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Posts Tagged ‘Fascinating’

Fractal Formations: The Fascinating Future of Urban Growth

19 May

[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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What might the patterns of urban sprawl look like if humanity were to survive another thousand years or so? Artist Tom Beddard envisions fractal formations seemingly cut right into the earth, broken up by the occasional sky-high tower or curving superstructure. The architecture in this futuristic vision entitled ‘Aurillia’ ranges from bleak industrial scenes to incredibly complex city centers, all created using a fractal formula called Mandalay.

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The London-based artist, who earned a PhD in laser physics before moving on to design and web development, used the Fractal-lab tool that he built himself to render the images. Fractals in visual form are generally characterized by obvious patterns, but with this formula, the resulting aerial views have a surprisingly organic look.

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“What I found particularly interesting was the mix of architectural forms that could be found when certain parameter combinations create structural resonances,” Beddard told The Creators Project. “The curved domes are due to the Mandlebox sphere folding effect and the towers result from the different fold scaling of individual axes.”

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We’ve seen some amazing applications of fractals and parametric designs in architecture and furniture designs, from mobile pavilions to fantasy cities, but nothing on quite this large of a scale. Check out aerial views of real-life suburban complexes and you’ll see that these patterns aren’t all that far from the patterns we’re already creating with urban development.

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[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Urban Spock: 20 Fascinating Leonard Nimoy Graffiti Tributes

29 Mar

[ By Steve in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

graffiti Spock 0
Mr. Spock, played by the late Leonard Nimoy, was a logically legit pop culture icon. Just ask the many graffiti artists worldwide who have paid him tribute.

graffiti Spock 1

As a science fiction franchise Star Trek is almost a half-century old but elements of the “brand” have been seeping into pop culture for decades. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the appearance of Mr. Spock in street art and graffiti is nothing new though sightings have increased since Nimoy’s passing on February 27th of 2015. The very recent tribute above, credited to graffiti artist Gnasher and officially authorized, can be found on the wall of the Pottergate Underpass in Grapes Hill, Norwich, UK.

Horns of a Dilemma

graffiti Spock 17

We haven’t seen Mr. Spock looking so horny since he was seized with the Vulcan mating urge and attacked Captain Kirk… hey, it’s not what you think (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Flickr user rabauke77 captured this devilish stencil on a Berlin wall (not that one, another one) in September of 2006.

Logical in London

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graffiti Spock 2a

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We’re guessing this door in London’s inner city Shoreditch district neither goes “whooosh!” nor leads to the bridge… well, maybe London Bridge but we digress. The trio of images above were captured by three different photographers. Flickr users Martin K (mpk1313) and Chinaman (Deaf Rave) made the scene a mere four days apart in February of 2009 while Marc Davies (MrLomo) arrived about four months later… just in time to witness the storefront being whitewashed! Did Spock survive? We think so: dude’s packin’ a heater.

Keep Feeling Fasination

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London’s old East End seems to appreciate Spock a lot more than Vulcan did. Take the remarkable mural above, signed by artist Paul Donsmith and snapped by Flickr user Frank Long (FrankLong) on March 21st of 2015. We’ll cut Donsmith some slack on his “fasinating” typo – maybe Spock’s trademark expression was, like, trademarked or something.

Vulcan Vegan

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We say Vulcan, you say Vegan, let’s call the whole thing off. This cool stencil of Spock flashing the V (interpret it how you will) sign appeared fairly fresh in August of 2009 when Flickr user José Lodewick spied it on a wall in Brussels, Belgium. By November of 2010, however, Spock’s visage was showing signs of age not to mention a nasty case of creeping moss. Guess the local plant life was feeling encouraged.

Phasers on Stunning

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Beam me up, Scotty… or in this case Swissy, since the vibrant artwork above can be found in a certain Alpine nation famous for its holey cheese. Yeah, let’s all heave a sigh of relief that the Enterprise’s chief engineer was Scottish. In any case, there’s nothing cheesy about the technicolor Spockian homage above, captured by Flickr user Dominik (Sibilus_Basilea) in March of 2011.

Spock Is The Answer

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Street Art - Meatpacking District

New York City’s Meatpacking District just got more interesting… well, maybe not just – Flickr users shoehorn99 and cbrgss captured the above group paste-up in mid-2009. Here a bouffanted Mr. Spock finds himself in the company of Albert Einstein, Muhammad Ali, and a patient pooch. Odd, we don’t recall that particular episode but it would have been awesome!

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Urban Spock 20 Fascinating Leonard Nimoy Graffiti Tributes

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[ By Steve in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Penguin ‘spy’ cams help BBC filmmakers create a fascinating documentary

14 Feb

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A new BBC documentary uses tiny disguised cameras to take an intimate look at the lives of penguins. Wildlife producer John Downer and his team shot ‘Penguins: Spy in the Huddle’ with fifty ‘spy cameras’ disguised as rocks, eggs and even penguins themselves. The team shot footage of Emperor penguins in Antarctica, Rockhopper penguins on the Falkland Islands and Humboldt penguins in the Atacama Desert of Peru. Click through for photos, video and more information about the cameras.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The 2012 Olympics — 8 Fascinating & Inspirational Photo Projects

05 Aug


Watching the Olympics is crazy-inspiring. Olympians train every single day of their life to claim their title as #1 in the world!

You can relate. You’ve spent hours in marathon photo-editing sessions. You finished your 365 without missing a day. You’ve even buffed up your arm from carrying your gear.

And just to keep you going, we’ve rounded up eight absolutely awesome photo projects that were inspired by the 2012 Olympics.

From portraits of lost tourists to photos of abandoned Olympic sites and incredible snaps of Olympians at home, you’ll get pumped to start bench-pressing your camera bag honing your own photo skills.

8 Great Olympics Themed Photo Projects

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Photo via REUTERS/Mike Blake

Portraits of Lost Olympics Tourists

SEE IT: paint-smYou are Here

Photographer Caroll Taveras was commissioned by creative agency Mother London to find lost tourists and take them back to a pop-up photo studio.

There, they’re refueled with refreshments and then haves their portrait shot on 4×5 Polaroid film.

The portraits will then be mounted at Mother London as “an exhibition collage–a shrine, if you will, to their humanitarian outreach endeavor of saving tourists from themselves.” [via Fast Company]

BONUS: It’s a little scary at first. Let our our guide to photographing strangers inspire you to shoot your own portraits!

Photos of Long-Abandoned Olympic Sites

paint-smSEE IT: Borrow, Build, Abandon

Jamie McGregor Smith visited Athens last year to photograph the structures used during the 2004 Olympics.

The long-abandoned spaces are empty, vast and even overgrown. It’s a little melancholy to think these once glorious and crowd-filled places are now defunct.

But like other projects that focus on urban decay, they bring awareness to how we use our resources, and how we might conserve them better in the future.

Read more about the story at The New York Times.

BONUS: Get inspired by this Flickr set of an abandoned amusement park. If you do some urban exploration of your own, do it safely!

Olympians Through a 100-Year-Old Lens

paint-smSEE IT: Olympians + a 100-Year-Old Lens

Jay L. Clendenin traveled around Southern California photographing Olympic athletes, but he didn’t just bring along his DSLR.

He also brought along a 4×5 field camera with a Petzval lens that’s over 100 years old.

Each portrait was shot on black and white photo paper, and then taken into a darkroom (his bathroom converted into a darkroom) and scanned and inverted from there.

TAKEAWAY? Bring all your cameras! Or the coolest ones, at least. That’s what this skydiver did when he shot these 4×5 photos while jumping out of an airplane.

Multiple Exposures of Olympians

paint-smSEE IT: Reuters’ Multiple Exposures

Remember that army of robot cameras that Reuters set up especially for the Olympics? This series of multiple exposure shots are a peek into what photographers–Mike Blake and Brian Snyder–were able to do with these cameras.

Armed with the new Canon 1-DX, photographers are able to take advantage of the multiple-exposure feature. It’s a bit different from layering photos in Photoshop, in that it shoots multiple frames quickly at 14 frames per second, and then puts them all together for you in-camera!

It’s pretty amazing that we can capture movement in such detail considering Olympic athletes are breaking records with their speed. Muybridge would be proud!

BONUS: So you don’t have a 1-DX, but you do have a camera! Check out our guide to capturing movement in photos with multiple exposures.

Olympics Host Cities Seen from Space

paint-smSEE IT: A Satellite’s View of the Olympics

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center released a set of photos showing host cities during their respective Olympics.

Satellites are taking photos of Earth from above on a daily basis, so they gathered these up in celebration of this years’ games. We especially dig the ones shot at night!

BONUS: Getting to space isn’t easy, but the next closest thing is sending your $ 40 digital camera up into space on a weather balloon! See our guide to aerial balloon photography. Here’s another on using weather balloons.

Illegal Olympics

paint-smSEE IT: Photos of Illegal Use of “Olympics”

Apparently, it’s illegal to use the term “Olympics” and any Olympics branding without authorization. You can read more about that here.

So, photographer Craig Atkinson decided to start documenting illegal uses of the Olympics brand around London, and well, it’s oddly entertaining, endearing, and great.

BONUS: You can contribute your own photos (email him here) as Craig will be compiling a collection for a book.

Athlete’s Meals in Photographs

paint-smSEE IT: My Day on a Plate

Athletes have strict diets, so haven’t you wondered what they eat on a daily basis? Designer Sarah Parker and photographer Michael Bodiem re-imagined athlete’s meals based off meals that Olympian nutritionists recommend.

Each plate in the series shows what an Olympian would eat in a day, 15 to 25 portions of healthy eats amounting to over 2,000 calories. Pictured to the right is the diet recommended for a gymnast!

BONUS: Neatly organized food is the jam. (Ha! Get it?) Here’s more inspiration from Carl Kleiner’s beautifully arranged food that appeared in the Ikea cookbook.

Olympians at Home

paint-smSEE IT: Olympians at Home for Time

Renown photographer Martin Schoeller followed Gabby Douglas (gymnastics), Lolo Jones (track), and Ryan Lochte (swimming) while they practiced and possibly even more interesting, while they relaxed at home.

Martin says

“I’m not even a big sports person, but athletes’ bodies are mesmerizing. They’re constantly putting themselves in pose and doing something interesting with the physical expressions, and I love to photograph them because they’re natural performers at heart.”

BONUS: Dancers Among Us follows dancers around New York City. Elegant and talented folks galavanting about the city makes for some gorgeous shots.

Even More

  • Check out these spectacular time-lapses of the building of 4 structures in London for the Olympics.
  • What the Olympics looked like in 1908
  • Women in sports is controversial in the Arab world. Two sisters photographed this excellent portrait series of female Arab athletes to challenge the stigma they face.
  • Read all about Reuters’ robotic camera setup for the Olympics. Innovative stuff.
  • The funniest faces made at the Olympics

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  2. Photo Projects from Miranda July: When homework feels like love Ever feel like you need a boost of artistic inspiration?…
  3. 3 Mind-Bending Time-Twisting Road Trip Photo Projects Extra photos for bloggers: 1, 2, 3 Ahh, road trips….


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