The storks

Paris and fashion

The inaugural issue of Matchbook Magazine has a small profile of a blogger/student who freshly moved to Paris.  Look at these pictures.  What a well-dressed girl in a city that demands nothing less.  Wouldn't you love to look like that? Sigh.

See more eye candy in Matchbook.  It's really, really good.

The Sartorialist

I'm a big fan of the blog.  This documentary is fascinating; you can watch him as he works.  He really stops and observes people; I think I would be to nervous to stare at someone like that.  He seems to view the world around him as having arrived for his photoshoot; really cool.



I think this little video also really shows how graceful New Yorkers are.  They ignore him and his camera until approached directly, they are distrustful until he shows who he is, and they are stylish, effortless, authentic and gorgeous when photographed.  They are glad to be selected to be photographed, but every single person took it as matter-of-course: no one squealed with delight, no one shyed away.  Not even the construction worker.  You want to take my picture?  But of course you do. Man I love New York.

More fall inspiration

 

See images in their original context here and here.

Women with no makeup (oh the horror)

This image has been making the rounds in the blogosphere (not to mention getting comments on Reddit, which Jezebel then picked up).  If you  have a daughter, show her these pictures.  These are famous, gorgeous models, with Laetitia Casta leading off the line up on top left.

The geeks on Reddit, of course, abused every single one  of  these pictures, calling the girls unattractive or worse.  Jezebel declared every single one of these pictures beautiful and every single one of the Reddit commenters a shauvinist. 

But the reality is just that these women are not ugly and not beautiful, they are just real un-airbrushed women with no makeup, taking a mugshot.  These are your driver license photos.  Your snapshots in a dimly lit room taken with a bad camera by a person who doesn't care.  We have all taken pictures like this.

When I was younger, I had professional photographs done for my birthday or some other occasion.  I can't remember the occasion, but it was an eye-opening experience.  The amount of makeup, lighting, setup, hair prep and direction was astounding.  (I got to the set wearing what I thought was a lot of makeup, only to have it taken off, be told that I should have worn some makeup, and then have about 5 pounds of it piled on).  Those pictures of me were gorgeous. The girl in them was stunning.  Except that I have never looked like that girl in real life, and I never will.  The girl in those pictures does not really exist.

Neither do the girls in photos you see in Vicky's Secret, or makeup and perfume ads.  Models are not very beautiful women.  Models are women who have bodies like hangers (tall and slim), making the clothes hang well, and who have faces that serve as good blanks for makeup (your features can't be too prominent; the face must be somewhat plain because then you can easily change it by changing the shadowing).  Really, that's all.  With the right makeup, the right lighting and the right angle, you can draw anything you want on that face.  You can make it look amazingly gorgeous.  You can then retouch that picture to make the beauty otherwordly.  And, published in every magazine across the land, it will tell every girl that she is ugly because she will never look like that.  Believe me, the model who took that very picture will never look like that either.

If you have kids, please talk to them.  Take your daughter to a modeling shoot when she is old enough, and watch her initial excitement draw down after hours and hours of hair, makeup and prep.  Have her see the drastic difference between the final product and her own reflection.  Explain to her that pictures lie.  Have your children play with Photoshop.  Get your son to know that girls in glossy pictures are no more real than Lara Croft.  It's ok to stare at those pictures for their beauty - as long as you keep in mind that they are nothing more than a Photoshop file.

Colors of Fall

I love these pictures, from this Creature Comforts post.  In some very subtle way, they really capture the magic of fall and its mood. 

Get out and walk around

Do you follow From Me To You on Tumblr? You should.  Jamie Beck takes the most gorgeous photographs (film!) of everyday scenes; her pictures are the way I see things in my head and I can never capture them with my camera. I'm glad she's here.

Recently, she posted this series on Dallas, Texas. It's very interesting how she points out that the feeling of being in a car-oriented city is totally different. It's really true. I've been to Texas (and other parts of the country where walking is not really possible or intended) and it's amazing how much of a barrier the car puts between you and your surroundings. You really don't experience the moment or the place at all - you are there, but not really, kind of teleporting from stop to stop in your vehicle. It's a very fragmented, weird sort of existence that has no flow.

In New York, you walk, a lot, and are constantly surrounded by music and sounds and serendipity and random shops and strangers and unexpected conversations and interaction and it is beautiful.

Take a look at her series of Dallas and compare them to New York.  Or just compare this picture with the picture of Dallas above.  Even those both show a concrete jungle, in black and white, with no people, the latter is somehow much more human.  It's a lonely existence, in a car.

And, just because I love NY and can't stop, this one.  I know, Texas. It's not fair.

Glen Echo Carousel

 

 

Phones and Photography

We are waiting for our new iPhones to arrive.  Soon, I'll have a camera with zoom AND a video camera on me at all times!! Wooohooo!  (Expect much more photos and videos of the mundane on this blog soon.... I know you can't wait!)

Apparently, the phones are actually shipped from China! Did you know that? I didn't! I thought the entire "wait 3 weeks to get it" was just Apple playing hard to get or something.  But, no!  So, by boat or something, the phones went from mainland to Taiwan to the US!  The phones came to Alaska, and now they are in Newark, NJ!! (Hold them! May be parents can drive them over! )

Ha. I love tracking stuff being shipped from overseas. The last thing I had shipped from that far away was our MINI Cooper!  It was so awesome watching the car make its way across the pond on some large, large boat. This is not as cool as tracking the MINI - but still.  I feel wonderlust!  I want to throw on a backpack again and track off into anywhere!

But, until Wombat and Wallaby are big enough to travel, I'm land bound.  So, what should I order next?  To make sure it comes from the ocean? A sari? Real Chinese food? A Portuguese water dog?!

Oh, but on to the photography part. So, when the phones do get here with that nifty 5mp camera and zoom and ability to focus..... it will still have one lens.  But, apparently, there is a way to change that! Check out these nifty fish-eye, macro and wide-angle add-on lenses! They attach with a magnetic ring, cost only a few bucks and should make for fun things to carry around in my purse. Yeay for more toys!

And, while thinking about photography, check out Ok Cupid's tips on how not to take bad photos!

It's actually not that hard. Use a decent camera. Go easy on the flash. Own the foreground. Take your picture in the afternoon. Then visit the nearest Apple store. Done.

Learn something new every day

Two completely unrelated, but rivaling in coolness pieces of information:

1.  Brainless slime mold makes decisions exactly like humans do.

It makes decisions by evaluating its options comparatively, rather than absolutely.  In other words, when presented with a $5 bottle of wine and a $25 bottle of wine, the mold chooses the cheaper one.  However, when a choice of $500 bottle of wine is added, the mold goes for the $25 one as it looks like a relative bargain. Except, in the case of mold, wine = oatmeal culture.  For humans, the wine story holds exactly as told.  :)

Economists refer to this as 'irrational behavior', and behavioral economics is the hot new field figuring out why humans do the things they do with their money.  It turns out that the older 'rational agent' economic theory is bust.  It also turns out that we are not unique in our irrationality - or, even more profoundly, it turns out that biological systems are irrational.  I mean, the mold doesn't even have a brain.

Read the entire article on Not Exactly Rocket Science. 

2.  A Tilt-Shift Tutorial!

Have you wondered how to take pictures of real, large, everyday objects in a way that makes them look miniature? The technique is called tilt-shift, and basically involves changing the focus and the perspective simultaneously to create an illusion of smallness.  Specialized lenses to do this can be very expensive, but there is a DIY Guide to creating one.  And, the same site also has an excellent explanation of How Tilt Shift Works.  Awesome.

I posted a NYC Tilt Shift video a while ago, and now there is also a San Francisco one.  Funny, the miniature versions of these cities are more like I remember them than the real pictures.  


Plungercammed: Tiny Fishermans Wharf from Bhautik Joshi on Vimeo.

Cool Photography Links

Tilt Shift Maker: turn your photos into tilt-shift masterpieces

Toy Cameras and Photoshop Vintage Effects (via Smashing Magazine)

Find cool things in your neighborhood with Noticin.gs

The Golden Hour Calculator: find out when that magical golden light moment happens in your neighborhood