Normal services will resume shortly when I hit the books, and the desk, after a nice little break.
Maybe even tonight…
Tag: photography
Sunflowers
We’re on my in-laws farm at the moment. The current crop rotation is a lot of fun. Not only are the sunflowers really nice to look at, they attract birds that need shooting…
Much loved: a photographic collection of cuddled toys
If your day needs some brightening after what has been a bizarrely traumatic week around the planet – then this might help (if the superb collection of kids jokes from last night didn’t). These are also less scary than the teddies with teeth from the other day.
The toys, and their stories, can be found in this gallery, and are on display in a real gallery somewhere too. The photos and concept are the brainchild of a guy named Mark Nixon.
“This is Now” gives an instagrammed snapshot of life in the city
This is Now pulls current instagram shots from five international cities (including Sydney). It’s pretty cool.
This is a few minutes ago in Sydney.
And in Tokyo.
Holiday snaps
So I’ve been absent from blogworld for a few days. What’d I miss?
In the real world our little family were taking our first family holiday – we had been planning to go to the Gold Coast hinterlands, right up until the car was packed, and I was printing out our wotif booking. Only to discover that some idiot had booked the accommodation for the wrong weekend. After a mad scramble around the interwebs we booked three nights in Stanthorpe at the Sommerville Valley Resort.
Soph was a bit excited en route.
Here’s the view from the balcony.
Here’s the view from the lounge room.
We saw the pyramids. Well, a slightly lamer Australian version…
Went to a fun jam shop where Soph charmed the storekeepers. Which was lucky.
Soph, in turn, was charmed by an ornamental peacock in our room. She couldn’t get enough of it.
We added a bit to the trip with a Tour De France style experience on the way home.
And now, the craziness of college begins for another semester.
Vanilla Ice, Ice, Baby
This is why I became a father.
A smashing photography idea
This series capturing porcelain figurines the moment they smash into smithereens is brilliant. They’re from a photographer named Martin Klimas. The fact that they’re kung fu characters going the biff makes them even more compelling.
The camera is apparently triggered by the sound of the collision with the ground.
Via 22 Words
Photo renditions of famous art
I love this idea. From now on most of my photos are going to be inspired by the composition of famous artworks. At least until I have my next cup of coffee.
Some that I recognise…
Here’s the first of the series on booooooom.com, there is some “artistic” nudity involved (of the painted, classical, variety, and some discrete photographic recreations).
Via Kottke.org
Walking in a kitchen wonderland
These animals are wanted house guests, and this macro photography project called Wonderland is pretty charming. It’s the work of a wunderkind named Aimish Boy.
Here’s what he says about the project:
“The WonderLand series, still under development, is being composed by using a unique but rather simple and elegant artificial lighting and household objects (from vegetables to plastic bags).
The photos are shot (mostly) in a miniature studio on my kitchen’s table with a Canon EOS 60D Camera, and a Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens and Flashes, they are real and NOT a digital manipulation. The outcome is a beautiful and magical set with a fairy flair to it. The small models were found in my apartment and on plants outside my window, none of them was hurt during shooting.”
Makes me want to buy expensive photography gear. Here’s a gecko hanging out on set.
High speed droplet photography
This is cool.
And this is the setup you need to do it…
Fun. Here’s the photostream on YouTube from user Cymaii.
50 Apps for your Christmas iPad
Did you get an iPad for Christmas? I’ve had my iPad for a while now, and I’ve started to sort out the dross from the gold. Here are my favourites from a range of categories to get you going.
It really is a sensational device.
Reading Stuff
1. Reeder – best RSS reader, hands down.
2. GoodReader – great for PDF reading and annotating – terrific for essay writing.
3. Instapaper – curate your own longform articles from around the web to build your own magazine.
4. Zite – is an automated magazine service that finds articles based on your interests.
5. Flipboard – turns your social media channels (including google reader) into a magazine.
6. Kindle – Get Amazon’s range of e-books on your iPad.
7. Stumbleupon – click your way around interesting links in areas you’re interested in.
8. Google Currents – See what’s hot in Google.
9. Pinterest – another app for finding fun stuff on the interwebs. Populated mostly by crafty mums.
Photo Stuff
1. Instagram – I’d rather shoot photos with my iPhone camera, but the iPad app is great for checking out the social photostream (you can follow me, my username is nmcampbell, my feed is mainly photos of coffee and my daughter).
2. Phoster – makes cool posters.
3. Diptic – Stitch photos together in artistic ways.
4. Process – apply filters to your photos (not quite the same as Instagram) with the tap of a button.
5. Poly – Uses the power of maths to make polygon styled pictures. Kind of fun.
6. Photoshop Express – a nice lightweight photo editor from Adobe.
7. Grid Lens – is kind of fun, makes an instant diptic style collage (as in you take a bunch of shots at once, or with a slight delay. Clever.
8. Snapseed – I just bought this, and haven’t had a chance to play with it much yet.
9. ColorSplash – edit black and white photos with a splash of colour.
Social
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Path – a journal type thing where you can keep track of your movements, meals, and meetings, in a social way.
4. Beanhunter – find and review cafes everywhere.
5. Foursquare – let people know where you are and if you like it.
6. UrbanSpoon – find a restaurant and review it.
7. Stamped – review anything. Places. Books. Movies.
Utilities
1. Dropbox
2. Evernote
3. Bump – share files between iOS devices with a physical shake or “bump”…
4. Bluetooth Photo Share – great for giving gran some photos on her iPad.
5. Blogsy – nice multi-featured blogging software.
6. Google App
7. Remote – control your apple gear
Games
1. Angry Birds – But you already know this…
2. Stick Wars – Tower defence with stick figures.
3. Fruit Ninja – Slice and dice flying fruit.
4. Words with Friends
5. Scrabble – for the traditionalists
5. The Sims – I just downloaded this.
6. Wolfenstein 3D – A dose of nostalgia
7. NBA Jam – another dash of nostalgia. Great port from the SNES.
Music
1. Shazam – hear a new song, Shazam will tell you what it is.
2. Garageband – mix and mash your own music.
3. I am T-Pain – Autotune everything
4. Songify – speak music
Bible/College stuff
1. ESV
2. YouVersion – multiple translations at the tap of a finger
3. Logos – get your Logos library on the go
4. Vyrso – the book reader from Logos
5. Complete Class Organiser – Take notes, keep track of your timetable, and record lectures in one app
6. Greek Reader’s Lexicon – nice Greek app by Sam Freney
7. QuickCite – scan book barcodes get bibliography details by email.
That’s a bunch of apps – have I missed any?
iPhone Lens Kit is impractical and expensive
This bad boy will cost you $250. It comes with three different lenses.
“three optical-quality coated glass lenses: Wide Angle, Fisheye, and Telephoto. All wrapped up in a slim aircraft-grade aluminum jacket equipped with two tripod mounts (for portrait or landscape shots).”
Clever.
From photojojo.
Camera washes up on beach: A modern day message in a bottle
Cool story. This camera. A Canon EOS was underwater for over a year. Somebody with a little bit of tech knowledge found it, while diving, and managed to salvage some of the photos. The camera is obviously a write off. The photos were from August 2010, which meant it spent quite some time in the ocean and exposed to the elements.
The cool part of the story is that the guy who found the story managed to crowd source the contact details of the owner, reuniting photographer with photographs…
“The photographs, having spent 440 days on the ocean floor, have been reunited with the photographer and the family. I am very happy to have facilitated the journey back to where the photographs belong! I certainly didn’t anticipate the attention this created, any photographer finding my camera would do the same, right? Thanks again for the great help that came from all of you – the Google+ community. I received an email from the recipient of your help this morning:
“Again thank you so much!!! Seeing the pictures brings tears as we really had forgotten what we were missing by not having them.”
And in a nice little PR twist, perhaps predictably, Canon is replacing the camera for free. It is perhaps a better endorsement for the memory cards than for the camera maker – and San Disk are sending some free goodies to both the finder, and the photographer. Good news all round…