Here's a collection of art for the DIGIT-AL age as these fascinating illusions of landmarks, places and even a banana are made using just a pair of hands. The quirky collection of images were created using hand models and body paint to create visions of a castle, church, and two footballers flying into a tackle. London based photographer Ray Massey KNUCKLED down to capture the images with each of the designs each taking a day to paint and shoot with the help of hand artist Annie Ralli. Together they made a FIST of also bringing to life a pen and pencil pot, a ribbon, mosque and cute wildlife adaptations of a daisy and a ladybird. Each image sees the hands and fingers carefully crossed, bent, or partially hidden to the millimetre to cleverly angle the palms and digits into the lifelike images. The intricate detail was then painted on the shapes and blended in to create the illusions, including one creation that sees a hand arch down to appear to become a banana skin. In others a sporting trophy is created by two joined hands bending at the knuckles and two hands are cleverly pushed together to form what appears to be a cosy bed. Ray said professional hand models had to be used for the shoot because fingers are often so unattractive to look at. He said: "Hands are always particularly difficult to shoot, they are not pretty items, they're basically very ugly. "The benefit of a good hand model is not just having good hands, it is also important to be able to pose your hands. "So we had to employ professional hand models. Our biggest concern was to use proper body painting materials, in order not to damage their skin. "Most of the images took four to six hours to paint, the rest of the day is spent capturing images and the hand painting artist adjusting elements accordingly.
SITTING quietly at the edge of the lake, these two baby bears watch and learn as the adults hunt for fish .
NEVER mind being careful not to choke on your food, this mother bird has a bigger challenge on her hands, as her ravenous offspring impatiently launches its head down into her stomach .
An Italian photographer travelled to Chile where he visited several star-gazing sites, home to some of the world's most advanced telescopes, located in the spectacular setting of the Atacama desert .
A grey whale and her calf greet an audience of awestruck admirers on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico .
IT'S the iconic TV show that influenced a whole generation in the 1990s .
SAILING over crystal clear waters, the Bajau people of Malaysia live their lives almost entirely at SEA .
The gunslingers are long gone and tumbleweeds have taken over at this abandoned American Wild West Theme Park in Cornwall .
THIS is the incredible moment a pelican throws a fish into the air and SLAM DUNKS it into its enormous throat sack .
Exploding out of the water, a great white shark performs a backflip during a hunt for seals .
LIKE A living balloon this baitball of sardines is ready to burst when threatened by a pointy nosed sailfish .
It’s a role reversal in the Visayan Sea as HUNDREDS of tiny, glistening eggs are carried around inside the mouth of their cardinalfish father .