websites

photoshelter social media kit

I was just emailed this link to Photoshelter’s Social Media for Photographers Kit, and I thought it was really useful and wanted to share! All you have to do is submit your email address and they’ll mail you their 55-page guide. I’ve looked through it and read some already and it’s super useful and relevant for any kind of small freelance type business. Social media websites are a great marketing tool so it’s worth your time to learn about.

While you’re checking it out, don’t forget to check out Photoshelter’s awesome portfolio and hosting services!

dailybooth

Someone had to invent it, right? Social networking + digital photography = DailyBooth. Basically it’s a website that lets you post a photo of yourself daily, as though you went into a photobooth and took a picture every day. You may ask why? But aside from the obvious (it’s the internet so of course this has to exist), I do think it’s a pretty cool idea. It’s pretty interesting to look back on yourself or your friends a year later, or even years later, see how you’ve changed. Since everything is on the internet these days, why not another way to share your life?

There’s also this cool map feature that updates people’s pics in real time, which I spent an unusually long time watching…

flickr: unleash your inner curator

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of flickr, I often find amazing photos there from unknown photographers, which is one of my favourite things to do. They’ve just created a new feature, which I think is amazing, galleries. Basically, a gallery allows you to be your own art curator, and showcase up to 18 photos or videos around one theme, or photographer, or whatever you choose! Very cool idea, since I already use it to find new photography. This way, it’ll just be easier! I can’t wait to explore all the galleries that flickr users create.

Check out some of my favourites from the Broken Wings and Flying Things gallery:

20 x 200

I’m really excited about this website I just found called 20×200. I’ll paraphrase from their about page, but basically what they are is a virtual art gallery. They bring together artists and people who want to buy art via the internet. It doesn’t sound too complicated, and it’s not, but it’s a great idea because their site is so well designed and nice to look at, and more importantly, they feature some really amazing art.

The line in their description that really summed it up for me was, “We’re really excited about creating a place where almost any art lover can be an art collector.” Too many people worry that they can’t afford really great artwork and it’s only for serious collectors, but you can have a house full of amazing art and not have to spend all your savings. They believe everyone needs art (and I have to agree) and they make it affordable and attainable.

Each week they offer two new prints, a photograph and a work on paper. The prints start at $20 editions and range upwards to $2000, so you can pick the size you need for your space and budget.

There’s a lot of amazing work on the site, and since they update so frequently, it’s well worth going back often and checking to see if anything catches your eye. At those prices, there’s no reason to have bare walls!

Here are some random photographs I liked from their recent editions, you can see how the work varies, so there’s something for everyone:

awkward family photos

I love finding photo stuff like this. Awkward Family Photos is a blog dedicated to, well, awkward family photos. We’ve all been in them at some point, so everyone can relate. They’re funny, and you want to laugh at them, but at the same time, they’re kind of cute because you know how much the people in the photos really wanted to get a great picture for their family. Check out some of my favourites and go visit the site to see more, it seems to be updated pretty frequently:

2009 photoblog awards

I’m going to do a little self promotion here and ask that if you like, you can vote for Still for the 2009 photoblog awards. Check out the other nominees too, as I will be. You have to sign up to vote, but you get 60 votes that use how you wish. You can only vote once for a site that you like. There’s a lot of great photo sites on the list, so it’s worth looking into and recognizing some of the cool people out there who are into photography. I’ll be interested to see who comes out on top!

Oh I should note that it might be a bit confusing to figure out how to vote. On the left of the site links under the number of times that a site has been voted for there, you just click on the small text that says vote.

deleted images

I came across this cool and strange collection of photos on a website called Deleted Images. The tagline is “The Junkyard of Art” which I thought was really clever. I’ll copy the description from the site rather than paraphrase:

This is the place where unfocused, blurry and unsharp images come back to life. Have another look at those images on your camera you would delete normally. Those images can be very beautiful. In fact sometimes it are truly works of art.

Such a great idea. You can also submit your own photos on the site to be added to the list. Here’s a random sampling of some I liked to give you an idea:

dpreview.com

One of the best sites out there for photo-dorks is dpreview.com. If I’m going to buy a camera I usually do extensive internet research, and this site is where I go first. And usually last, actually. It has in depth technical reviews of all the cameras you could possibly want to know about. And when I say in depth, I mean pages and pages on each camera. On top of that, the forums contain thousands of posts about cameras and gear, so if one person’s perspective on a camera isn’t enough, you can hear how the equipment performs from people who are actually using it.

It’s pretty amazing, and there’s a lot of information there. Check out dpreview.com next time you’re looking for a new camera, or if you’re like me, just to fantasize about all the cameras you want to buy one day!

diorama illusions

This tutorial is currently circulating, so I thought I’d post a link to it since it’s pretty fun and I’ve been seeing a lot of it lately so I’m sure people want to know how to achieve the same effect. The tutorial is called “Using Photoshop and Your Brain to Create Diorama Illusions” but I’ve also seen it called things like the toy model effect. Basically what you’re doing is taking a normal photo of a scene and creating depth of field in photoshop to create the visual illusion that it’s a lot smaller than it is.

Sounds a bit confusing, but here’s a before an after picture to give you an idea of what I mean:

You can see how the blurriness, or depth of field tricks you into believing that the planes look like small toys, instead of being actual size.

The tutorial is written really well and has great instructions, you’re going to be able to pull it off even if you’re not familiar with all the techniques. Give it it a try, it’s a fun effect and you’ll probably learn a few things about photoshop in the process. Actually, the rest of the website Psdtuts+ is pretty great too, so take a look around and check out some of the other tutorials.

magnum photos

You can’t really talk about photojournalism without mentioning Magnum Photos. Its a collective of photographers, or photographic cooperative, owned and operated by the members themselves. Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the co-founders defines it as “a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.” It was first founded in 1947, but it now has offices in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo.

It’s probably safe to say that there hasn’t been a significant world event that was not photographed by a Magnum photographer. Their work is completely amazing (and that’s even an understatement) and photojournalists all over strive to match the quality of photos they produce.

I had a difficult time deciding which photos to post that would best represent what Magnum really has contributed to photojournalism, but I decided that probably wasn’t really possible in a short post. Instead I’ll just post some of my favourites from Susan Meiselas, a member of Magnum, who I’ve always been inspired by. The following are from a book called Carnival Strippers, which was first published in 1976. Try and disregard the watermarks, it was difficult to find photos that didn’t have them: