ThingsAmongMany

For the last 2+ years, I’ve lived a somewhat migratory lifestyle - I’m in my 3rd apartment during that time and have finally found a place that I intend to settle into a bit. Which means that, for the first time in those couple of years, I’m ready to put some artwork on the walls and stake a claim to my space. And, as a bit of an amateur photographer (seen ShotsAmongMany?), I’m excited about the possibility of printing some of my own work to fill that void. The problem is finding some interesting way to print/display my work.

In a quest for a solution, I recently stumbled across CanvasPop, a printing service that will take your photo and print it to a canvas photoboard. They also offer a few interesting possibilities like multiple canvases per photo (turn your work into a diptych or triptych) or add filters (very photoshop-looking, but to each his own). They’ve got a flickr account with a bunch of their work samples if you want to see more possibilities.

Prices seem pretty reasonable, all things considered. Once I’ve decided on an image or two to adorn my walls, I’ll let everyone know how the finished product looks. And, if anyone has recommendations on a favorite shot, I’d love to hear them!

You probably have; it’s been all over the interwebs for the last 36 hours or so. But, it’s freakin’ awesome, so I’m going to post it anyway:

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

Seems photo projects are the theme around here for the moment. The newest one that I’ve stumbled across is called Before I die, I want to…. Artistic duo Nicole Kenney and ks rives each carry a Polaroid camera with them at all times, stopping to snap a shot of the interesting people they come across. And, for every shot they take, they ask the person what dream they’d like to accomplish during their lifetime. All of the photos (and dreams) are collected on their site http://beforeidieiwantto.org for the world to see.

Their hope is to reconnect with all of their subjects in a few (read 10 or 20?) years to see how they’re coming with their dreams.

Seeing online that other people are fulfilling their desires will motivate participants to complete their task and write a story of their own.

They’ve also taken this hobby/project on the road. The two recently spent three months traveling through India, Polaroids close at hand, asking the locals the very same question. Those dreams are also collected on a separate section of the site.

If you want to share with Nicole and ks your personal dream, they’re taking submissions from around the world as well. Just follow the directions here to share with them.

Well, it is exactly what it sounds like. All said, however, it’s a pretty interesting project being conducted by photographer Jacob Pritchard. Pritchard helps his subjects get all set for portraits in in their own bed, then lets them have at it with the remote for a few takes to see what comes out of it. And the results are pretty compelling.

For the moment, it seems, Pictures in Bed lives on its own Tumblr account. I’d presume it was left off his portfolio site for ease of updating. Regardless, there’s something intriguing about delving into people homes/lives to see how they sleep/hang out in bed. It has a voyeuristic quality that’s paid off safely. And apparently the participants are having fun too:

I felt like a cross between a professional model, a porn star, and an artist—it was titillating. -Kelly

For me, my bed is a magical place I dream about when I’m drunk, exhausted and somewhere far, far away—like the East Village. -Tanveer

If you want to participate, you can drop Jacob a line. His info is here. Have fun, and let me know if your shot turns up there!

Sony has just announced the Party-Shot, a UFO-style base station that docks either the DSC-WX1 or DSC-TX1 camera…and then takes complete control. Using the facial recognition software in the camera, along with a 360 degree swivel and 24 degree tilt function, the camera will sit in search mode, snapping a photo each time it catches a composition of your party-goers faces. That’s AWESOME. Of course, Sony didn’t manage to add in that last little bit of functionality that would send this duo over top.

Luckily, where Sony dropped the ball, eye-fi is waiting to pick it up. Slap a wireless SD card in your new Sony cam and you’ve got a purpose-built party camera that will upload shots automatically as you take them, throughout the party. Talk about a match made in digital heaven!

Ever wonder what kind of wonderous shots come out of the throw-away stack from all those photo shoots? I mean, think about it, they’re going through hundreds of frames trying to get the right Milk moustache, or trying to get the model’s derrier looking just-so. And how about getting the lighting right? Surely there must be something fun that happens there…

Well, it turns out that there absolutely is. And now there’s a site dedicated to bringing all of those photos to the public eye. Light-test.com was created for photographers (and assistants) everywhere to share the best of the shots that comes from their light tests on shoots (you know, those shots at the beginning where they hold up the grey card, etc. to make sure that everything’s perfect - usually with some lowly assistant standing there looking goofy). Some of them are well-worth a look. Others just feature a model in her underwear. Both are fun though.

What can I say, even I get caught by the obivous sometimes. This is an untitled “short film” in the form of an animated gif. I realize she’s a little mainstream, but I love the grainy silence and the behind-the-scenes feel of this one.

via iconology

While the value of linked content from that pile of friends on Facebook tends toward…less than impressive, every once in a while something makes it’s way through the fray that’s worth a look. I found just such a gem the other day in the form of The Other America.

Not just your “average blog”, The Other America is a new project by writer Josh Izenberg and photographer (and, if I recall, chef and longtime wanderer) Henry Dombey, both close friends-of-a-friend. A hastily hatched idea born to allow the two a creative outlet in the face of unemployment and random wanderings, the two have vowed to combine their skills in the form of one story a month for the next twelve. The first highlights a weekend trip up the coast of California and is presented with a combination of dry humor and random factoids - well worth a read during that post-lunch slowdown when you need a quick distraction to get through hump day.

JPG magazine, the haven for photographers who’re looking for something a little more than Flickr has to offer, has had its fair share of troubles throughout its tenure. Not the least of which were the cloudy circumstances surrounding the departure of founders Derek Powazek and Heather Champ (if you’re not familiar, the story can be found on Powzek’s blog).

Now, to add insult to injury, the current team has announced the closing of the highly lauded magazine:

We’ve spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we’ve reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but just weren’t able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success.

Originally scheduled to shutter today, input from the community at large has allowed the team to keep things running for another week or so. There’s also been a huge outcry from the community based at SaveJPG.com. Hopefully the team can work out a means to keep things alive - first thing that comes to mind is shuttering the paper version of the mag and keeping JPG alive on the web. But I’m sure they’ve thought of that.

If you’re a fan and/or member of JPG, get over to SaveJPG.com and show your support. If you’re not yet familiar with it, take a few minutes to read up on JPG and you’ll quickly see why it’s a valuable community that’s well worth the effort of saving.

You may have noticed our recent post about What I Had For Lunch Today, our fun little Flickr project/experiment where everyone can share their lunch. Not long after that was posted, we noticed a friend Tweet a verbal version of her lunch to @having. Of course, we were intrigued and began to investigate…

A visit to @having’s Twitter profile revealed that the profile is the Twitter component of a bigger project that lives at FoodFeed.us. Similar to What I Had For Lunch Today, FoodFeed allows users to share what they’re eating simply by tweeting it to @having. If you go to the FoodFeed site, you can peruse what other people are eating or just dig back through your own meals.

The site claims that more features are in the pipeline. And, before you go looking for too much purpose behind it, they readily state that FoodFeed is

not really useful. It’s just fun. And if you can make something useful out of it, we would be happy

So go have some fun, share your food, and if you’re inclined, do what we do…post it as photos!