100th Post

Just found this site, CodeOrgan from my buddy (and famous beard purveyor) JD Beebe - plays what your site sounds like.

CodyGantz.com sounds pretty cool - http://www.codeorgan.com/?url=www.codygantz.com
This blog? Unfortunately awful - http://www.codeorgan.com/?url=www.codygantz.blogspot.com

b-uncut - new art marketplace

 My friend Sydney Townsend sent me news about this site.  From what I gather, it's an online art gallery, or a place to get emerging artists' work out to people who might want to purchase it.  You can read the background at b-uncut.com. At the very least, it's a collection of like-minded creative people, which is pretty cool.

Anyway, one of my photos was featured today - Floating Donut. You can see it online here, and I've also posted it. One of Sydney's images is right next to mine, too!

Gas Station - Beverly Hills

Took some photos the other night at a gas station nearby. Just playing around with processing and exposure blending - really crunching it up. Looks nothing like it actually did at capture - the sky nearly dark when I took these. That's the power, good or bad, of digital. Let me know what you think.

Phone Pictures

There's been a ton of buzz about mobile phone pictures recently because of some cool applications available for phones these days.  The two most recent (and useful) iPhone apps I've come across for taking and editing pictures are: TheBestCamera, and PS Mobile.

The Best Camera (is the one that's with you), is the brainchild of Chase Jarvis, who is always offering creativity tips and ways to make better images on his blog.  I think he's a marketing genius - creating buzz for himself in a selfless way, by making and discussing ways to improve photography, creative projects, and collaboration.  In the iPhone application, you can take a picture, or use and existing one, then easily apply or delete various filters - from warming/cooling or brighter/darker, to other more unique ones like "jewel," or "slate," which play with contrast, vingnette, and saturation.  The coolest thing about the app is the ability to easily share photos to multiple outlets - twitter, facebook, email, and TheBestCamera gallery, which is constantly updating with a live feed from the application.

Here are some before/after images with TheBestCamera:

PS Mobile is from Adobe - a mini version of Photoshop, as well as a way to share images.  Immediately, I wished I could send my photos to different outlets, instead of just the application's community page.  Also, I didn't see a way to easily remove edits - for example, if you make a bunch of edits, you have to go back to the original image if you just want to remove the red tint you added.  However, the finger motions to control the edits I found very intuitive, and I like the range of editing - instead of choosing "brighter," I can choose how much brighter I want to make the image by sliding my finger on the screen.

Here are some before/after images with PS Mobile:

So these apps are neat. What does that mean for pro photographers, designers, and creatives?  Well, the best development is "accessibility." With a phone, you can take a picture, make a creative decision, then publish if for others to see and comment.  This creates a community where hopefully, better ideas get shared faster.  If I see someone's cool picture of X, maybe that gives me an idea of a picture of Y, which I show my friend who then creates Z, all from a little tool that most people always carry with them.  A sort of creative "pay-it-forward" idea.

Issuu - Publishing Site

I mentioned this site in my post on publishing and creativity. Just testing it out for myself now, by uploading a brochure - student work from Hallmark.

The site operates like a bookshelf. You can search or browse the library of uploaded content (that users make public), and can then bookmark the content - anything from presentations, to catalogs, to newsletters. This adds it to your 'shelf,' where you can organize things into folders (like most email programs), or share, or download.

The makers of Issuu pretty much hold your hand through the whole process with little videos, which is nice. Plus, the website interface is simple and easy to use anyway. One of the coolest things, though, is that you can implement their slick document presentation on your own site. Haven't come across any sites using this feature yet, but I'm testing it out offline.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ben and bills

Polaroid resurrection attempts

This is a link to a New York Times photo gallery - a collection of polaroids sent to the paper in response to a story about resurrecting a polaroid factory.

There are ton of cool adaptations with the film, mixing funky lighting and development, with illustrative things as well. 

For sure the film was cool, but I'm scanning old 35mm film right now, and it's awful.  Digital polaroids, anyone?  I guess that's why there's Photoshop

Still some use for turntables!

I have my parents' turntable in the corner of my apartment, but I'd never thought of doing something like this. Maybe I just like the wolf costumes...