Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

These are the stunning pictures of the night sky brilliantly capturing the lights and colors of the Milky Way glistening over desert landscapes. Taken in various locations across Australia and the United States from the Grand Canyon to the Coral Sea, the pictures perfectly show the bright lights of the starry skies. Here: Bisit Badlands, New Mexico. (Photo by Wayne Pinkston/Caters News)

Shuichi Mizoguchi is the forerunner of Japanese digital graphic art. He is known for his fantastic Japanese feminine beauty imagery. SHU can get the best of his talent to use various colors freely and uniquely to create fantastic imagery of ancient scenery, robots on top of the Japanese feminine beauty. His imagery has been captivated by Japanese young and middle class generations.

Jack Tia Kee Woon is an artist from Singapore. He is famous through his technique of watercolor painting in acrylic environment. His painting style is very light and radiant, where the watercolors add the transparence to the picture, while acrylic make the colors look very deep. One can see the influence of Chinese and Japanese culture on his art.

Thailand`s Rangsit University is a private institution of higher education with the primary aim of creating graduates in different areas of study, focusing mainly on science, technology, design and management. But what makes this university renowned around the world is its colorful campus, with trees and bushes painted to beautify the campus. Though in 2011 the plants were significantly damaged in one of Thailand’s worst floods in five decades, they continue to enliven the atmosphere at the university.

At first glance, Korean artist Kyu-Hak Lee's mixed media mosaics come off as fairly straightforward recreations of iconic works of art. But upon closer inspection, there's more depth to Lee's works than expected. Using a specific technique – rolling strips of magazine and newspaper pages around small bits of wood – Lee replicates brushstrokes, patterns, and colors to create a commentary on consumerism and worth.

A dog rests on a buffalo near Ravi River in Lahore, Pakistan, on Febuary 4, 2013. (Photo by Mohsin Raza/Reuters)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

Andreas Preis is a Berlin-based German artist who studied communications design in Nuremberg.
Following an advertising internship with Springer & Jacoby he turned his attention toward freelance design and illustration. Andreas’ style mixes digital and traditional art, combining hand-drawings, cross-hatching, and color with digital media. In his latest project entitled Grow, Andreas Preis creates an incredible series of animal crests using his unique style to create these wonderful works of art.