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  • Out of Gas: Abandoned Station Will Live its Golden Years as a Venue

    [ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

    A formerly abandoned gas station in London’s White City district may have outlived its usefulness in its original purpose, but it’s got a new, more relaxing job to do in the ‘hereafter.’ If all those pastel colors didn’t tip you off, the station is in retirement, and it will live out its golden years acting as a colorful venue for pop-up events in the midst of a decade-long urban regeneration effort aiming to create a “thriving, creative neighborhood.”

    The station, located on Wood Lane, sits between the BBC’s former headquarters at the Television Centre and White City Place, the former BBC Media Village, both of which will reopen this year after redevelopment. Designer duo Craig & Karl, aka Craig Redman and Karl Maier, took inspiraiton from the bright colors of a television test card for the station’s cheerful new palette and decorated it in their signature graphic style.

    “We view this project as the petrol station’s second life, or ‘wonder years,’ which led us to use the words ‘here after’ as a reference to heaven or utopia,” say the designers. “Now that the petrol station has fulfilled its duty, so to speak, it’s free to enjoy itself.”

    In a jam-packed, space-challenged city where so few people even own vehicles, this is an especially fitting and fun revitalization of a disused urban space. Doesn’t it make you wish all gas stations were treated as art objects?

    Subterranean History: Beautiful Abandoned NYC Subway Station

    As all urban exploration enthusiasts know, there are hidden wonders all around us – particularly in rich metropolitan landscapes like New York City. The City Hall subway stop is well-known to NYC …

    Architecture to Go: 10 Great Gas Station & Pump Designs

    Gasoline is on its last legs. It’s a commodity we’ll soon be saying goodbye to as renewable energy takes over – but what will we do with all of the gas stations left behind?  Most gas …

    Abandoned Power Station Transformed into a Roller Coaster

    An abandoned power station that has been an iconic part of London’s skyline since 1933 is transformed into a playground and museum in the “Architectural Ride London” proposal by Atelier Zündel …

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    [ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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    WebUrbanist

  • iOS 11 brings photo updates to iPhone and iPad

    In addition to hardware updates, Apple provided some details about the next generation of its mobile operating system at today’s WWDC. When iOS 11 arrives this fall it will bring an updated Live Photos feature with a few new tricks up its sleeve, more options for shooting in Portrait Mode on the iPhone 7 Plus, and more efficient image compression for the 7 and 7 Plus. There’s also the possibility that it might connect to your camera more easily.

    Live Photos will allow users to customize the thumbnail image representing the short video clip, and will support Boomerang-app-style looping video along with a ‘long exposure’ effect. Machine learning will help expand the Memory videos feature, making the automatically compiled clips playable in portrait or landscape format, and able to identify and include more subjects like pets. If you own an iPhone 7 Plus you’ll notice more options when using Portrait Mode including the ability to use optical image stabilization, use flash and apply HDR.

    Apple also adopts new file formats for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus: images will use High Efficiency Image File Format, or HEIF, and videos will use H.265, or HEVC. This will save storage space, but we’re curious how sharing and support from image editing apps will jibe with the new format. Per Wikipedia, HEIF can be used to compress full-resolution images while keeping a lower-resolution JPEG for on-screen display purposes. It also allows storage of multiple images in a single file, which could mean preserving the original and processed versions of HDR and Portrait Mode images.

    And for the first time, iOS 11 will allow app developers to use the NFC reader for things other than Apple Pay. It’s not yet clear whether this will extend to allowing the communication of connection profiles as used by many cameras when establishing Wi-Fi connections.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Hang Loose: 13 Hammock Innovations for Max Relaxation

    [ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

    Take your summer lounging to the next level with hammocks that attach to your kayak or the roof of your car, fill up with water like a hot tub or double as a soccer goal. And if you’re stuck at work daydreaming about outdoor adventures, there’s even a stealthy hammock that clamps onto table surfaces so you can hide under your desk and nap.

    Hammocraft Floating Hammock

    Designed for use by 2-4 people, the modular Hammocraft system lets you lounge while cruising down gentle rivers and and lakes. It can be assembled on top of kayaks, paddle boards, river rafts or on dry land. Can you think of a more comfortable way to cruise through a beautiful natural setting?

    Trailnest Roof Rack Hammock

    Camp out under the stars virtually anywhere your vehicle can take you with the Trailnest, a simple hammock stand that clamps onto your roof rack in a one-person or two-person setup. It folds up for easy transportation, works with any hammock and gives you uninterrupted views of your surroundings while keeping you well above all the critters that scurry around on the ground at night.

    ‘Vessel’ Hammock-Shaped Bathtub

    Made of strong carbon fiber wrapped around a foam core, which insulates the water to keep it hotter for longer periods of time, the ‘Vessel’ by Splinterworks makes bath time more relaxing than ever. The unique design mounts to the wall with steel brackets and empties into a drain in the floor.

    Hydro Hammock Instant Hot Tub

    The Hydro Hammock is an instant portable hot tub you can set up almost anywhere, using the accompanying suitcase-like water pump and heater to fill it up from a hose or body of water. It’s made of sealed synthetic high-tensile-strength fabric that can support the weight of two adults and fifty gallons of water.

    Dymaxion Sleep Garden Hammock

    Installed over a bed of fragrant, relaxing herbs like lavender and rosemary, the Dymaxion Sleep structure is a network of nets inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World Map – an unfolded icosahedron. Created by Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell, the structure provides a large-scale hammock for groups to lounge outdoors.

    Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
    Hang Loose 13 Hammock Innovations For Max Relaxation

    Hydro Hammock: Traveling Hot Tub Can Be Hung Up or Buried Below

    Flexible and portable, this hanging hot tub hammock can be suspended from trees or other supports or tucked into scooped-out depressions along sandy beaches or on snowy mountainsides, compact …

    Luxury Lounging: 13 Tantalizingly Tranquil Hammocks

    A hammock can be as simple as some woven rope stretched between two trees, or it can be a massive, built-in ‘outdoor room’ for four people with a price tag of $ 20,000. These 13 hammocks run the …

    Tentsile: Extreme Travel Tree Tents Hang Like Hammocks

    Hikers and campers have long been used to hanging food packs out of reach of bears and scavengers, but these tensile treehouse shelters take things a few steps further, allowing you to loft your …

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    [ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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    WebUrbanist

  • Dismal River in Nebraska Sand Hills from Above

    The Dismal River in Nebraska Sand Hills is one of my favorite paddling destination. I started paddling the Dismal in 2001 when training for Texas Water Safari. The river felt quite similar to the San Marcos River in Texas. Since […]
    paddling with a camera

  • Affinity Photo comes to the iPad

    Affinity Photo makes its way to mobile for the first time today as an iPad version of the popular editing program makes its debut. It offers non-destructive adjustments and support for Raw editing, along with a wide array of tools for making selections and applying effects. Take a look at the full list of features on Affinity’s website.

    The app is compatible with the iPad Air 2, 207 iPad and iPad Pro 9.7″ or 12.9″. A special launch discount brings it down to $ 20/£20 for now.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Samyang targets Sony E mount users with new 35mm F2.8 AF lens

    Korean optical manufacturer Samyang has released details of its third AF lens – a full frame 35mm F2.8 lens designed for Sony E mount cameras. The company says the lens is tiny and lightweight to suit these smaller compact system cameras, and that these characteristics make it ideal for travel and street photography.

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    The Samyang 35mm F2.8 FE weighs 85g/3oz, measures 33mm/1.3in in length and uses seven elements in six groups. It has a seven-bladed iris, a filter thread of 49mm and a closest focus distance of 0.35m/1.14ft. It will be available from July and will cost £279.99 (approx $ 350). For more information see the Samyang website.

    Press release

    Samyang Introduces third autofocus lens – AF 35mm F2.8 FE

    June 5th, 2017, Seoul, Korea – Global optics brand Samyang Optics, is pleased to announce the release of Samyang’s third autofocus lens: the AF 35mm F2.8 FE. A tiny lens with a mighty performance, it is ideal for daily photography as well as travel photography. This new compact and lightweight lens, together with the existing AF 14mm F2.8 FE and AF 50mm F1.4 FE lenses, now expands Samyang’s autofocus lens line-up to three.

    Tiny and Mighty
    The AF 35mm F2.8 FE weighs just 85g and measures 3.3cm in length, without the hood and rear cap, it is roughly the equivalent in weight of a bar of soap and smaller than a name card in size. Thanks to Samyang’s exceptional optical technology, its compact size is packed with features for outstanding image quality. Featuring seven elements in six groups, two aspherical lenses and one high refractive lens plus Ultra Multi Coating to minimise aberration and unnecessary light dispersion, the lens delivers high resolution from the centre to the corners of the image.

    Perfect Partner for Everyday Photographers
    This new lens is specifically designed to work in harmony with full frame mirrorless cameras in Sony E mount. For full frame sensors, the focal length resembles the human eye the most. For APS-C types for Sony alpha 6000 and 5000 series users the lens is equivalent to approximately 52mm, which is also one of the most popular focal lengths among photographers.

    Portability with mighty performance and a 35mm focal length makes this lens the best choice for daily photographers who want to capture every memory as a high quality image. The autofocus is fast and accurate and is ideal for the capture of outdoor events such as hiking, sports events and landscape photography. It also has a minimum focusing distance of 0.35m and is ideal for street, portrait and close focus photography.

    Available from July 2017
    This tiny and mighty Samyang 35mm F2.8 FE lens will be available from July, and will carry a suggested retail price of £279.99 inc VAT.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Light-painting technique with the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V

    The Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V is a powerful compact camera which packs a lot of technology into its pocketable body. For this video, we take the RX100 V out into the night, to shoot light-painting with LA-based photography duo ‘Nightcrawlers’.

    We’ll show you how to prepare for a light-painting shoot, and sharing some tips for getting great shots using a variety of techniques.

    Read our full Sony RX100 V review

    See more videos at our YouTube Channel

    This is sponsored content, created in partnership with Sony. What does this mean?

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Battered: 15 Closed And Abandoned Fish & Chip Shops

    [ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

    Fish & Chips are famed the world over as THE quintessential English food so why are there so many closed and abandoned “Chippies” in their home country?

    American fish & chip shops have suffered a decline as well, especially fast food seafood restaurant chains like Arthur Treacher’s and H. Salt Esquire – both the chains and the affordable stocks of cod that sustained them are pale shadows of what they used to be. Family-run chippies linger on, however, though the once-charming Porto Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland’s seaside Portobello neighborhood is no longer them. Flickr users Dave Sinclair and Fabio Menna snapped the shop in long-abandoned and newly-abandoned states, respectively.

    Dog’s Breakfast

    One would hope “Helen” was able to retire from retail fish-frying with a modicum of grace when her self-titled chippie in Maidstone (a suburb of Melbourne) went belly-up. Then again, maybe Australians just aren’t that into fish & chips, what with all that “throw another shrimp on the barbie” stuff. Flickr user Warren Kirk (Westographer) captured the closed, abandoned, boarded-up and unlamented (save for a disappointed-looking dog) “Helen’s Fish ~ Chips” on a sunny December morning in 2011.

    Parson’s Nose Best

    As if a chippie on the High Street wasn’t Brit enough, the owners named the place “The New Parson’s Nose”… wonder what happened to the OLD one? Regardless, the sign on the window states the shop is “closed for refurbishment” and you know what that means: it’s gone like last night’s last pint of ale. Kudos to Flickr user leon S-D (littleweed1950) who snapped this pub-like former fish & chips shop in June of 2016.

    Taken Away

    “Over the last 40 years or so (in Australia at least) the traditional old style strip of shops in the suburbs has come under pressure from large shopping malls,” states urbex blogger David Taylor. Just wait, Dave, those large shopping malls have begun to feel a similar sort of pressure from online retailers. There’s nothing like the unique ambiance and the sit-sown dining experience of a classic Chippie, mind you. Taylor snapped the above faded Seafood Take Away in Mt Gravatt, a suburb of Brisbane.

    Over, The Rainbow

    Fish & Chips, Burgers, Southern Fried Chicken and so much more… how could Rainbow Spicy Kebabs, snapped in the summer of 2013 by Flickr user Robby Virus, possibly go under? Well, they COULD have prepared all of those things poorly, for one thing. It just goes to show you, a prime location in the heart of London offers no guarantee your fish & chips (& more) shop will achieve lasting success. Also, rainbows aren’t colored that way. Just sayin’.

    Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
    Battered 15 Closed And Abandoned Fish Chip Shops

    Empty Chambers: 10 Closed & Abandoned Gun Stores & Shops

    If your business involves getting fired, going off half cocked or triggering bankruptcy, you just might be one of these 10 closed and/or abandoned gun shops.

    “Chet” sold guns (and …

    Silk & Sadden: 15 Closed & Abandoned Lingerie Shops

    The thrill is gone and so are the thongs! These 15 closed & abandoned lingerie shops have nobody else to blame for their sagging level of support.

    Cue “Thunderstruck”… but …

    Red Ink: 10 Closed & Abandoned Tattoo Parlors, Studios & Shops

    Tattoos and tattooists have made their mark on society – pun intended – but what happens to your neighborhood tattoo parlor when the ink finally runs dry?

    Sure, drive-thru is a …

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    [ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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  • LG G6 camera review

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    The G6 is LG’s latest flagship smartphone. For the new model, LG has abandoned the G5’s modular concept and has instead designed a device that offers a water- and dust-proof body and a 5.7″ QHD+ display with an unusual 18:9 aspect ratio.

    In the camera department, LG sticks with the G5’s dual-camera concept but both sensors now offer the same 13MP resolution. The wide-angle lens comes with a 71 degree angle of view and F1.8 aperture while the super-wide-angle offers 125 degrees and a slower F2.4 aperture. OIS is available on the wide-angle. 4K video capture with stereo sound recording and a laser-assisted AF system are on board as well.

    Other specs are flagship-worthy too. Android 7.0 is powered by last year’s top-end chipset Snapdragon 821 and 4GB of RAM. 32 or 64GB of internal storage are expandable via a microSD slot. And unlike some of its competitors the G6 still offers a 3.5mm headphone jack.

    With improved camera specs, the interesting new display format and the waterproof body, the LG G6 looks like an appealing option for mobile photographers. Read the full article to find out how it performed in our test.

    Key Photographic / Video Specifications

    • Dual-camera with two 1/3″ 13MP sensors
    • Wide-angle, 71 degree angle of view, F1.8, 3-axis OIS
    • Super-wide-angle, 125 degree angle of view, F2.4
    • Laser-assisted autofocus
    • 4K video with stereo sound recording
    • 5MP front camera with 100 degree angle of view, F2.2
    • Dual-LED flash

    Other Specifications

    • Android 7.0
    • Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset
    • 4GB RAM, 32/64GB storage
    • microSD support up to 256GB
    • 5.7″ 18:9 QHD+ IPS display, 2880 x 1440 resolution, 564 ppi
    • IP68 certified, water and dust resistant
    • Fingerprint reader
    • Google Assistant
    • 3300 battery with Quick Charge 3.0

    DPReview smartphone reviews are written with the needs of photographers in mind. We focus on camera features, performance, and image quality.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Mathematician turns Juno images into stunning Jupiter flyby video

    Since NASA’s Juno probe entered Jupiter’s orbit a year ago, it’s been sending back high-resolution images of the solar system’s biggest planet.

    When NASA released the latest batch of images, last month, German mathematician Gerald Eichstaedt got to work, turning them into into a video. Using software that he wrote, Eichstaedt used Juno’s trajectory data to determine the probe’s exact position when it captured an image, and then placed that image on a spherical model of the planet. The resulting video combines 36 images from the probe to simulate a Jovian flyby.

    London-based filmmaker Seán Doran saw the video when Eichstaedt uploaded it to unmannedspaceflight.com and spent another 12 hours smoothing the thousands of frames, before adding a soundtrack.

    It’s almost like being there. Almost…

    Watch Gerald Eichstaedt’s original video

    Read more about NASA’s Juno mission

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)