Photographs from Kevin Tiell of pinballs, up
Photographs from Kevin Tiell of pinballs, up close and personal. This one’s my favorite. (via bb)
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kottke.org posts about photography
Youngna Park has a short wrap-up of
Youngna Park has a short wrap-up of going to see Annie Leibovitz speak about her new book, A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005. “And, so it goes, said Leibovitz, that some of us use words in order to take good pictures, and some of us take pictures, in order that we can be heard.”
Portrait photographer Platon shares some remembrances of
Portrait photographer Platon shares some remembrances of shooting famous people. “Bono told Platon that ‘a friend’ had made the rosary he wears. Which friend? Oh, the Pope, of course.” Here’s another interview with Platon. (via conscientious)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently snapped a picture
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently snapped a picture of the Opportunity rover perched on the rim of Victoria Crater. Opportunity drove more than 5 miles from its landing site to get there. High resolution photo here. Here’s where Opportunity is located on Mars.
Instead of megapixels-worth of light sensors, a
Instead of megapixels-worth of light sensors, a new experimental camera uses a series of mirrors to focus all the light on just one sensor. Somewhat related question that I’ve been wondering about for awhile: why do digital cameras need shutters? Why can’t you just turn the sensors on and off electronically? Seems like you could then use many more arbitrary “shutter” speeds, like 5 seconds or 1/50000 of a second.
Museum camouflage photographs by Harvey Opgenorth. (via nick baum)
Museum camouflage photographs by Harvey Opgenorth. (via nick baum)
Some nice photography from Corey Arnold
Some nice photography from Corey Arnold, specifically the fishing portfolios. (via thih)
Nikon recently sent a bunch of new
Nikon recently sent a bunch of new D80s to some Flickr photographers and are now using some of the shots those photographers took in an ad campaign. “Nikon did what every major brand should be doing…it got out of its own way and let the real people that counted do the talking: their own consumers.” PDF of the ad spread.
LifePixel will modify your digital camera (Nikons
LifePixel will modify your digital camera (Nikons or Canons, mostly) to shoot in infrared. “Camera manufacturers stop infrared light from contaminating the images by placing a hot mirror filter in front of the sensor which effectively blocks the infrared part of the spectrum while still allowing the visible light to pass. We remove this hot mirror filter and replace it with a custom manufactured infrared filter.”
Huge gallery of unusual cloud formation photos.
Huge gallery of unusual cloud formation photos. Personal weirdest cloud story: late afternoon in the Wisconsin fall, clouds covered perfectly one half of the sky while the other half was completely clear blue.
Space tourist Anousheh Ansari is Flickring photos
Space tourist Anousheh Ansari is Flickring photos from the International Space Station. NASA reportedly spent 250,000 man-hours building a module to upload snapshots from space via the Flickr API.
Update: That NASA man-hours stat is a joke, sorry. NASA is not that absurdly wasteful. I have no idea how she’s getting the photos on Flickr. Do they have web access on the ISS?
Update: Ansari called Larry Page today and reported that there’s no internet access on the ISS. Email is delivered in batches…so she’s either emailing them to Flickr or someone’s uploading them for her. BTW, the first kottke.org reader in space…could you give me a call when you get there? (thx, terrell)
Update: According to Ansari’s blog (from space!), email is sent from the ISS three times per day.
A collection of snapshots by Andy Warhol
A collection of snapshots by Andy Warhol of his friends from a recently published book, Warhol’s World.
Photo cans
If you asked me today to choose a medium in which to focus my future artistic energies, I’d have to go with the photo can. After finding this great Photojojo tutorial yesterday on using tin cans and glass jars as photo frames, I selected three recent pictures I’d taken and made this can triptych:
So cool! And simple too. I didn’t follow Photojojo’s directions exactly and I have a few observations to offer for those looking to play around with this:
- Paper quality. I just used regular old printer paper, not glossy photo paper or anything like that. This made the photos look more like actual cheap labels. I also didn’t worry too much about being careful with the glue. Again, a little mistake here and there actually enhances the effect.
- Glue. I removed the original label from the can and glued the photo directly to the can itself. Instead of rubber cement, I used a glue stick with acid-free acrylic emulsion. The glue stick made application really easy. And I didn’t apply the glue all the way around the can. I just glued down one end to the can, waited for that to dry, wrapped the photo around the can, pulled it tight, and glued the underside of that end to the end already affixed to the can. (When I tore the existing label off the can, I noticed that’s how it was glued on there, so I tried the same thing and it worked.)
- Can size, etc. Shopping in the canned food aisle of the supermarket takes on a different meaning when you’re not attempting to find green beans for dinner but trying to find aesthetically pleasing art supplies. I went with a larger can, one with stewed tomatoes; its proportions seemed more pleasing than those of a soup can. The problem was that when I got it home, it was almost 13 inches around, meaning that 8 1/2” x 11” paper wasn’t going to work. (I ended up getting some 8 1/2” x 14” paper.) So bring your tape measure to the grocery store with you to make sure the desired can will work with your paper size.
- No pop-tops. A lot of soup cans now feature pop-tops. Get the old fashioned kind instead…the last thing you want is Uncle Steve lifting your photo can off of the coffee table, fiddling with the pop-top, and, hey!, Chunky Vegetable three years past its expiration date all over the place.
- Botulism? Speaking of past the expiration date, what’s the shelf life of your artwork? The answer seems to be almost indefinitely when kept at temperatures at or below 75 degrees F, but I wouldn’t advise eating anything from your photo cans after a year or two. The risk of botulism is almost nonexistent in contemporary commercially canned food, but if you see any of your art swelling up, throw it out. In addition, botulism dislikes acidic environments, so you’re probably better off selecting cans with acidic food items in them, like tomatoes, fruits (without sweet syrups), and sauerkraut. But be careful not to get items that are too acidic…over a long period of time, the acid may eat through the can.
Good luck!
Nice symmetry to this photo taken by
Nice symmetry to this photo taken by Jake Dobkin of some people walking in front of graffiti.
According to Joerg Colberg, Thomas Weinberger makes
According to Joerg Colberg, Thomas Weinberger makes his photos with two long exposures, once in daylight and once at night. The result is these spooky washed-out photos, a kind of analog HDR effect.
Austria in pictures
Some photos from a recent trip to Austria, featuring shots from near Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck. I went so crazy with the photos in Austria that I didn’t take a single picture once we got to Zurich…I was all photographed out.
Female Tech has combined her love of
Female Tech has combined her love of technology and an artistic sensibility to create photos of herself posing with various gadgets: a stratgically placed PSP, Sega Genesis cuddle, and GameCube piggyback. Reminds me somewhat of a certain Palm parody from back in the day. NSFW.
Tutorial on adding surprisingly realistic beards to
Tutorial on adding surprisingly realistic beards to people with Photoshop. (via photojojo, who’s having a contest for the best bearded woman)
Interview with photographer Michael Wolf, who did
Interview with photographer Michael Wolf, who did the great Architecture of Density and 100x100 projects.
Todd Deutsch’s photo gallery, Gamers, contains photos
Todd Deutsch’s photo gallery, Gamers, contains photos of video game enthusiasts and the (non-virtual) world they inhabit.
State of Emergency photo shoot from the
State of Emergency photo shoot from the September 2006 issue of Vogue Italia. The editorial of these fashion photos exceeds that of much photography found in more conventional US news media. (via bb)
Bed Jumping: photos of people jumping on
Bed Jumping: photos of people jumping on hotel beds. More on Flickr. (thx, joshua)
The “fondue” tag on Flickr has a
The “fondue” tag on Flickr has a surprising amount of entries. Our fondue in Switzerland. See also: the “wurst” tag.
Stolen mobile phone + automatic upload of the
Stolen mobile phone + automatic upload of the thief’s photos to Flickr = art project. (thx, stewart)
The New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery
The New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery has tons of great old photos of Central Park…among other things. thx, bryan
Great composite photo of Andre Agassi playing
Great composite photo of Andre Agassi playing a point against Andrei Pavel in the US Open last night. Looks like Agassi had Pavel running a bit.
Update: Nice appreciation of Agassi with a summary of his career.
Noah Kalina Everyday
Photographer Noah Kalina has taken a daily photo of himself for more than 6 years and recently made a movie of the results.
Completely mesmerizing. Best viewed large. (via kdunk)
Flickr just launched an interface to geotag
Flickr just launched an interface to geotag your photos. Geotag = situate your photos on a map.
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