city, but a brick wall or colorful carpet can offer surprising beauty when framed outside of it's surroundings.

Check out a few more examples of Markovic's cityscapes below.

Dragan Markovic's website is here, with his Stones & Skies cityscapes here. For other city landscape viewpoints, have a look at Gabriele Croppi's Metaphysics of the Urban Landscapes, Thierry Cohen's Darkened Cities and Jasper James' City Silhouettes.

Alexander Gronsky: Less Than One

Winter still dominates much of the northern hemisphere, so it's only fitting to feature more photographs on this subject. This special season only heightens the feeling of loneliness and the perception of endlessness with its foggy textures and white-gray hues, but what happens when these feelings and perceptions are presented in an area with less than one person per square kilometer? Alexander Gronksy tries to answer that question in his series, "Less Than One".

Alexander Gronsky has already been previously featured here for his series "The Edge", photographs that explore the meeting points of the urban and rural, civilization and nature, and everything that involves these boundaries. He focuses most of his energies into exploring old concepts and presenting them in a new format, especially with regards to subjects in Russia.

In his series, "Less than 1", Gronsky points his camera at the same subjects, but this time with the aim of documenting the areas in Russia with a population density of only one person per square kilometer. The photographer traveled to the countries outlying areas to see what life is like in such a sparse environment. The results might look like of his other projects, but the element of his purpose adds an additional dimension the photographs in this series.

The photos in this series were also taken during the making of Gronksy's other work, "The Edge". This previous project done in the cold months of winter on the outskirts of Moscow heightened the sense of loneliness and isolation of his subjects as well as provide a more minimalist view for the entire series. Gronksy also revisited several of these sites, as he took three years to complete this work beginning in 2006.

While many of these photographs lack a human subject, there is still a strong feeling of people, whether it's the sense of their awaited arrival, or the dread of their imminent departure. Scenes like a colorful playground without any children, a group of townspeople seeing off the lone ferry at their port, or simply the trash littered around the ground all point to a civilization that seems to be waiting for spring in order to start living again.

Even with the strong human element in his images, Gronsky sees himself more as a landscape photographer. This frame of mind only helps to emphasis the environment in his photographs as they add a strong foundation for his visual stories. Thus, Gronksy has been described as a photographer who belongs to the new generation of graphic documentary photographers.

Gronksy's series on these places in Russia have a strong sense of nostalgia, as if the old days of the Soviet Empire still reign, yet they also hint at a more hopeful future, when spring will come to wash away the gloom. For this beautiful collection showing what the world is like in a place with a population of only less than one, Gronsky received the Foam Paul Huf Award for 2010.

Alexander Gronsky's website is here. His previous series on "The Edge" can be found here. His published works can be found in the book, Contact Sheet 166: Pastoral. For more features on landscape photographers, check out these previous posts.

Alexander Gronsky: The Edge Of The World

The changing seasons have long provided inspiration for artists since man began creating art. Winter, while being one of the more somber seasons, provides plenty of material for storytellers. The themes of death, rebirth, beginning and end all play into this season, and its easy to see why. Photographer and artist Alexander Gronsky captures what the edge of the world looks like in his project, "The Edge".

Alexander Gronsky is a professional photographer who has worked for different advertising agencies and publications. Over the last few years, he has devoted his photography to his personal projects, leaning towards documenting the unique landscape and people of his adoptive home of Russia.

In his "Mountains & Waters" project, Gronsky looks at booming Chinese cities and how the landscape has changed with urban development. In his "Less Than One" series, the photographer travels to the most desolate places in Russia where the population density is less than one person per square kilometer. In his "Pastoral", Gronsky looks at the intersection of the urban and rural, areas that fit neither concrete definition. For this work,  Gronsky won the 3rd Prize in the Daily Life category of the World Press Photo 2012, one of the many prizes he has accrued to his name over the last decade.

In his project entitled, "The Edge", Gronsky explored the concepts of boundaries in reality, presented in an abstract manner. The photographer captured different scenes all around Moscow city, exploring the meeting points between the urban and the wild, industrial and residential, and all other points of convergence. Similar to Daniel Kukla's Mirror Landscapes, Gronsky presents how diverse a landscape can be, this time with added element of people.

In addition to the subject matter in his photographs, Gronsky heightens the feeling of isolation through the use of the nature of winter. The photographer had previously photographed the area during the warmer months of the year, but shooting these landscapes in winter gives the scene a "blank canvas" look ready to be filled by the subjects of Moscow. In the same way as Marek Samojeden uses the snow as neutral space, Gronsky  only needs a few subjects to give color to his minimalist photo artworks.

Gronsky also presents a different boundary present in all photographs: the photographic frame itself. These images only exist within the edges of the photographic paper, creating another boundary between reality and abstract.

While Gronsky's artistic statement about his photographs might get overly philosophical, there's no denying that he's managed to captured a magical world in the white blanket of winter. His project is aptly entitled, "The Edge", but his images are more about intersections: industrial and rural, old year and new year, winter and spring, and so on. It's wonderful to see how even the seeming edge of the world, while being overwhelmingly muted, can still still be vibrant with urban life.

This is Alexander Gronsky's website, with more images of the edge of the world and his other projects there. His portfolio, Contact Sheet 166: Pastoral, can be purchased here. For another view of edge landscapes, check out Daniel Kukla's Mirror Landscapes. For a different take on winter, have a look at Marek Samojeden's winter time in Poland.

The National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 Winners

With the new year comes the chance to recap the best entries of the previous year. National Geographic, one the leading publications in photojournalism, continues to encourage the tradition of excellence in professionals and amateur photographers alike with its photography competitions. Here are National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 winners.

This year saw the National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 accept some 22,000 entries from 150 countries, from beginners to professionals, all hoping to be recognized in at least one of these three categories: People, Places and Nature. Each of these categories had a winner, with honorable mentions included. A Grand Prize Winner was selected out of all of the categories and entries combined. A Viewers' Choice was also selected for each of category. Overall, there were 13 top photographs selected by the judges.

The winners of the Places category were Nenad Saljic, Indra Swari Wonowidjojo, and Adam Coish. The People category winners included Micah Albert, Wendell Phillips, Ulrich Lambert, Kwan Ka Shing, and Kai-Otto Melau. The Nature category winners were Ashley Vincent, Fransisca Harlijanto, Jason Ching, Eric Guth, Micheal Eastman, and Sanjeev Bhor, with the Grand Prize going to Ashley Vincent.

There was some controversy this year as one of the original winners, Harry Fisch, was disqualified shortly after he was informed of his winning entry. After mailing the contest organizers a copy of his original photograph, his entry was disqualified as it seemed he had edited the photo against the rules of the competition.

Fisch had edited out a small plastic bag in a scene he captured in Varanasi, India. Unfortunately, the competition rules state that "only minor burning, dodging and/or color correction is acceptable", and Fisch's edit was considered a major image edit. This just goes to show how even a small edit can affect even the best entries into a photo contest.

The full gallery of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 winners can be found here. For a very related photo contest, check out the winning entries to the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012.

Marek Samojeden: Winter Time In Poland

The start of the new year in many parts of the world usually entails the waning end of winter. Thus, landscapes are covered in the whites and grays of snow. The view from below may look mundane, but the view from above offers a refreshing taste of these snowy landscapes. These particular photographs show a bird's eye view of winter time in Poland as captured by Marek Samojeden.

Marek Samojeden is a commercial photographer who specializes in aerial photography. His images are mostly comprised of agricultural and natural landscapes of southern Poland. Over the last few months, his images have gone from a rich green hue to a more somber gray and white with the coming of winter.

This blog has already seen its share of great aerial photography, with the works of Alex Maclean, Bryan Solarski, Vincent Laforet and Yann Arthus-Bertrand being featured here. After a while, most aerial photography begin to look the same. Samojeden does something different by using the changing seasons to photograph old landscapes in a new way.

Samojeden transforms the ordinary into something special by going with mother nature instead of against her. Ordinarily, the coming of winter means fewer greenery and a more dull atmosphere for photographs. Samojeden uses that to his advantage to create beautiful winter wonderlands. His photographs are monotone, but still vibrant with life. His subjects are mundane, but his aerial perspective transforms them into something magical.

The addition of snow makes a huge impact as it ironically takes away content from the image, acting as the white canvas upon which man and nature can paint their lives upon. The snowy landscape thus becomes a blank canvas for the monochromatic paintings of everyday rural Polish life.

There are more winter time pictures of Poland on Marek Samojeden's website. Be sure to check this previous feature on Alex Maclean, Bryan Solarski, Vincent Laforet and Yann Arthus-Bertrand for more awesome images of aerial photography.

The Top Photography Posts of 2012 (Part 2)

With only a few more days before the year ends, and coming off from the first five in the series, here then are the rest of the entries for the top photography posts of 2012.


5) Ansel Adams - A Different Kind Of Landscape
Ansel Adams has become a byword for great landscape photography and black-and-white photography in general. His images have become icons for the natural landscape of North America, while his technique proved to be the cornerstone for beginner photographers looking to get a grasp of the rule of thirds and the zone system. While new photographers have produced refreshing landscape pictures, Adams' name still remains at the top of the list of best landscape photographers of all time.


4) Anne Geddes - Babies, Babies Everywhere!

Anne Geddes has remained popular name on this blog ever since her photography was featured over a year ago, and for the simplest reason: babies. Geddes' photography portrays newborns both in their natural state as innocent and fragile beings, and in a more creative setting as flowers, animals and other cute creatures. It's amazing how such a simple concept can remain so popular, but Geddes manages to remain relevant with new images year after year.


3) Henri Cartier-Bresson - Looking Back

Henri Cartier-Bresson's entry in this blog was nothing more than a short description followed by a few examples of his street photography, but it has garnered a surprising number of views. Cartier-Bresson's works have stood the test of time, displaying a timeless sense of timing, emotion and geometry that can only be captured with patience and passion. Cartier-Bresson's photography prove that he truly is the father of modern photojournalism and the master of street photography.


2) Shirin Aliabadi and the Iranian Girls

Shirin Aliabadi's curious portraits of modern, teenage Iranian women has attracted attention for their surreal quality. Aliabadi wanted to document how today's generation of females raised in Iran have different perceptions of the West, and how they flaunt these beliefs through their outrageous clothing and make-up. Aliabadi's images prove just how powerful photography can be when used to document a world that's rarely seen by others.


1) A Royal Portrait: Queen Elizabeth II by Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz's magnificent portraits of Queen Elizabeth II have garnered the most number of views by a wide margin. The photographs were taken in 2008, just before Her Majesty's state visit to the United States, but they became even more timely during the Queen's 60th anniversary celebrations of her monarchy earlier this year. The subdued tone of the portraits set against the lavish setting of Buckingham Palace served to create some of the best portraits of any monarch in modern history.


These five top off the most popular photography posts for the year. Three out of the five were portrait series focusing on totally different subjects, with one entry in the landscape category, and another in the street photography category. This just goes to show that photography can be as diverse as they photographer wants it to be. Be sure to also check out the previous entries in The Top Photography Post of 2012 (Part 1).