The first photo that I uploaded to Flickr was from the first WordPress meetup I ever attended, which took place on January 22, 2005 in San Francisco. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg had recently moved to San Francisco and I was looking forward to meeting him since I had just launched the Laughing Squid blog on January 1, 2005 and we had been supporting it through our web hosting services for a while. Along with Matt, the photo includes Ryan King who is now an engineer at Twitter, GigaOm founder Om Malik and Nicole Lee who is currently a a producer on the TWiT Network.

Eastman Kodak Company announced today that they are phasing out their digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames effective in the first half of 2012. Long known for as pioneers in the camera business, Kodak now plans to focus on expanding its current brand licensing program and will continue making inkjet printers. It will also still provide their online Kodak Gallery service and retail-based photo printing. In January 2012, Eastman Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

via CNET

photo by Viktor Nagornyy

“Kodachrome 2010″ by Xander Robin is a short documentary about Kodak’s iconic Kodachrome color film, and Dwayne’s Photo, the last film lab to develop it. When it was introduced in 1935, it was the first commercially successful color film. The last Kodachrome film was produced in 2009, and Dwayne’s Photo stopped processing the film in 2010.

via PetaPixel

Photographer Bobby Neel Adams combines two photos of his portraits subjects—one as a youth and one as an adult—into composite portraits he calls “AgeMaps.” The portraits are composited without the aid of computers.

via PetaPixel & Visual News

Photographer Kai Wong of DigitalRev, a photography-centered social network, provides a useful and somewhat snarky list of do’s and don’ts for street photographers as he takes photos around Hong Kong. Among Wong’s tips: do use a 50mm or wider lens, and “don’t dress like a paedophile.”

via PetaPixel & ISO 1200 Magazine

Simone Baruzzi shot a beautiful photo of colorful Chuck Taylor All-Stars arranged in a flower pattern.

via mikl-em & Gaks Designs

photo by Simone Baruzzi

Kevin Rose did a really great interview with Instagram founder Kevin Systrom on the latest episode of Foundation.

Catalog Cover Art, 1933 Reinterpreted

For their 100 year anniversary celebration, Maine-based outdoor retailer L.L. Bean brought on commercial photographer Randal Ford to create modern-day photo reinterpretations of their classic catalog cover art from the past. For the photo of the 1933 catalog cover art, Ford shot the images of local residents at Maine’s Acadia National Park incorporating some pieces from the L.L. Bean wardrobe archives.

Maine magazine went behind-the-scenes and talked with L.L.Bean creative directors Marcia Minter and Jenna Klein Jonsson about the project:

The apparel is a mix of old and new. For example, the older man is wearing vintage L.L.Bean waders we found on Ebay, while his fly rod and coat are from L.L.Bean’s archives in Freeport. The young boy in the same cover is wearing an outfit borrowed from the Metropolitan Opera. The woman is wearing a shirt from L.L.Bean Signature, but it is remarkably similar to the shirt in the original painting. The man is wearing a chamois shirt, pants, and belt from L.L.Bean’s current menswear line…

The reinterpretations of the 1933 and 1956 covers will appear on catalogs coming out in late January and late March 2012, respectively. We know people may be intrigued by the art, so we are making the images available for purchase as canvas reprints.

via L.L. Bean Blog

photo by Randal Ford

image via L.L. Bean and BusinessWire

Dame di Cartone, Fifties II

Dame di Cartone, Cubism III

Dame di Cartone, 17th Century I

Dame di Cartone, 17th Century III

Dame di Cartone (“cardboard ladies”) is a project from photographer Christian Tagliavini where models are posed in cardboard wardrobes meant to resemble cubist, 17th Century and fifties fashions. Dame Di Cartone is currently on display until February 4, 2012 at Diemar / Noble Gallery in London as part of Tagliavini’s Cut Out & Keep solo exhibition. The entire image gallery is viewable online.

…Using cardboard & paper in place of material allows Tagliavini to design each item from the patterning to the final construction of form completely. In his series Dame Di Cartone (literal translation: ‘Cardboard Ladies’) several influences from art history & other eras are again present resulting in striking imagery.

From beginning to completion Tagliavini’s work is a labour of love. He admits that he enjoys the process as much as the resulting photograph, constructing an aesthetic from scratch he feels is incredibly satisfying from a creative & philosophical point of view. With as much done in situ as possible, including the illusory lengthening of the neck Tagliavini reduces the amount of postproduction needed thus retaining the immediacy of the image beautifully.

Tagliavini is fully aware of the irony he portrays & playfully indicates the impermanence of fashion throughout the ages.

via PetaPixel

photos by Christian Tagliavini

The B&H Photo Video superstore in Manhattan is equipped with a rather unusual and very elaborate overhead conveyor system to transport products around the store. French photo blog Lense sent a GoPro camera through the system to see how it works (video). The conveyor system can also be seen on the Google Street View tour inside B&H.

via Doobybrain.com

Stereographs, side-by-side photographs that when viewed together produce a 3D effect, normally can only be viewed with a stereoscope. Stereogranimator is a site that lets viewers browse 40,000 vintage stereographs from the New York Public Library’s archive and convert them into animated GIFs and anaglyphs that can be enjoyed on the web. The site was built by the New York Public Library Labs, and is inspired by the work of artist Joshua Heineman.

via The New York Times ArtsBeat

photo via The New York Public Library

This beautiful high resolution composite image of Earth was taken on January 4 by NASA’s recently launched Suomi NPP Earth-observing satellite.

via Flickr Blog

photo via NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

Los Angeles-based photographer Andy Stolarek was inspired to start his pet portraiture business, Furtographs, after a visit to a pedigreed cat championship in 2003. His unique style really captures the personality of the furry friends he photographs (full gallery of images).

This discovery began his photographic series ‘Grimalkin’ which focused on the niche arena of feline pageantry and competition. As his work progressed, he began to photograph the animals of friends and family, initializing Furtographs. With his unique aesthetic for portraiture, capturing each animal in an unconventional and dramatic manner became Stolarek’s Furtographs focus.

photos by Andy Stolarek

Thanks to Kestrin Pantera for the tip!

Sightsmap is an interactive heatmap that shows the most photographed sightseeing spots in the world. It is powered by data from Panoramio, a location-based photo sharing site. Sightsmap is by Estonian computer science professor Tanel Tammet.

via PetaPixel

la llareta #0308-23b26 (up to 3,000 years old, atacama desert, chile)

welwitschia mirabilis #0707-22411 (2,000 years old; namib naukluft desert, namibia)

clonal quaking aspens #0906-4711 (80,000 years old, fish lake, UT)

underground forest #0707-10333 (up to 13,000 years old; pretoria, south africa)

The Oldest Living Things in the World is a fascinating ongoing project by photographer Rachel Sussman to document the world’s “continuously living organisms 2000 years old and older”. Her online gallery of images is filled with amazing things as the 80,000 year old clonal colony of Quaking Aspen in Utah. She was featured in a 2010 TED talk where she talked in depth about her interest in the world’s oldest living things.

The oldest living things in the world are a record and celebration of our past, a call to action in the present and a barometer of our future. They’ve survived for millennia in desert, in the permafrost, at the tops of mountains and at the bottom of the ocean. They’ve withstood untold natural perils and human encroachments, but now some of them are in jeopardy, and they can’t just get up and get out of the way. It’s my hope that, by going to find these organisms, that I can help draw attention to their remarkable resilience and help play a part in insuring their continued longevity into the foreseeable future.

photos by Rachel Sussman

Daredevil Dutch photographer Wouter van Buuren climbs tall cranes, towers, and buildings and creates wonderful panoramic photo collages of the surrounding landscape. Van Buuren’s “Scapes” will be on display at the Witzenhausen Gallery in Amsterdam through February 4.

via Colossal

Famous photographers pose with their favorite or most iconic photo in the “Behind Photographs” portrait series by Tim Mantoani (see the behind-the-scenes video). The series is available as a photo book.

via Wired Raw File

Thanks to Google Street View, you can now take a virtual tour inside the B&H Photo Video superstore in New York City.

See Previously: B&H Photo Video

via PetaPixel & ISO 1200 Magazine

Russian photographer Alexander Semenov takes beautiful underwater photos of sea creatures. Semenov studied zoology as a college student (specifically squid brains—really) and works as a diver and project manager at the White Sea Biological Station in Russia.

via Colossal & Lost at E Minor

In the “City Silhouettes” portrait series, British photographer Jasper James captured the reflections of his subjects on glass windows for a beautiful silhouette effect.

via PetaPixel & Feature Shoot

Japanese artist Mariko Sakaguchi photographs herself sitting in a bathtub in unusual locations like lecture halls, film sets, and offices.

via PetaPixel & BOOOOOOOM!

In the fascinating portrait series “Flesh Love” by Japanese artist Photographer Hal, couples were vacuum-packed together and then photographed. The series is available as a book and iPad app.

One day I found the perfect place where love could reach its peak. In the vacuum sealed package.

via Nerdcore & Publique

Aviary presents Photo Hack Day 2 on February 25-26 at General Assembly in New York City. Here’s how to register.

The original Photo Hack Day was the first image-centric hackathon that brought together the brightest minds in photography, photo-editing, web design, computer science, and more. In 24 hours, over 200 developers put together an impressive 43 hacks with APIs contributed from 25 companies — a full day display of burgeoning talent in the New York City tech community.

Six months later, we’re back with another open call to developers and designers. On February 25-26, 2012, Aviary is throwing Photo Hack Day 2 with our partners at General Assembly, and we want all of you to come.

Analog instant photography company Impossible is collaborating with Polaroid to produce the Polaroid Classic Line. The line of products includes twin packs of the last run of Polaroid instant film and papercraft Polaroid cameras. Additional products will be released throughout the year.

After Polaroid ceased production of instant film in 2008, former employees took over the last film factory in Enschede, Netherlands and formed Impossible. Impossible reformulated the Polaroid film dyes (as the dyes were no longer available) and now sells black and white and color instant film for Polaroid cameras.

via Photojojo

As it is a working warehouse, Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World is constantly in change and each visit is a different experience. In 2009, we posted about a visit that Laughing Squid guest blogger Eddie Codel took there and his set of images are quite different from mine.

Mardi Gras itself happens on Tuesday February 21 in 2012 but the festival season and parades have already begun in the New Orleans area.

Bacchagator, a super float work-in-progress for Krewe of Bacchus

Working plans for The Jumblies: Tower of Diamonds float for Krewe of Orpheus

Stacks of float flowers adorned with gold leaf

Here is a slideshow of my entire online image gallery from my tour: