I like:

I have sort of a designer-crush on Jessica Hische, because she's A) awesome at what she does; and B) beyond creative. She comes up with fabulous stuff like the Daily Drop Cap (see what I mean?), Should I Work for Free?, Mom, This is How Twitter Works, and now, Blurry Pictures of My Friends:



Because, when you see a blurry photo right after you take it, you're like, "Aw, crap. How is anybody supposed to tell that that's so-and-so in this picture?" But then you submit it to this website, and the photo--next to a bunch of other blurry photos--instantly takes on a different kind of beauty.

Beautiful:

Retired subway cars being thrown into the ocean.

This has made it's way through my twitter feed all week, but the images--and the concept--are so striking, I couldn't resist sharing.

For more than a decade, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has treated the Atlantic as its very own graveyard, tossing thousands of old subway cars off a barge to rust away on the ocean floor. An environmental crime? Hardly. The program creates habitats for marine life from Georgia to Jersey and gives New York’s aging subway cars a vibrant (and free!) retirement home.

Now I want to see photos of the marine life making use of all these old cars.

Notes from another intern

My oldest, the teenager, has really gotten into photography this past year. Last night I saw this photo that she took, and I thought it's a good indication of her style and sense of humor (not that she likes to trap animals in glass bottles, but...)



I think she's got a pretty good eye, especially considering that she just picked up a camera less than 6 months ago. If she lets me, I'll have to post more of her work. In the meantime, enjoy "Silly elephant got himself stuck."

Scenes from a dinner

So in the year that I have owned it, my iPhone has come through for me in big ways. Like, HA-YUGE ways. Sure, that whole email/internet/phone thing comes in handy, but I'm talking necessity here. Necessity--like, I brought all three children out to dinner, and I have nothing to amuse them. Come on, I know all you parents out there are going, OMG. WHAT was she thinking??!

Cue the phone.

Because not only do I have game and amusement apps ready to go, the phone also comes equipped with a camera. For any budding photographers. Such as the 7 year old.

Take, her Self Portrait, for instance:



Waiting for a Table:



Portrait of Chocolate Milk:



Elbow:



It amuses me to no end to find these "secret" photos on my phone; and she knows it. So... well played, middle child. And, well, thanks, Apple.

Mother Nature's cruel joke

Holy cow, Mother Nature is cruel, but beautiful sometimes.

Here's a great time lapse video of Eyjafjallajökull's eruption in Iceland last month. Says photographer Sean Stiegemeier:

So I saw all of these mediocre pictures of that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of, so I figured I should go and do better. But the flights to get over took forever as expected (somewhat). 4 days after leaving I finally made it, but the weather was terrible for another 4. Just before leaving it got pretty good for about a day and a half and this is what I managed to get.

Stunning.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Originally seen on PetaPixel.

Aprés storm

During the day this past Saturday, and into the night, our little corner of the world experienced quite a storm: torrential rains, screaming winds--it was madness. We ended up losing power for a few hours Saturday night--but we were lucky; many had lost it right through Sunday evening.

Sunday I drove around in the mist documenting some of the fallen trees--it was insane the amount of roads that were blocked. Every road I turned down there was a detour of some sort. Here's some of what I found:


A tangle of police tape, branches and wires.






I love the texture on this fallen tree trunk.






Brookside Drive, Fairfield.






A tangle of fallen wire.



The owner of this house--to add insult to injury--was having his basement pumped as I shot this one. "The lesser of the two problems," he said to me.






In all the destruction, a sign of spring.

Old stuff is cool

Here's a great essay from Rands in Repose on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Completely fascinating.

In the late 1800s, the Brooklyn Bridge was built with no power tools, no heavy machinery, and only a basic, evolving understanding of how to make steel. It’s not these facts, but the stories surrounding the facts that inspire me when I take a good, long stare at a suspension bridge.

When you're done reading that, head on over to Shorpy.com, to see some great images from NYC (among other places) from the late 19th/early 20th century.


(Queensboro Bridge, 1909, via shorpy.com)

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.

Striking.

Thanks to Becky, for pointing me in the direction of Rands in Repose, and kottke.org, for exposing me--heh heh heh--to Shorpy.

2008 in pictures

Came across the NY Times Year in Pictures... some are so beautiful, I had to share.

Enjoy. And Happy New Year.

Introducing...

Christy Murray's new logo!



Christy is a wedding/baby/family/life photographer (whew! She wears a lot of hats!), and found me through the Portrait House website. Just about her only request for her new logo was that she liked the thought of adding something natural to it; she included the Papyrus logo as an example.

Some butterflies, birds, flowers and dragonflies later, she decided she was leaning towards the lotus. But then she had an "AHA!" moment when she went to look for the meaning behind the lotus:

"...lotus is symbolic of the true soul of an individual."

...which, as she explained, was exactly what she was looking for when photographing her subjects.

Christy is an absolute doll to work with, and her photography is amazing (check out her blog here for some examples of her work)! She was very easygoing throughout her logo design process, and I can't wait to collaborate on more projects with her!