I can’t find a permanent link to
I can’t find a permanent link to it, but for the next week or so, you can see the NY Times package on the Empire State Building, which turns 75 this year. Lots of photos, rememberances, etc.
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kottke.org posts about photography
Color palette of the Caribbean
Luke Wroblewski wrote an article for Boxes and Arrows about using colors found in nature as inspiration for color palettes used in designing web sites. Unfortunately, the photos showing Luke’s examples don’t appear to be working on the site (the images have been fixed…thx, Lars), but Dave Shea published an image that illustrates Luke’s technique.
When you’re on the beach in the Caribbean as I was recently, it’s difficult for the color palette to escape your notice. I whipped up this collection of colors from some of my photos (coming soon) from Mexico:
From left to right, you’ve got the pale blue of the ocean close to shore, the light brown of the sand, the green of the lush vegetation, and the deep clear blue of the sky.
Update: A couple people asked, so here are the hex values for the above colors: 3DB8AE, FFEDD8, 396600, and 0050A2, respectively.
View the finalists of the Smithsonian’s 3rd
View the finalists of the Smithsonian’s 3rd annual photo contest. Here’s last year’s winners.
Cameratruck is a camera built out of
Cameratruck is a camera built out of a box van…essentially a giant pinhole camera. The negatives are almost three meters wide and are developed inside the truck/camera. The tour page has examples of photographs taken with the truck.
Honeymoon
According to Wikipedia (which in turn references the Oxford English Dictionary on the matter), the etymology of the word honeymoon is unclear. The American Heritage Dictionary (via answers.com) suggests it’s “perhaps from a comparison of the moon, which wanes as soon as it is full, to the affections of a newly married couple, which are most tender right after marriage”, which doesn’t sound all that positive. Returning to the Wikipedia entry, honeymoon may have been used in Babylonian times to describe the bride and groom consuming honey (in the form of mead, a beverage) before the next moon.
At any rate, I’ve just returned from mine, the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever had. For two weeks, we did without electricity, running fresh water, newpapers, showers (we substituted ocean swimming + saltwater baths), television, magazines, movies, computers, internet, email, mobile phones (except for two unavoidable calls out and periodic checking of voicemail to see if the cat was ok), and music (for the most part). It was so relaxing that we didn’t even know that Daylight Saving Time was in effect until 2 full days after the fact and may not have found out until we got to the airport if Meg hadn’t shown up a full hour late to her yoga class and everyone was, somewhat confusingly, just finishing up.
I read three books: one fascinating, one great, and one good. Ate lots of great Mexican food with zero instances of microbial confrontation. Found really good pizza in an odd place.
We made up names for the people we saw repeatedly on the beach at the small place we were staying. There were the Naked Hat People, Naked Yoga Guy — you may be noticing a trend…the beach was clothing optional — and Naked Paddleball Players, who we renamed Ketchup and Mustard because of their signature matching red and yellow ball caps (they exercised their option to wear nothing besides). Civilization kept threatening to creep into our media deprivation tank, as when we saw Ketchup and Mustard at dinner near the end of our stay, surfing the web on the wireless connection we had no idea that our hotel/resort had. They checked out the New Yorker site and then caught up on the Huffington Post. Meg turned to me and said, “if he brings up kottke.org, I’m going over there and introducing you.”
“The hell you are. Are you trying to kill Vacation Jason?”
So yeah, I’m back and am eager to get back to kottke.org, even though getting my &%#$^#*%& email this morning completely killed Vacation Jason much sooner than I would have liked.
And not least, thanks to Greg Knauss, David Jacobs, and Anil Dash for keeping up with the remaindered links while I was gone. Good stuff, guys.
ps. For the curious, wedding pics here (taken by Eliot). Some pics of Mexico coming (somewhat) soon.
Photos of the top 15 city skylines in
Photos of the top 15 city skylines in the world. Hong Kong is #1 and I can’t disagree.
3 Years 3 Minutes is a short film spanning
3 Years 3 Minutes is a short film spanning three years of Felix Jung’s life in photos. (thx, ed)
Tiltomo groups similar Flickr photos together by
Tiltomo groups similar Flickr photos together by theme, color, or texture.
Zach Klein reports on Riya, a photo
Zach Klein reports on Riya, a photo service that does face recognition…you tag people’s faces and over time the system recognizes them without input. TechCrunch says that Riya can recognize text and other objects (like the Eiffel Tower) in photos as well. Cool.
This is a bit old (from March
This is a bit old (from March last year), but the most photographed city on Flickr at the time was London followed by New York, but when you take population into account, Vancouver, Amsterdam, and Las Vegas win for photos per capita.
If you’ve been following the lost camera
If you’ve been following the lost camera story, there’s a happy ending for you…Judith got her camera back from the mean Canadian family.
PictureCloud lets you easily create 360 degree images
PictureCloud lets you easily create 360 degree images from a series of digital camera photos…for free. (thx, paul)
Eliot Shepard has some advice for those
Eliot Shepard has some advice for those entering a photography competition…or really, on how you might go about taking a good photo.
Olympics wrap-up
I’ve got a few stories about the Winter Olympics open in tabs, so in the interest of getting rid of them:
- Photographer Vincent Laforet discusses his process in getting the photographs he wants.
- How the broadcast graphics were done for NBC’s coverage of the Olympics.
- The Nation on what went wrong with NBC’s coverage.
- Here’s the New Yorker’s take on the TV coverage.
Finally, Gelf Magazine compares Olympic predictions with the actual results. The media outlets surveyed all predicted higher medal counts for the US, but weren’t off by that much (aside from the ridiculous AP predicitons). Only NBC and Nike were surprised that Bode Miller sucked so royally.
A statement on art statements. “I have
A statement on art statements. “I have no way of actually proving this, but I am convinced that many photographers do not have all that stuff from their statements in their heads and then go out to shoot the photography. I have the suspicion that some of them, after having shot their photos, have a hard time writing something that can pass as a statement, because ‘I just wanted to take beautiful photos of rubble piles’ somehow doesn’t appear to be acceptable.”
Canon, Sony, and Nikon top the list
Canon, Sony, and Nikon top the list of the most-used camera on Flickr. Nokia is #11.
Were you up on the High Line
Were you up on the High Line on Feb 20? Did you lose your digital camera? It’s been found…claim it on Craigslist.
Edward Burtynsky and World Changing have collaborated
Edward Burtynsky and World Changing have collaborated on a video using his photographs to depict humanity’s impact on the planet. Burtynsky has pledged $50,000 from his 2005 TED Prize (as has the Sapling Foundation) to match donations to World Changing. More information on the TED blog.
Rob at Cockeyed is building a photographic
Rob at Cockeyed is building a photographic height/weight grid, effectively a catalog of people’s body types. Description and call for entries here.
My pal Judith lost her camera on
My pal Judith lost her camera on vacation in Hawaii and tried to make the best of the situation by starting a project using other people’s Flickr photos to reconstruct a trip journal. Now, a family has found her camera but won’t give it back to her because they don’t want to take it away from the 9 yo kid that found it. “We can’t tell him that he has to give it up. Also we had to spend a lot of money to get a charger and a memory card”. The dishonesty displayed here is maddening.
A 1904 photograph by Edward Steichen was recently
A 1904 photograph by Edward Steichen was recently sold at auction for more than $2.9 million, the most anyone’s ever paid for a photo at auction. (via consc)
The first two $25,000 “no strings attached” photography
The first two $25,000 “no strings attached” photography grants have been given out.
Gallery of the winners of the World
Gallery of the winners of the World Press Photos of the Year for 2005.
De-Touch lets you step through how photos
De-Touch lets you step through how photos of models are retouched for publication. Announcement here. Made with Processing, source code is available.
Interview with photographer Ryan McGinley about his work.
Interview with photographer Ryan McGinley about his work.
Alternative photography (pinhole cameras, daguerreotypes, gum bichromate
Alternative photography (pinhole cameras, daguerreotypes, gum bichromate prints) is making a small comeback in the midst of the digital photography revolution. Here’s some of Adam Lubroth’s work and an exhibition in Austin, TX of “historical photographic approaches in the digital age”.
This Flickr user really likes photos of
This Flickr user really likes photos of people at the dentist. This one’s my favorite. (via janelle)
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