Photo sharing site 500px has announced that it is now supporting images uploaded in Lytro’s unique ‘Living Pictures’ format, and is offering its customers a $ 250 discount on the purchase of Lytro’s Illum camera (MSRP $ 1599). The Illum is available now for pre-order and is expected to start shipping within the next couple of weeks. Click through for more information.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]
Sometimes, beautiful views of your surroundings simply trump the need for privacy. Living in a bubble isn’t so bad when you’re in a remote location gazing at the sea or the forest, but some people take it one step further, living in almost entirely transparent spaces even in busy urban locations.
If you’re living in a secluded forest, does it matter whether the walls of your home are entirely transparent? Perhaps you wouldn’t mind if you lived inside ‘Tree in the House,’ a four-story modern treehouse encapsulating a beautiful tree. A white spiral staircase winds around the tree, taking you from one room to the next.
The term ‘floating house’ would typically indicate a house boat or other structure on the water, but in this case, it’s all about the visuals. Designed by Jarmund/Vigsnaes Arkitekter, this home features a gabled black upper floor on top of an entirely transparent lower floor so that from a distance, the home appears to be levitating.
The classic Farnsworth House is one of the most well-known works by architect Mies van der Rohe. Built for Dr. Edith Farnsworth between 1945 and 1951 in Plano, Illinois, the glass home is located on a secluded 10-acre site. The design seeks to unite the occupants with the natural world just outside, using the adjacent trees for shading and privacy.
These two entirely see-through houses redefine what it means to put your life on display. Italian architecture firm Santambrogio sought the clearest glass to maintain transparency even through a series of walls, built-in shelves and staircases. ‘Snow House,’ the three-story structure pictured, is one of a series of glass houses created by the firm, and this one has glass thick enough to withstand heavy loads of snow. Special glass panels instantly turn matte for privacy at the touch of a button. The single-story version, ‘Cliff House,’ uses thinner, lighter glass elements.
Rather than trying to cut individual inhabitants off from their neighbors, as is typical in densely populated settings, Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto decided to create a home that would unite them. House NA has an almost entirely transparent street-front facade, and instead of enclosed rooms, the interior is filled with small platforms at various heights for free movement and clear lines of sight.
Would you give up all your privacy in order to live in a spectacular glass cylinder with a tree growing up the center? Perhaps the secluded forest location …
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While some of these glass houses seem impractical for everyday living, others serve a very real purpose – to capture and convert the power of the sun.
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Suppose Design Office specializes in bright, spacious-feeling interiors that incorporate courtyards, indoor gardens and huge windows, even on very small lots.
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]
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As Lytro prepares for the launch of its second generation light field camera, the Lytro Illum, the company faces a challenge: how does one easily display and share the ‘living pictures’ their cameras produce? Today the company announced plans to open-source its Living Picture Player – a viewer for its light field images. The WebGL-based player can be integrated into any website or social media platform, thereby allowing for easy sharing of Lytro’s living pictures. 500px will be the first to host an image gallery based on this player.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]
Making the most of a tiny apartment is all about smart use of space, organization and multi-purpose furniture. Here are 24 examples of clever small-space hacks that pack in a ton of function while avoiding clutter, like lofted platforms, hidden jewelry storage, fold-down tables and DIY slide-out pantries.
Compact bedroom sets can fit everything you need and more into a tiny room without even taking up the full space. The Matroshka All-in-One furniture set measures just 13 square feet when it’s all packed up, but pulls out into a double bed, bookshelves, a corner couch, a desk, a wardrobe, a dining table, four stools and additional storage. Another option is a couch that cleverly flips up into a bunk bed in one swift motion. Lofted bedroom sets (most often made for kids and teens) are available in a wide variety of colors and styles and often include desks and even extra beds for guests.
When faced with minimal square footage, we tend to focus on floor space and ignore all of the usable real estate on the walls. If you’ve got ceiling height, take advantage of it with lofted designs that lift beds, storage or work spaces, freeing up room on the floor. These designs can be built-in or portable like furniture. A Portland couple with a 704-square-foot home used vertical space to pack in a closet and other storage areas under a lounge and workspace. A bed tucked under the stairs could be a creative way to use what’s often wasted space, and a simple handmade free-standing wooden platform elevates a bed over a dining area.
Keeping bathrooms clutter-free is a challenge when you’re dealing with tons of small items like cosmetics, toiletries, tweezers and bobby pins. Use an IKEA magnetic knife strip to corral metal items, or create a mason jar organizer for cotton balls, makeup brushes and more. An easy way to alter your medicine cabinet to fit more stuff involves simply placing a sheet of precut galvanized steel along its back wall and adding magnetic hooks and containers.
A simple towel bar keeps pot lids out of the way, whether you mount it on the wall or inside a cabinet. Update Julia Child’s classic kitchen pegboard by painting it a custom color and use it for pots, pans, lids, tools and spices. That empty space next to your refrigerator is practically begging to be put to use; a simple DIY pantry on casters hides away a surprising amount of food. And if you’re not up to breaking out the hammer and nails, check out custom cabinet organizers like the Rev-a-Shelf swing-out pantry system.
Hanging clothes out to dry is a design problem with a long history and many solutions, making it all the more rare to see something like this clever …
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The Matroshka all-in-one, space-saving furniture set starts out as a compact cube and unpacks into an entire room of furniture, including a bed and dining …
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Downsizing your spending can cause your living space to suffer. Here are 15 unique pieces of furniture that will help you upgrade and streamline your place.
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[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]
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[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]
High-tech and low-tech come together with this set of not-so-basic building blocks connected to a central ‘Power Brain’ cube that turns your creation into a working robot. TinkerBots is a building kit that comes with all sorts of mobile and immobile components that snap together around the central cube so you can create an endless array of custom toys that walk, crawl, roll or or perform other movements.
The red ‘Power Brain’ cube provides energy and contains an Arduino-compatible microcontroller, Bluetooth connectivity, a USB charger, an LED button interface, a speaker and more. Kinetic components include twisters, pivots, motor-modules and grabbers, while static components are simple building blocks in various shapes. The kit is also compatible with Legos.
Put them together any way you like – there’s no need to wire or program your creation, so even a five-year-old can get creative with it. Once you put it together, you ‘teach’ the robot what you want it to do. Hit the record button and move the robot the way you want it to move. Then, when you press play, it’ll repeat the action.
TinkerBots is currently raising money on IndieGoGo to distribute the kit and add even more parts like renewable energy-producing modules, wind engines, and generators with crank handles. The more money you donate to the fundraising campaign, the more advanced of a kit you receive to start on your own robotic creations.
Build with Chrome is the new, fast and simple model-maker in town, and this one lets you create structures faster than digital SketchUp or physical LEGOs ever …
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LEGO artist Jamie Spencer created over 90 historical figures, from Charlemagne to Elvis, using only official LEGO parts.
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We give life to our robot visions in the most permanent means at our disposal: ink. Here are some of the most creative and well done robot tattoos around:
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[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]
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As part of our forthcoming review, we’ve been shooting extensively with the Fujifilm X-E2. Reviews Editor Richard Butler used the camera on his recent vacation and has written about his experience living with it during that time. It’s a small camera that offers a high level of direct control, but does that make it the perfect traveling companion? Read our Fujifilm X-E2 shooting experience to find out
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
Polish duo Sainer and Bezt, collectively known as Etam Cru, paint massive-scale murals of people and animals on blank building faces around the world. Their unexpected visuals liven up dreary urban surfaces, often stretching dozens of feet into the air. Some of the tallest, in fact, cover ten-story facades.
Recent collaborative works include a blue-haired girl bathing in a jar of strawberry jam entitled ‘Moonshine’, painted as part of the Richmond Mural Project in Virginia, and ‘Madamme Chicken’ in their native Lodz, Poland.
Each painter also works solo, as well. Sainer’s work is reminiscent of graphic novels, while Bezt works in brighter colors and a somewhat more realistic style. Check out more at their blog and on Facebook.
Street art gets blown up to cover entire buildings in these 23 works of urban graffiti, murals, installations and more by artists like ROA, BLU and Phlegm. Click Here to Read More »»
Previous efforts of Favela Painting transformed 34 buildings in Rio de Janeiro via huge rainbow-colored community mural, creating jobs and beautifying an area … Click Here to Read More »»
Remember making hand-held flipbooks when you were a kid? Those cute little books that made primitive cartoons when you flipped through the pages quickly could … Click Here to Read More »»
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]
Boldly curved and cantilevered into midair, these plant-wrapped stairs are designed to provide more than just a means of moving from one floor to another.
Stepping onto them takes occupants temporarily away from concrete floors and columns, then into and through a unique miniature ecosystem of warm and living materials.
This staircase by Paul Cocksedge for the Ampersand building in London is punctuated by platforms overlooking a central atrium.
These circular areas act as impromptu self-contained break and gathering spaces removed from the bustle of each main office floor.
Standing out not just physically but also materially, the lively-grained wooden curves are bedecked with thin stem-like strands of white metal. In turn, these support planters that supplant the role of traditional hand rails while still providing physical and psychological safety and support.
Each set of stairs is supported by the floors themselves, thus rendered structurally independent of a more ordinary central-column approach.
Further interactivity is woven into the biological side of the design in the form of herbs that employees can nurture, grow and ultimately pluck from the rails, facilitating a sort of in-office garden and adding a bit of mint to their tea or spice to their lunch.
Some seriously extreme examples of staircases that go far beyond the basic, entering the realm of modern art.
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You can’t take these floating modern art staircases to the next floor, but you can step back and admire them for their nonsensical beauty.
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Stairs aren’t just a handy way to go between the levels of your home; they can be a pet project for inventive architects and a favorite feature of a home.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]
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Since 2008, photographer Lou Bopp has made regular trips down Mississippi’s Route 61 — known as ‘The Blues Highway’ — to document the lives of unknown musicians who have made important contributions to the classic American musical genre. In this work, he recorded the juke joints, roadhouses, and the culture that has supported Mississippi Delta style blues. See gallery
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Over the last few weeks as part of the launch of our Living Landscapes eBook we were offering one buyer of this new eBook the chance to win a $ 1500 USD photographic Prize pack.
The randomly selected winner gets a rotation180° Professional Deluxe Camera Bag (worth $ 500) plus $ 1000 USD towards some new lenses!
The winner has just been drawn and is… Ami Kim!
Congratulations Amy – we’ve just sent you an email with details of how to get your prize.
Thanks to everyone else who picked up our new Landscape Photography eBook (one of the fastest selling eBooks we’ve ever launched)!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
The Winner of our Living Landscapes Prize Pack Is….
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