Thumbs and Ammo posits the idea: would it be funny to replace guns with thumbs up in stills from movies?
YES!
PERU & BOLIVIA - a stop-motion journey
LOCATIONS: Arequipa, Chivay, Colca Canyon, Cusco, Huacachina, Ica, Laguna Colorada, La Paz, Lima, Machu Picchu, Puno, Salar de Uyuni, Solar de Manana geysers, Termas de Polques, Valles de Rocas
Hong Kong is Home: Timelapse
From filmmakers Javin Lau:
"My intent with this project was to illustrate the grandeur of Hong Kong that most people would never get to see. When I had recently watched the movie Oblivion, it had somehow starkly reminded me of Hong Kong, with the feeling of being so insignificantly small -- almost irrelevant to my surroundings. Hong Kong is an unbelievably dense city, where much of the world can be accessed at your fingertips. But in a city where you can access the material world in a matter of seconds, it also has the ability to isolate you from the 8 million people around you as well.
With this piece, I hope that you are able to engage in this contradiction."
First Taste: Kids Trying Food for the First Time
Saatchi & Heckler created First Taste, a charming short film for Sydney’s recent TEDx event.
Director Matt Gilmour said he was inspired by the reaction of his two-year-old daughter to trying new food. So Cute!
Amazing Papercraft Animals
Brooklyn-based artist José Suris IV makes these incredible papercraft animals from papers, styrofoam, wireform, and paperclay.
Also Paper Sculptures that Defy Expectations & Papercraft Cars
Great Gatsby - The NES-Style Game
The folks at Out of Print (one of my favorite purveyors of lit geek tees) offer this Super Nintendo-style Gatsby the Game. Score 25,000 points and they will donate a book.
Octofalls - Sound and Visual Waterfall Installation
Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, working in Berlin, suspended eight HD video displays of water, accompanied by sounds.
Photo manipulator Lachlan Burrows, better known as Lockie, then made the animated gif above, in the spirit of the original.
Tilt-Shift Timelapse Amsterdam
Ah, Amsterdam, spent a good couple months there, and this sends me right back.
Wakeboarders Get a Visit from a Family of Whales
Humpbacks: Three adults and a calf pop up to say hello.
Brought to Tears by The Artist is Present
From the tumblr Marina Abramović Made Me Cry:
"Portraits taken during the MoMA's exhibit of performance artist "Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present". Abramović sits at a table in silence, and museum guests can sit across from her and stare.
Some people couldn't handle the heat."
The criers range from sitting with Abramovic from 2 mins to 145 mins before the tears started.
Included in the mix is Jemima Kirke who plays dreamy bohemian Jessa on Lena Dunham's hit HBO show "Girls".
Lightning Played in Super Slo-Mo
Lightning happens in under a sec, but when shot at over 11,000 frames per sec, we can see all of the creeping details as it flashes through in over 3 minutes. Stunning.
47-Image Composite of the Moon Reveals Solar Corona During Solar Eclipse
The clarity that Czech photographer Miloslav Druckmüller from the Brno University of Technology, managed to get of this stunning solar corona was due to the 47 different images, shot on two different lenses, that he composited to make this singular image.
The detail and contour of the image also owes a lot the lack of light pollution at the extremely remote Enewetak Radiological Observatory on the Marshall Islands, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where he shot them.
Also check out the Full Moon Timelapse over Downtown LA
Mount Bromo in Vibrant Photos
Stunning photos of the Indonesian volcanao by Helminadia Jabur:
"The volcano is noted for its spectacular sunrises and majestic views all the way to Semeru volcano which is located further behind it. Ever since I saw some images of the volcano, I just could not help myself to visit the area and capture it."
See also Peering Inside an Active Volcano in Eastern Russia
Gorgeous Road Cycling Film Collection
Rapha, a maker of cycling gear, has this ever-growing set of films about their Continentals, long, creative rides. This one, set in Scotland is a love poem both to riding and to the land.
All of them are quite good. Some of my favorites below are Vietnam, Cymru (Wales) and Australia.
The Body is Nature: Hands and Feet by Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Arno Rafael Minkkinen has created this project called Hands and Feet that uses the body for its form, abstracted a little, in concert with the natural world.
He explains:
“If you are going to be under the snow, be under the snow. ‘Out of limitations new forms emerge,’ Georges Braque said. My translation: know what you will not do. For me this means embracing reality as a collaborator in the invention of the image, not overlaying multiple images to create such impressions. In the end, my negatives will never give away how I made any one of my photographs. They will always print with the same information as found in them the day the negatives were made.”
Bike Backpacks - Thoughts and Help
Help me?
I am needing to get a new backpack for my 20+ miles urban bike commute. I carry a macbook pro with me most days and would really love one with reflective elements.
The Welded Postbag from Chrome has quite a bit of style: industrial feeling hardware, water resistant material.
The Ortlieb Velocity Cycling Backpack has bright reflective details. Love the top handle too.
The Timbuk2 Phoenix Cycling Backpack has a lot of storage details, side access panel. Might be particularly good for airport travel too.
I would love your thoughts, if you've ever seen, used or bought any of these. I trust you and your wisdom. Help me out.
Oustanding Ways to Play with Your Food
POTD - Rocket Fantastic [excerpt] by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Rocket Fantastic [excerpt]
It's ridiculous what fame
can buy you. Not the beast
but the tiny, frightened
man who brings him
in a cage from Alhambra,
who stands in the doorway
as the three girls finish,
get off the bed and walk down
to the pool, giggling as they pass.
The Bandleader borrowed
a tiger because we saw it
in a reel the studio sent over,
some movie about a prince
that played against the wall
of the upstairs bedroom.
Sometimes a girl would jump
into the pool and the waves
shimmered up. In the movie
the prince brings the tiger
to the castle and it rules
alongside him, "That's not
believable," the Bandleader
said and then, "Don't stop."
And then, "Ah. Right there."
The prince would place his hand
on the tiger's head and grab
his hair in his fist and move
it around. I liked to watch
him start to want things, a wetness
forming in his mind. There were
three girls squealing in the pool
and the waves came up to us
as ripples of light that I passed
my fingers through, "You're blue
with gold stripes," the Bandleader
said, looking up at me
but imagining the tiger beside him
already, before he even
reached for the phone.
Calvocoressi picked her 5 contemporary books of poems to read for us.
Compulsion: Photos of Things Going Sideways by Alex Prager
Alex Prager series, Compulsion, is made up of what could very easily be movie stills the moment the film takes a turn for the worst. They are all spring-loaded with danger, uncertainty and drama.
Oscillation Animation
MFA at the School of Visual Arts student Daniel Sierra made this experiment in animation for his thesis. Oscillate aims “to visualize waveform patterns that evolve from the fundamental sine wave to more complex patterns, creating a mesmerizing audio-visual experience in which sight and sound work in unison.”
