As the holidays approach, a unique gift idea emerges from DNA 11. Recently. the Canadian-based company introduced its new line of art portraits, which include DNA fingerprints and portraits of your lips and kisses.

DNA 11 offers three innovative and personalized products, and each one will never look the same because it’s unique to yourself. They are sure to make any empty wall look great while adding a personalized touch.

The portraits use customer’s DNA results, which tend to look like small or large rectangles. Customers can customize the portraits with color choice by logging on and choosing one of multiple setup options — such as one person’s DNA or as many as four people’s DNA displayed on one canvas.

The portraits start at $390 frameless and increase in price with people and options. Sizes include 18″x24″ ($390) 24″x36″ ($490) and 36″x54″ ($790). There are also 25 color presets and optional framing.

Personalized signatures and high resolution downloads can also be purchased. After selecting from these options, the customer receives a DNA collection kit, which includes a swab to collect cheek cells that get mailed back so the company can produce the DNA portrait.

DNA 11 also offers signature fingerprint portraits, which expresses a great deal of individuality.The collection and design process is similar to the DNA portraits where customers go online and choose from the standard 12″x12″ size ($190), 20″x20″ or the large 40″x40″ ($490).

Next, the customer must choose a color from the 25 presets or by choosing a custom color from the color palette. Similarly, to the DNA portraits, customers may opt to add a signature ($50) and may purchase a high resolution downloadable image ($50) and can choose from framing options.

DNA 11 also offers “kiss portraits” — outlines of a person’s lips.

The creation process is actually quite simple. First, customers select the configuration of their choice between a single lip outline, double lip outline, close-up or multiple lips. Prices range from one standard kiss portrait ($290) all the way up to kiss double close-up for two people ($390).

Next, customers can choose between the two available sizes 20″x20″ ($290) or 40″x40″ ($490). Once again, customers can choose their preferred color from the 25 presets colors or from the color palette and can then choose from the optional frames available for the selected size. The customer can choose to add their signature ($50) or purchase a high resolution image ($50).

The Kiss collection kit allows the customer to apply the included M.A.C VIVA Glam lipstick and kiss the included sheets until they get the perfect lip print.

DNA 11 products allow customers to personalize art and offer a unique way to decorate any wall where no two pieces will look the same.

A portion of money from Kiss portrait purchases goes to help purchase 1000 condoms in India or 16 HIV tests in Haiti.

This was the first article ever written in Blast Magazine and was part of the 1/1/07 launch.

In his youth, James Crotty may have qualified for the title of Youngest Professional Photographer in Dayton, Ohio.

A shy personality in a family of extroverts, he discovered his passion once he started messing around with a 35mm camera his father brought home one day when he was 10 or 11.

“That was my escape,” he explained. “I was more quiet, introverted, and more aware of my natural surroundings. It was a way for me to go out and explore nature.”

At 13, Crotty had already set up a makeshift darkroom in the basement of his parents’ house, where he developed the photographs he regularly took around the neighborhood and in the wooded area around his home. When he entered high school, he got a job working in a local frame shop. He talked the owner into displaying some of his photographs, and people started buying them.

“I started seeing that people were responding to what I was creating,” he said.

And they’re still responding.

In September, the 42-year-old was awarded a first place prize in National Wildlife magazine’s annual Photography Awards, in the category of New Life. The winning picture, which was published in the December/January 2007 issue of National Wildlife, was an image he snapped in May of two young house finches nesting.

The photo was also chosen by Nature’s Best Photography magazine to be displayed as part of an exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. through April.

Every spring, Crotty said, the birds build a nest beneath hanging ferns on his front porch. This year, after two days of anxious waiting, the eggs hatched. The hatchlings were less than an inch long in their early days, Crotty said.

“I started seeing if I could get a really good shot of them,” he explained. “I kind of know when the babies are the most photogenic, the most interesting. They’ve got this otherworldly look to them; they almost look like Muppets. It only lasts a few days because they grow so quickly.”

Crotty said he was able to get off a series of shots with his 35mm macro lens camera and hand-held flash before the birds ducked back into their nest, realizing they would not be fed.

“It’s just a very brief moment to get them up when they’re looking at the camera,” he said. “The whole look of new life–it’s just something I wanted to capture and I happened to hit it at just the right time.” The birds were only days old at the time the picture was taken, and the fact that their eyes had not yet opened would normally be detrimental to a wildlife photograph. But not in this case.

“Most wildlife photographs are so engaging when the photographer is able to capture the animal’s personality through their eyes,” Crotty explained. “What’s interesting about this one is their eyes are closed, but you can still tell so much about what these birds are going through and the challenge of being so new in the world and so dependent on their parents. [Their wide-open mouths] kind of take the place of the eyes.”

According to Crotty, the photo started generating buzz as soon as he posted it in an online album on Flickr. Complete strangers began marking it as one of their Favorites.

“That one just took off,” he said. “It got a huge amount of hits. I kind of had a hint that it was a good image when I saw that… It was an image that really caught people’s attention.”

After he came across the National Wildlife photography contest online in August, Crotty decided to enter the photograph on a whim.