«<p style="text-align: justify;">Street art is gradually coming to be accepted as a legitimate and wonderful art form by more and more people, but that doesn’t mean that street artists can rest on their laurels – they continue exploring with new ways to exploit public surfaces and cover them in beautiful art. This post is all about street artists and regular people who have decorated something that most of us probably wouldn’t think of decorating – public outdoor steps.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Much like the <a href="http://www.boredpanda.com/hidden-railing-street-art-zebrating/"; target="_blank">hidden street art of Zebrating</a>, most of these pieces can only truly be appreciated when viewed from a certain vantage point. They may seem like random splashes of paint to someone actually climbing those steps, but someone looking at them from below will see the artist’s full vision. If they’re long enough, someone ascending the steps will see the image and see how it stretches and twists as they approach it. Of course, not all of them have to form images – some are simply colorful decorations that make the neighbourhood a more uplifting place.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Quite a few of these pieces were born out of community efforts, which also shows a growing worldwide acceptance of street art. When the Rainbow steps in Turkey were first painted over by the local government, nearby communities responded by painting their own steps as well in solidarity. The mosaic steps in San Francisco were created by more than 300 local people under the careful guidance of a couple of artists.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Are there any similar steps in your city that are worth sharing? If not, hopefully these images will inspire you to get your community together and paint your steps together!</p>»

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The shortlist photos for the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards have finally been unveiled. This year, the award competition received a record-breaking amount of submissions – 139,544 images from 166 countries. The submissions were split into three large groups – Professional, Open and Youth – each of which were split into a wide range of sub-categories. The Professional and Open groups had the most diverse set of sub-categories, ranging from architectural and conceptual photography to nature and wildlife photography.

We’ve made our own selection of images, but we definitely suggest checking out the World Photography Organisation’s website and browsing the images for yourselves. Because it’s just the shortlist, there’s still a huge collection of images that we can browse through. The pictures, and the photographers who took them, are as diverse as our world is – people, animals, and the world in all of its natural (and urban) glory.

This is the second such comprehensive look at the year’s best photography that we’ve seen for 2013. We also wrote about the 2013 National Geographic Photo Contest, which featured its own selection of incredible photographs.
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super !!!

de superbes photos et les grands prix de AWARD-WINNIG of "The Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013" à voir impérativement
The winners of the ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ awards were revealed just a few days ago at the glittering awards ceremony that took place in the Natural History Museum, London.

In its 49th year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition received 43,000 photos from 96 countries. The overall grand title went to South African photographer Greg du Toit with his ‘Essence of Elephants’.

100 of the best entries are now on display at the Natural History Museum until 23 March 2014. Those who can’t make it to London will be able to enjoy the 2013 exhibition on its international tour beginning at the end of November 2013.