Instagram’s latest update brings a fundamental change with it. Since the app’s launch in 2010 users have been limited to posting images in square format. However, today this has changed. After installing version 7.5 of the app, you can post your images in portrait and landscape formats. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Nikon has announced new Coolpix compacts outside North America. The beginner-friendly models include the Coolpix S3700, Coolpix S2900, Coolpix L31 and Coolpix L32. The S3700 provides Wi-Fi and NFC, while the L32 and L31 use AA batteries. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steve in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]
What happened when an edgy architecture firm met an open-minded chain of big box retail stores? The very appealing Peeling Project, that’s what.
We’ll leave it for others to document the startling and unlikely history of The Peeling Project in detail; our task at hand here is to display, in chronological order, the unique and individual extreme makeovers given to nine Best Products catalog showroom stores between 1971 and 1984. We’ll also show, if possible, the fate of these bold experiments in retail architecture following Best Products’ demise in 1998. We’ll begin where it all began: the Best Products store at 5400 Midlothian Turnpike in Richmond, VA.
Designed (as were all of the Project’s, er, projects) by architecture firm SITE Inc. (“Sculpture In The Environment”), the initial installation featuring a front facade that appears to be peeling away from the building ended up giving its name to the entire series of nine works. Built with safety in mind, the surrealistically embellished front facade was constructed with care and at obvious expense. Even so, that didn’t prevent new owners the Daily Pawn Shop from reverting the building to its original boring boxy look shortly after acquiring it.
Built in 1974-75, Indeterminate Façade was the second of SITE’s collaborations with Best Products and over time has emerged as the most famous. Located at 10765 Kingspoint Road in Houston, TX, the store started out as a standard large building but SITE artists then extended the outside walls unevenly to evoke a “distressed” appearance – the highlight of which was a waterfall of brick and masonry spilling onto the front awning.
Perhaps due to its notoriety, Indeterminate Façade remained unchanged through at least one change of ownership after Best Products declared bankruptcy for the final time. Sometime in 2003, however, the artistic extensions suddenly and mysteriously vanished. Some say the building’s owner heard rumors the City of Houston was about to declare the structure to be of historical significance and feared losing the freedom to alter the building at will in the future.
When a Best Products store at 1901 Arden Way in Sacramento, CA known as The Notch Project opened in 1977, balloons poured out of the gaping “notch” that appeared when the building’s 14ft high, 45-ton front corner wedge slid aside to reveal the main entrance. Each morning thereafter, the corner piece would slide aside and each day at closing time it would slide back into position – sans balloons, mind you.
After Best Products sold off its bricks & mortar assets, the former Notch Project building was bought by Best Buy – an infamously non-innovative corporation who’s directors dictated all its stores must conform to the corporate look. We’re sure you’ll agree that when it came to imaginative branding, Best Products bested Best Buy by far.
Whether by totally transforming a city’s skyline, subverting old standards of hotel architecture or creatively reclaiming historic structures, these 12 …
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The bright packaging of sweet treats stands out in this eye-catching, hand-drawn, black-and-white candy store in Melbourne by RED Design Group.
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If you are going to have to wait for a ride anyway, stop and do some shopping right there on the wall, via virtual aisles on a life-scaled billboard full of …
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[ By Steve in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]
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This time around the weekly photography challenge is a little bit different than our usual topics. This one is pretty wide opened because I want you to get out there and get crazy creative!
By Holger Ejleby
If that is you – get out of there and try something different! Outside the box creativity is this week’s challenge.
Earlier today I shared some images I found for you to stir up some ideas – take a look at those if you haven’t already done so.
Need ideas? Try these articles to get you started:
Need more inspiration? Here are a few outside the box ideas and images:
By Alexey Kljatov
By Bernat Casero
By Spreng Ben
By Toby Keller
By sharyn morrow
By Matthias Weinberger
By Alice Popkorn
By Tim Hamilton
By Tc Morgan
So it could be a new shooting technique, post-processing magic, or a subject you’ve been meaning to try. Whatever it is that gets you thinking a bit, and results in a different finished product – do it!
Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them. Okay, ready to impress us?
The post Weekly Photography Challenge Outside the Box Creativity by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]
Made for those who like to color outside lines and jot outside boxes, each page of this bound pad provides a unique source of inspiration and different framework for drawing, sketching and writing out ideas.
Available from tmsprl, the minimalist brown-bound notebooks show traditional lines on the front and back but playing on and warping the horizontal blue-on-white (with red verticals) convention within.
Some pages sport twisting topographic lines while others thin, thicken, curl, loop, twist and spiral, encouraging the user to put pencil or pen to paper in different ways throughout.
The deeper you delve the more surprises you find, starting with upward-swooping lines and culminating in crazy abstract patterns and strangely whimsical shapes.
A few notes from its creator: “If you’re in search of inspiration, this notepad might help. Second edition. 48 pages, dimensions 165 x 210 mm, softcover. Printed on sustainable paper in Belgium.”
Want the satisfaction of creating street art without the threat of incarceration? The Walls Notebook is a fun way to get the best of both worlds.
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From the best in pugilistic umbrella-mayhem to the sweetest way to woo a loved one, these 15 examples are guaranteed to chase the clouds away.
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These 14 pen and pencil designs do much more than simply make a mark; they measure curves, write through water, capture colors and never run out of ink or lead.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]
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[ By Steve in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]
Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, marks the unofficial start of the annual Christmas shopping season in a big, bad, bargain-hunting way!
(images via: Carter BloodCare and Market Oracle)
Black Friday may be a very modern socioeconomic phenomenon but it has a long and convoluted history dating back to September 24th, 1869 when plunging gold prices triggered a stock market panic… hold on, that may not be the Black Friday we’re discussing here.
(image via: FatWallet.com)
Fast forward to 1966 when the Philadelphia Police Department, dreading the approach of yet another chaotic post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, dubbed the infamous event Black Friday. Within a decade the term was being applied to similar shop-a-paloozas busting out all over the USA, Canada, the UK and more!
(images via: The Truth About Cars and Brenternet)
By 1980, retailers began to use Black Friday as a convenient term for the point where red ink turned to black: losses to profits, in other words. It took a while for both sides of the economic equation to get in sync over Black Friday, however, but when they did some good things happened. In 2003, Black Friday officially grabbed top billing as the Busiest Shopping Day of the year and although it slipped to second place in 2004, Black Friday’s been King of the Hill ever since. No offense, Hank.
(images via: Visit Minot and Now Public)
Unlike the more recent emergence of Cyber Monday, Black Friday makes itself apparent by the appearance and behavior of the people doing the actual shopping. Up close and personal, take no prisoners, in your face shopping the likes of which the world has never witnessed! Thanks to teh intarwebs, we all can witness these aspects vicariously beginning with the long (in length and in time) lineups snaking down the streets outside various big box stores.
(images via: Jabeta, Examiner and 999ThePoint)
Stoked by advertising on television, in newspaper flyers, on the radio and online, shoppers eager not to let those juicy bargains slip through their fingers stake out prime spots outside their targeted stores (possibly including Target).
(image via: Citizenside)
Whether in rows of tents or standing in single file, Black Friday shoppers are a remarkably orderly bunch for the most part. All that changes once the doors open, however, then it’s every man, woman, child and cat for themselves.
(images via: Jabeta, Business Insider, Goodlawd and Times Newspapers Limited)
Stampedes not seen since the great cattle drives of the 19th century or the great Hindu festivals of the 20th burst into fluid motion as each store’s official Black Friday opening hours strike, and if you were lucky enough to be among the first in line outside you’d better not be unlucky enough to trip and fall once the human avalanche gathers steam and begins its unstoppable roll. In such situations people easily lose their heads, not to mention their wigs.
(images via: Mental Floss, Long Island Newsday and NY Daily News)
Shoppers aren’t alone in looking danger in the eyes once the doors swing open – store staff attempting to ensure safety for all by directing the flow often find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. The most well-known and certainly most tragic such incident took place at a Valley Stream, NY WalMart store on November 28th of 2008 just after 5:00AM.
(image via: StarzLife)
As the store doors opened, hundreds of cold, impatient and uncaring shoppers busted the entrance door right off its hinges in their desperate search for bargains. One 34-year old Wal-Mart employee was unable to avoid the furious flood of shoppers and was trampled to death.
Black Friday will be bigger and earlier than ever this year. Here are 5 fresh infographics filled with facts about the annual post-holiday shopping event.
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Black Friday . . . are you preparing to battle the holiday shopping crowds? Brush up on your ninjas skills before you go into the battle of the urban ninjas.
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In the near future, many stores might not even have physical products to take home – we’ll just scan codes with our smart phones and have them delivered.
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[ By Steve in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]
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A contribution from Lori Peterson
New photographers sometimes jump in and photograph everything they can. They will photograph a wedding one-day and commercial real estate on another. It isn’t until later on that they realize the importance of finding their niche and concentrating on the things that fuel their art and their passion and still manage to pay their bills.
Life can bring you lessons you didn’t even know you needed to be taught. I have been present as a photographer in hospital situations and you have to expect the unexpected. Whether it’s shooting images at a birth or documenting a medical procedure for a family, you should always be prepared for things to change.
If you are planning on being a birth photographer, not only is it important for you to discuss expectations from your client, but you should also find out what the doctor and hospital will allow. Your client might want you to photograph parts of the delivery, but the hospital or doctor may have very strict rules about photography. Births aren’t always smooth, quick, and without drama. You might plan on being at a birth for a few hours, but if labor stalls, you might be there longer. Expect the unexpected.
If you are allowed to photograph the birth you should be mindful of the doctor, the nurses, and all the other hospital staff that need to be in the room to take care of your client and the baby. Your job is to document, not to be in the way.
If complications arise and there is a need to go to the OR for a cesarean, make sure that your client has discussed this possibility with the doctor. The doctor and the anesthesiologist have the final say so as to whether or not you can go back with your client. Be polite and respectful. If you can’t go back to the OR, make plans to photograph the baby as soon as possible so that your client can still have those early moments recorded.
If you are allowed back in the OR, ask the anesthesiologist about where you can shoot from. Don’t badger them with questions and chitchat. Don’t try shooting over the screen to get shots of the surgery itself.
Once the baby is born just remember to keep documenting those moments. Mom is missing out on some of those and Dad might need to be with her. Don’t forget to capture the interactions of the new baby when they bring him or her over to Mom for the first time.
Learning to expect the unexpected has helped me when doing more photojournalism type shoots as well. Most recently I was hired to help a family document their six-year-old son’s Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy surgery. Surgery time was pushed back a bit and then waiting time was also pushed back. There was a lot of waiting.
After his surgery he did a lot of sleeping. There was a lot of pacing and worrying from family members and from me as well. His parents just wanted to stick close by and be there in case he woke up. They talked to him, they held his hand and they waited.
I shot images during his first time getting out of bed, his first time in physical therapy, and his first time crawling and standing after his surgery. Some of the moments when he was crying were so difficult for me, but I had to remind myself to keep documenting this for him and his parents to look back on. Lighting changed. People walked in. People walked out. He was awake. He slept. The situation changed routinely, but what was expected of me didn’t.
For some photographers shooting in a hospital setting might not be ideal, but I can tell you from personal experience that helping families to document their lives is one of the most rewarding types of photography you can do.
Stepping outside of your comfort zone can bring you a new awareness of the world around you and remind you of how wonderful photography can be to document life events. It will physically and emotionally challenge you. You will have to learn to move fast. You will have to learn that sometimes the shot doesn’t have to be technically perfect to tell the story. It’s very different than portrait photography because you aren’t in control of everything. You have to learn to give up some of that control and trust your instincts. Capturing those moments are such a precious gift you are giving to your clients, and you will reap the rewards by adding to your skill-set for future endeavors.
Lori Peterson is an award winning photographer based out of the St. Louis Metro Area. Her dynamic work ranges from creative portraits to very unique fine art photography. Lori’s work can be seen at www.loripetersonphotography.com and also on her blog at www.loripetersonphotographyblog.com. You can follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LoriPetersonPhotography.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Taking Your Photography Outside of Your Comfort Zone
How many of you have found yourselves in front of an iconic landmark and felt discouraged because every possible shot had already been made by thousands of tourists before you? You are on the trip of a lifetime. Your goal is certainly not to bring back pictures that look like the postcards at the souvenir shop.
Photographing a reflection of a famous landmark such as the US Capitol in DC was a good way to avoid the cliché shot that every other tourist snaps daily. Adding the human element adds a sense of scale.
Get the cliché shot out of the way. You won’t feel right unless you do. So go ahead and photograph the Eiffel Tower the way you see it in your head when you close your eyes. Got the shot? Okay, now think of different ways you could photograph it and create your OWN iconic images of the same subject. Frame it with trees, look for its reflection in a window or a puddle, include it with the local architecture, shoot it as a silhouette, etc. The sky is the limit, you just have to train yourself to look for those unconventional frames.
Afraid that you are going to miss other opportunities while you are looking for different ways to see? Practice at home! Every town has its own iconic landmark, even yours. It may not be a grandiose building, but it doesn’t matter. Whether it is the local historic grain elevator, or the statue of a famous local politician, go out with your camera and see it for the first time again. Work your scene and find a creative way to frame it.
Don’t forget to include people in your frame. They add interest, life and movement to your images. They also add a sense of scale which works well when photographing massive buildings.
This simple exercise will change the way you see photographically. The more you practice, the quicker you will spot those interesting shots when you visit a new place. Your pictures will never be boring again!
Practice at home! This historic grain elevator may not be grand but it is one of the landmarks in a small river town near my home.
Think of a different way to photograph a famous landmark by including local architecture in the foreground for example.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Travel Photography ~ Think Outside The Postcard When Photographing Famous Landmarks
Check out these visual art images:
Outside Institute
Image by What What
Work in progress at the outside institute, by the "Visual Rockstars" Dave the Chimp and The Flying Fortress.
Concetta Scaravaglione, American sculptor, 1900-1975
Image by Smithsonian Institution
Description: Concetta Scaravaglione had a long career as both a sculptor and a teacher. While she worked in wood, stone, bronze, and copper, her preferred media was terra-cotta. As her work evolved, it became more abstract. She taught at New York University, Black Mountain College, Sarah Lawrence College, the Educational Alliance and Vassar College.
Creator/Photographer: Peter A. Juley & Son
Medium: Black and white photographic print
Dimensions: 8 in x 10 in
Culture: American
Persistent URL: http://photography.si.edu/SearchImage.aspx?id=5835
Repository: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Photograph Archives
Collection: Peter A. Juley & Son Collection – The Peter A. Juley & Son Collection is comprised of 127,000 black-and-white photographic negatives documenting the works of more than 11,000 American artists. Throughout its long history, from 1896 to 1975, the Juley firm served as the largest and most respected fine arts photography firm in New York. The Juley Collection, acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1975, constitutes a unique visual record of American art sometimes providing the only photographic documentation of altered, damaged, or lost works. Included in the collection are over 4,700 photographic portraits of artists.
Accession number: J0002149
Photographer Alexx Henry and his team show you how a magazine might look in the not-so-distant future with the October cover and spread for Outside Magazine. In this video, Alexx Henry takes you through the creation of the Living portrait of the triathlete Chris Lieto photographed using the revolutionary Red One cinema camera and the 5d Mark II.
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