¡Independencia! This week brings fiestas of all stripes throughout the Americas, as formerly colonial nations celebrate their declarations of—and often bloody struggles for—independence from Spain in the early 19th century. Yesterday, September 15, marked the day of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as the commemoration of the Grito del Dolores, in Mexico.
Today is Mexico’s Aniversario de la Independencia, and on Thursday and Friday, Chile celebrates the anniversary of the Primera Junta de Gobierno, in 1810, and also the “Día de las Glorias del Ejército”.
Split Rocker From jeff_koons (yes, that Jeff Koons!)
For years, museum-going Fotolog members have been snapping pics of their friends and family interacting with the whimsical, post-ironic sculptures of the American contemporary artist Jeff Koons. Last year at this time, in fact, in a post titled Puppy Love, we documented several fond souvenirs of encounters with Koons’ Puppy: an enormous topiary of a West Highland White Terrier, installed at the Guggenheim Bilbao.
From sonoinciampato
And I’ve seen several shots of his Tulips and other installations, too:
From lulu69
From _vincenzo
From carriehs
So fittingly, Fotolog is happy to announce this week that Jeff Koons (or at least one of his representatives!) has joined us as a Fotolog member himself. More Jeff KoonsRead More »
On the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we remember those who lost their lives, their families, and the heroic citizens who worked tirelessly to save lives, and honor the fallen.
The picture above is from northwestme, the only photo he has uploaded so far:
Chaplain, FDNY Ground Zero 2001
I went to Ground Zero on November 21, 2001 to pay my respects to those who had fallen, especially my fellow firefighters ( I was then a volunteer Firefighter on Orcas Island, Washington.) I came across this FDNY Chaplain who seemed to be deep in thought. I took several images and to this day this one says everything I was feeling that day. I had the unique privilege of being there where so many gave their lives to save others.
Via lensculture, a very interesting article on German artist Joachim Schmid, who uses other people’s discarded or lost photographs to make his own artworks. One amazing project from the early 90s, called “Photogenetic Drafts,” mixes and matches sliced negatives of professional studio portraits, to really creepy effect.
What Schmid discovered, happily, was that he could shuffle the left half of a negative with the right half of another negative to come up with bizarre composites that were uniformly lit and fit together in an uncanny way. It seems the photo studio always positioned its lights exactly the same way for years, and never moved the camera closer or further away from each model!
Check out the rest of Schmid’s oeuvre here. It’s a fascinating collection.
From mmolly, posted back around Father’s Day, this beautiful catch titled “Image of a devoted Grandfather.” It’s a great poster shot for Grandparents’ Day, which is coming up this Sunday. Be sure to call, write, or hug your grandparents this weekend!
The brand-new Nikon D90looks pretty much just like all the other moderately priced DSLRs, whether Nikon, Canon, Olympus, or whatever. Let’s face it: the mid-range market is flooded, with too many models offering not enough serious differences to distinguish themselves.
But the D90 is different, in a serious way. Yes, it has a new, larger CMOS sensor, and new high-speed processing software, both of which could prove valuable. But the D90’s biggest secret is movement: this is the first SLR ever to record video. And it’s hi-def video, up to 1,280 x 720 pixels. And since the camera’s sensor is bigger than your average camcorder’s, and you can use a variety of top-flight Nikon lenses (only very high-end video gear offers multi-lens ability), that means the D90 just became the gold standard of amateur video-making. Just like in your still shots, you can get really shallow depth of field, which is unheard of with camcorders; and the D90s ultra-high ISO settings (up to 6400, which remains to be tested) means you can can get good, moody detail in very low-light conditions. Yes, the file sizes will be enormous. But the quality will probably be worth it for most of us. The D90 could be a video game-changer.
Here’s a slick/hip promotional video for the D90, of its advance testing by pro photographer Chase Jarvis. Many of the clips in the video were shot with the D90, at 3200 ISO. Pretty great stuff.
Question: What do you get when two longtime Fotolog members, goulas (top) and mochi (bottom), encounter two solo, backpacked schoolgirls walking in front of two colorful walls—One in Macau and the other 1500 miles away, in Osaka—and their pics are posted just four days apart?
Answer: Yet another example of the lovely, unpredictable serendipity of Fotolog.
It’s a way for you to tell the world who your favorite Gold Camera member is. Gold Camera members who have chosen to participate have a “Vote for…” link at the top of their Fotolog page. To cast votes for them, just type in how many votes you want them to get!
Votes aren’t free, of course, but we’ve given current Gold Camera members a few credits to start with. Want to see where the rankings stand without casting any votes? It’s easy! Just click the “Voting” link at the top of the page.
Good luck and have fun!
====== En Español ======
Que es votar?
Es una manera en que puedes decirle a todo el mundo cual es tu miembro favorito de Gold Camera. Los miembros de Gold Camera que optaron por participar, tienen un enlace “Vota por…” en la parte de arriba de su página Fotolog. Para votar por ellos solamente tienes que poner cuantos votos quieres que reciban.
Las votos no son gratis, por supuesto, pero hemos dadoa todo los miembros de Gold Camera algunos creditos para comenzar. ¿Quieres ver los resultados sin votar? Es Facil! Solo haz click en la enlace de “Votar” en la parte de arriba de la página.
Buena suerte y espero que los disfruten!
Yossi Langer
Sr. Director of Products
www.fotolog.com/yossilanger
By now you have likely seen the news of the tragic airline disaster in Spain, where Spanair flight JK 5022, bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, crashed at Madrid’s Barajas airport, killing 153 passengers and crew. There were only nineteen survivors, some of whom are still in critical condition. According to the BBC, in addition to dozens of Spanish passengers, “some German, Swedish, Chilean and Colombian nationals” had also been on board.
Fotolog members from across Spain and the world are posting memorial images in honor of all who have died and their families and friends. Our thoughts and prayers here at Fotolog go out to them all.
Sweet: Just came across a cool site where you can order a custom-made high-quality shower curtain emblazoned with your own favorite photo. PhotoShowerCurtain.com offers both a tub-sized curtain (70˝x72˝) and a shower stall-sized sheet (35˝x72˝), each in “100% polyester poplin, which can be laundered repeatedly with no shrinkage or fading.” The printing is done via a dye sublimation process, so the image and pigments are fused into the fabric—it’s not just a piece of vinyl ironed on.
The company insists that the “image will not fade, crack, or peel.” At the fairly steep prices of $220 (large) and $150 (small), they better not. (Free ground shipping is included in the price.) All in all, it’s a pretty fun splurge, and a great gift.
Here are a dozen Fotolog classics that I would love to see printed at 36 square feet in these photographers’ bathrooms!
Finally. The Games of the XXIX Olympiad begin today, 8/8/08, at 8:08:08pm, in the extraordinary new “Bird’s Nest” Beijing National Stadium. More than 10,000 athletes are competing. Good luck to all involved!
