Years ago, my bizarre friend Higgins told me and another buddy that his girlfriend had mysteriously dumped him.  He was visibly shaken and seemed truly down in the dumps.  He said, “I… I just don’t get it.  The whole thing inspired me to write a song.  Do you guys want to hear it?”  Well sure, of course we did.  “Okay, here goes,” he said.  Closing his eyes, clearing his throat, he leaned back and paused.  And then, bursting into a Pete Townshend air-guitar windmill, and doing his best Axl Rose devil-woman wail, he screeched,

“EhWHAAAAAaaaaaaAAAattt??”

That was is, end of song. 🙂

Ever since then we’ve “busted out the ‘Whatstrument*'” for bizarre news.  The arrival of the Sony Cybershot G3, World’s First Camera You Can Surf the Web On, seems worthy.

Okay, maybe it’s not that weird.  As Gizmodo puts it, “Sony’s seeing this more as a flexible, fast way to dump and check your photos and videos online, direct from your camera, not so much as a way to compulsively watch YouTube videos or read Gizmodo, even though that’s exactly what we want, and will try to do, practicalities aside.”

I dig the instant sharing possibilities, though I’d explicitly keep them out of my wife’s hands: she’s all for uploading before I’ve had time to crop, retouch, and otherwise noodle around.  [Via Jerry Harris]

*Other suggested air-instrumental possibilities for the song:  Trombone, sax, harmonica, sextant, astrolabe, and finger snap (Beatnik edition).

Alan Taylor’s Big Picture has been an outstanding addition to the online world.  The site now features The Year 2008 In Photographs.  More gripping imagery is on display in parts two and three.  (‘Tis the season of an endless succession of year-end collections, but I’m trying not to link to everything all at once.  I’d rather see fewer images and take the time to consider each a little more deeply.)

• Photographer Filip Dujardin challenges the viewer with some bizarre buildings, “combin[ing] photographs of parts of buildings into new, fictional, architectonic structures.” [Via]
• Photojojo offers up the very cool bottle cap tripod for $10. (On a somewhat related note, David Pogue points out “It turns out that the threads at the top of just about any lamp–the place where the lampshade screws on–are precisely the same diameter as a tripod mount! In a pinch, you can whip off the lampshade, screw on the camera, and presto: You’ve got a rock-steady indoor tripod.”) They also offer a rather nifty doodle frame.

• School pictures, with attitude promise an alternative to “puppy mill” portraiture. [Via Keith Johnson]
• An uncredited photographer captured some amazing shots of a diving kingfisher. (Most thrilling chilled!)

• En fuego:
  • “Holy Crap!!” Photographer Sandy Huffaker talks about what happened when a fighter jet crashed near his house this week. [Via]
  • Peep Casper Hedberg’s fiery image from Kenya.
• Ends of the line:
  • Amazing anthropology: Mike Hettwer helps document what remains of the Green Sahara.
  • Listverse.com rounds up 10 Fascinating Last Pictures Taken.
• Photography crap, almost literally: I always think of the Japanese as such a polite bunch that this camera ad was more than a little surprising.

• Things one presumably doesn’t see every day:
  • Martin Schoeller has captured a series of portraits of women bodybuilders. (From Kottke: “If you cover up the faces with your hands, they look like men in bikini tops and if you cover up the bodies, meth addicts.”) [Via]
  • Fancy a round-up of Swedish 1970s dance band photos? [Via Jeff Tranberry, who says, “The real challenge is how to fit it into a relevant post! It’d be a good one for rickrolling some readers.”]

• Moments in time:
  • Barbara Probst’s Split Second project captures the same moment from multiple perspectives.
  • Game face: Robbie Cooper’s Immersion project aims to photograph facial expressions of people as they play video games, surf the web, and watch TV. The corresponding video isn’t super flattering. [Via]

• Fans of mid-century design/photography goodness should peep a visual remembrance of Lou Dorfsman.

• Mugs:
  • Martin Schoeller’s Close Up is “A magnetic succession of stripped-down faces, straightforward portraits of the very famous and absolutely unknown.”
  • Helen Marshall’s Big Picture (talk about truth in advertising) is comprised of 112, 896 photos of people’s faces. [Via]

• Isolation:
  • Kim Høltermand creates spare, bleak, often dreamlike compositions from sometimes banal subject matter. [Via]
  • In a somewhat similar vein, Andy Taylor Smith captures the sculptural quality of overpasses and other large structures. (The Veer gallery seems to be acting up, but you can also see images on Andy’s own site.) [Via]
• Vanity Fair has posted a collection of the 25 Best News Photos. (Fair warning: Some are tough to see.) [Via]

"I seemingly will never tire of this gimmick," writes Jason Kottke.  No, but it’s worth a try. 🙂

• Video:
  • Keith Loutit used tilt-shift lenses to make beachgoers look like ants–trippy and cool.
  • Christopher Prouse points out–and demonstrates–that it’s possible to fake the effect using Lens Blur in Photoshop Extended on video. (Here’s how to do it on stills.)
• It would be fun to try doing the same with Alien Skin’s forthcoming Bokeh plug-in, which promises more realistic physical blur simulations (see video). [Via Marc Pawliger]
• Check out Fenway Park as a scale model. [Via]
• No tilt-shift necessary: some of the structures in these images from Yemen already look miniature.
• If you still haven’t gotten your fill, check out Smashing Magazine’s roundup of 50 Beautiful Examples Of Tilt-Shift Photography. [Via]

• We keep hearing that cellphone cameras are going to shake up the world, and Sony Ericsson aims to do just that with an 8.1-megapixel sensor in their latest phone (er, cam?). To drive home they point, they’re shooting the ad campaign with the phone.
• Look, ma: no hands (or legs). Or, I’m sorry to say, life, thanks to that stunt. More on Indian Larry is on his site. [Via Bill & Bryan Hughes]
• Marc Pawliger passed along a collection of Pictures Taken At Just The Right Angle.
• Check out Idee’s beautiful Multicolr search tool, able to return Flickr results based on the hues you select. [Via]
• David Hockney’s site features a small gallery of his photo collages.

Photojojo is a great photo blog, full of interesting bits (e.g. today’s bit on taking ghostly pictures with your scanner).  As it happens, they’re hosting a photo safari this Saturday in San Francisco:

(1) You bring a camera (it doesn’t matter what kind) and some friends (2) There’s a cool place or event or a tour for you to take pictures (3) We go to a bar and you can put your photos in a slideshow to win prizes from us or sponsors. (4) You are happy and fulfilled.  Cost: Free.

 

Adobe is sponsoring the event, and the photo whose work the group votes best will win some groovy software.  Sounds like a fun way to spend a Saturday.

I can’t just talk CS4, now can I? Taking a little break from current software events, here’s a collection of cool recent photographic finds:

• Our friend Mike Hill features a great image from Brazil on his site’s landing page.
• I’m digging the ghostly, muted tones of Michael Kenna’s work.  Much more is on his site.
• The lovely Moontime gallery of David Stubbs whets my appetite to learn about low-light imaging. [Via]
• Last flight of the bumblebee: Jozsef L. Szentpeteri has captured some amazing images of bee-eating birds. [Via]
• Ever wanted to build a Canon out of balsa wood?  Me neither, but it’s still kinda cool to see. [Via]
• Nothing if not dedicated, Dan Hanna’s posted 17 years of daily self-portraits as a video.  (The spinning motion is a little sick-making.) [Via]
• Big photo printing + raingear = the most aggro umbrella ever (well, short of those umbrella-sword/gun combos, anyway).

• From the WTF Dept: Li Wei makes some eyepopping images. [Via]
• Roasting here in Vegas makes chillaxin’ with Nele Azevedo’s ice people sculptures look pretty cool.
• I’m not sure whether to file this under photography or illustration, but Josh Poehlein combines the two by scratching into the surface of his prints.  Inspired by this, Photojojo shows how to "vandalize your photos in the name of art."
• The poles of photo tech:
  • Extreme X-Rays Photography: Nick Veasey is "currently building a $200,000 studio with 35-inch-thick, lead-lined concrete walls which will let him see through almost anything." [Via]
  • Miroslav Tichy makes painterly images with his cardboard cameras.
• Images of daily life in Afghanistan make me feel very privileged–and very soft.

• As you’d expect, The Big Picture offers up a sampling of terrific Olympics photos.
• TotallyCrap offers their own collection, juxtaposing some excellent bits with bizarre loss of dignity.  Feeling overwhelmed, I haven’t even gotten to check out parts 2 and 3. [Via]
• Vincent Laforet talks about shooting world records from above.

I’m always intrigued by what people can produce by mining & transforming a big image set:

• Symmetry Explorer gathers Flickr search results, then displays them as mirrored pairs.  The results are surprisingly cool.
• Long-time Flickr hacker Krazydad lets you make your own kaleidoscopes from images. [Via]
• Wolfenflickr is Castle Wolfenstein in Flash, with your photos projected onto the walls. [Via]

On non-Flickr but somewhat similar fronts:

• Yearbook Yourself places your face in high school photos from decades past.  I’ve gotten poor results so far, though Jason Kottke fared better.
• Put a Porsche in your driveway [Via Bryan O’Neil Hughes]

• PopPhoto’s Debbie Grossman paid a visit to the Adobe Mothership a couple of weeks ago, getting a grand tour from Bryan Hughes & chatting with modest brainiacs like Jeff Chien.  Showing tons of daring, she underwent Kelly Castro’s black & white process–the first woman to do so.  (“That’s because it makes men look tough and women look like hell," she writes.)  [Related/previous: Jeff Schewe’s Visit to Adobe.]
• At Siggraph last week, Zorana Gee encountered the guys from OnLatte ("You got it right: we make industrial robot machines that do nothing but pretty up tasty beverages") and had them put the Photoshop icon on foam (image two).
• Photoshop: Helping The Ugly Since 1988. [Spied by Tom Hogarty on the Caltrain yesterday]
• Slate presents Politishop.  (Is it finally time for us to introduce Brushy the Talking Airbrush ("Hey, pardner, it looks like you’re tryin’ to retouch a photo")?  [Via Adam Jerugim]
• This isn’t Photoshop-specific, but I noticed that Adobe.com has added a slick new search widget to the site.  Groovy, as previously I’d resorted to using Google (typing "site:http://www.adobe.com" plus a search term into the search field).

Normally I don’t go for single-serving link posts, but this sequence of Michael Phelps’ amazing photo finish is too good not to share. [Via]

And, what the heck, here’s some spectacular imagery from the Olympics opening ceremony. (It’s as if Julie Taymor got ahold of the Clone Stamp…) Also, what’s with creepy Olympic M&M’s?

• The Big Picture features some terrific images of this month’s total solar eclipse.
• Edward Burtynsky, known for chronicling humans’ impact on the planet, is experimenting with carbon transfer printing in hopes of making photographic prints that last 10,000 years.
• GM Progress on Parade comes from a time when Detroit design set the pace for the world.
• Alexander Hassenstein captured a cool long-exposure image of women’s fencing, part of a larger set.
• More from the big bits/pixels front: peep Peter Carr’s 42-foot-wide HDR panorama,
• PhotoCalc is "a utility for iPhone and iPod for photographers to calculate exposure reciprocation, depth of field, and flash exposure." [Via Fergus Hammond]
• Martin Evening provides a helpful write-up on how auto-masking works in Lightroom’s local correction brushes.

• The Big Picture features some terrific images of this month’s total solar eclipse.
• Edward Burtynsky, known for chronicling humans’ impact on the planet, is experimenting with carbon transfer printing in hopes of making photographic prints that last 10,000 years.
• GM Progress on Parade comes from a time when Detroit design set the pace for the world.
• Alexander Hassenstein captured a cool long-exposure image of women’s fencing, part of a larger set.
• More from the big bits/pixels front: peep Peter Carr’s 42-foot-wide HDR panorama,
• PhotoCalc is "a utility for iPhone and iPod for photographers to calculate exposure reciprocation, depth of field, and flash exposure." [Via Fergus Hammond]
• Martin Evening provides a helpful write-up on how auto-masking works in Lightroom’s local correction brushes.

• National Geographic has posted a beautiful gallery of translucent sea creatures, thoughtfully offering desktop wallpaper-sized images. [Via]
• Tipping the scale at more than 8 gigabytes, Brian Lawler’s ginormous HDR photo mural came together in Photoshop, yielding a 19-foot-long printout and a 9-foot-high neon sign.
• Public policy:
  • The NYT headline encapsulates a controversy about Iraq war coverage: 4,000 U.S. Deaths, and Just a Handful of Public Images.
  • The creepy Cameraheads project in Seattle protests the ubiquitous surveillance of public spaces.
• Photojojo has some neat ideas on DIY aerial photography–largely involving one of those telescoping sticks used for paint rolling.
• Now this is some memorable use of motion blur.

• National Geographic has posted a beautiful gallery of translucent sea creatures, thoughtfully offering desktop wallpaper-sized images. [Via]
• Tipping the scale at more than 8 gigabytes, Brian Lawler’s ginormous HDR photo mural came together in Photoshop, yielding a 19-foot-long printout and a 9-foot-high neon sign.
• Public policy:
  • The NYT headline encapsulates a controversy about Iraq war coverage: 4,000 U.S. Deaths, and Just a Handful of Public Images.
  • The creepy Cameraheads project in Seattle protests the ubiquitous surveillance of public spaces.
• Photojojo has some neat ideas on DIY aerial photography–largely involving one of those telescoping sticks used for paint rolling.
• Now this is some memorable use of motion blur.

• Alex Prager mixes mid-century looks with some weird modern twists in her work. On Kitsune Noir Bobby Solomon points out similarities with Philippe Halsman’s wild Dali Atomicus.
• Make mine a White Russian: I love this shot of a Belarusian commando shrouded in smoke.
• Hello, moon: Laurent Laveder uses forced perspective to capture some beautiful Moon Adventures. [Via]
• Take a good look at my crazy, genocidal face: the Faces of Evil collection invites viewers to stare down some of the most infamous figures of the 20th century.  "The pictures are 1,80m x 2,30m, high-resolution digital images that expose every tiny detail of their faces." [Via]
• Ten years after I remember sticking her into a comp, the "Everywhere Girl" (stock photo superstar) has a blog.
• Tangential: I think this is way better than any iPhone.

• Alex Prager mixes mid-century looks with some weird modern twists in her work. On Kitsune Noir Bobby Solomon points out similarities with Philippe Halsman’s wild Dali Atomicus.
• Make mine a White Russian: I love this shot of a Belarusian commando shrouded in smoke.
• Hello, moon: Laurent Laveder uses forced perspective to capture some beautiful Moon Adventures. [Via]
• Take a good look at my crazy, genocidal face: the Faces of Evil collection invites viewers to stare down some of the most infamous figures of the 20th century.  "The pictures are 1,80m x 2,30m, high-resolution digital images that expose every tiny detail of their faces." [Via]
• Ten years after I remember sticking her into a comp, the "Everywhere Girl" (stock photo superstar) has a blog.
• Tangential: I think this is way better than any iPhone.

GPS-related photo bits:

• Bridge geotagger is a free script that "allows you to inspect, set and/or edit GPS data embedded in photos using a Google Maps interface. It uses the embedded Opera HTML engine in Bridge to display Google Maps."  Very cool, though developer Aldo Hoeben describes it as more technology demo than a full-fledged tool.
• Firing up the Exposure Flickr-browsing app on my iPhone the other day, I discovered the nearest geotagged image is of "¡Chavelas!," described as "A delicious blend of Modelo, lime juice and a shot of tequila in a
  frozen pimp chalice!"  Thank you, intercontinental technology network, for making my neighborhood seem cool for a minute.
• Previously: Did you know that Lightroom can call up a Google map to show the coordinates in your images?  So, for that matter, can Photoshop Elements.
• What about images that lack coordinates?  Can a computer accurately guess where something was shot?  That’s the goal of Carnegie Mellon’s IM2GPS project.  Check out this CNET story for a good summary. [Via Doug Nelson]

Off to look for neighborhood pimp chalices on a Friday eve,

J.

Mid-week photography:

• Death & destruction:
  • Photojournalist Warren Zinn reflects on the photo that made Army medic Joseph Dwyer famous, and wonders whether it contributed to the troubled vet’s death last month.
  • Kottke features the disarmingly placid image Robert Wiles captured immediately after Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building in 1947.  (Warhol later made it into a print.)
  • The Big Picture features some spectacular wildfire imagery from recent California blazes.
• Find giclée paseé? Try printing on grass instead.  (Just don’t ask us to soft-proof it.)  [Via Doug Nelson]
• Beware sketchy, sketchy photogs.
• I never saw them while living in snowy Illinois, Boston, or NY, but CA roads are full of stick-on "Botts dots."  They’re now available as part of a complete breakfast.
• Make mine intermediated: Photo nation.

• Jumping the shark: predictable and sad.  Jumping several hundred pounds of very PO’d livestock: much more spectacular.  (Interestingly, the man-gores-bull shot hides behind a "this may be offensive" curtain, whereas the bull-gores-man shots don’t.)
• In Curse of the Black Gold, Ed Kashi captures the pain, degredation, and occasional beauty wrought by oil extraction in Nigeria. (The tiny bottom nav bar offers more info about each image.)
• I used to carry around a GI Joe head that I’d photograph in all kinds of situations (say, the middle of Death Valley). I named him Sgt. Goldbug, after the little Richard Scarry creation who’d hide somewhere on every page.  Witold Riedel is up to similar tricks with The Bear In Repose.
• Getty editors are getting set to start approaching Flickr users, offering to license their images.  PDN offers some perspective on what it all means. [Via Geoff Scott]
• The new Radiohead video was shot without using cameras–instead employing LIDAR (laser radar).  I see only stills so far, but I look forward to the finished product.
• Lightroom:
  • Fashion photographer Martin Evening takes readers inside the photo shoot for his forthcoming Lightroom 2 book.
  • Michael Clark offers a great tip for quick Rank n’ Advance in Lightroom (via the Caps Lock key).
• Josh Derr captured a shot of some great clouds over NYC. [Via]

I’m having fun slacking er, conducting important digital imaging research, starting to explore photography-oriented iPhone apps:

• The free PangeaVR offers amazingly smooth panorama display and navigation.
• Exposure (paid or ad-supported) promises to let you put "2 billion photos in your pocket," letting you browse Flickr from your handheld.  Groovy bonus point: it’ll show you images geotagged to locations near you.
• Clowdy promises easy & free photoblogging.

Unfortunately for the capture-and-upload scenario, the camera in the iPhone is pretty rudimentary.  Doesn’t it seem like someone should build a wireless hookup between the phone & dedicated cameras?  That way you could, for example, put an Eye-Fi memory card into your camera of choice, then upload shots via the phone in your pocket?  Maybe that’s a solution in search of a problem, though, or maybe it would just kill your battery.

If you come across any particularly good or noteworthy apps, feel free to post your experiences here.

Per yesterday’s news…

(Found here) [Via Jacqueline Floyd]

Gonna grab my missiles/Gonna hold them tight…

Iran’s state media is under fire for apparently digitally adding another missile to a photo of an artillery test.  I like the first comment on the NYT story:  “Clearly someone thought 4 missiles would be 33% more scary than three… or they thought it really tied the composition together, which, I have to say, it actually does.” [Via everyone ever]

Now, excuse me while we get back to work making it even easier for various Great Satans to fake you out.  (Actually, a number of Adobe folks have been collaborating with news agencies on ways to offer greater image authentication, and PBS hosts a 13-minute Nova segment focusing on Dr. Hany Farid & discussing his work with Adobe.)

Updates:

• Wonkette refers to "the Iranian Revolutionary WoW Photoshoppers Guild." Nice. [Via Russell Brady]
• I think the Iranian peeps were inspired by the Chinese news agency.
• Gizmodo challenges readers “to use Photoshop to create some sweet Iranian propaganda, showing their technological advancements that are heretofore unseen.” [Via Fergus Hammond]

PS–To everyone who now has that awful song in their heads, you’re welcome.

• Wired hosts an interesting Gallery of Sawn-In-Half Cameras.
• Rapid decents:
  • The Big Picture offers a collection of diving photos (taken at a recent US Olympic qualifying event) unlike any I’ve seen before.
  • In Kabul in Transition, photojournalist Tyler Hicks shows diving platforms used for a far darker purpose.
• Mitchell Feinberg makes unique art using food.  Many more examples are on his site.
• 22-year-old photographer Kevin Connolly was born legless and chronicles the world from his unique perspective.  CNET has his story.
• In Land of the Free, Steve Schofield portrays sci-fi costumers, exploring how people establish a fictional existence to escape the everyday. [Via]
• Slices in time:
  • "Barbara Probst’s diptych and triptych photos," says the Morning News, "taken at the same time from different cameras and points of view, offer multiple versions of a split second."  It’s a cool project, well worth a look. [Via]
  • The Immodesty multicam system aims to "create an affordable platform which enable all kinds of temporal-spatial experimentation."  In some ways it’s a poor-man’s tool for getting the Matrix "bullet time" effect, as videos on their site show, but the output can be deployed in more interactive ways, too.
• Reuters hosts some striking images of a Chilean volcanic eruption.

This is your PM…

This is your PM after being busted following an all-night meth bender…

Lightroom team member Kelly Castro has been continuing his "Exteriors" project (see the whole collection), photographing people at Adobe & elsewhere.  On Monday he got me into the team’s on-site photo studio for a shoot*.  If you’re into this style, check out the info that Kelly & Bryan O’Neil Hughes put together on generating killer B&W using Photoshop + Lightroom.  (Kelly also created a color version of my portrait, in which I have the healthy glow of a Barbecue Pringle.)

In other photo news:

• Peep Eddie Murphy’s giant head on the interstate.  (I’d like to see versions for Barry Bonds & Ted Kennedy, but I guess it would be redundant.) [Via]
• Don’t I know you from the cinematographer’s party?  No Country for Raising Arizona juxtaposes scenes from two very different Coen Bros. films. [Via]
• Not just a weird Photoshop job: Chinese cops on Segways (with very tiny guns). [Via] [Update: Engadget is having a caption contest for the photo. (“Don’t make me lean forward and come over there…”)]

*These little photo projects tend to turn funky, ranging from foolish to beatific to vainglorious. (Take that, Eddie Murphy.)

Here’s a bit of brilliance for your Monday: "The Image Fulgurator is a device for physically manipulating photographs. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards."  In other words, it watches for the flash of someone else’s camera & projects an image onto what they’re photographing.  Check it out in action. [Via]

On a related note, Wired surveys cameras shaped like guns, cameras on guns, and more. [Via Ellis Vener] For other projected guerilla fun, see previous about Applied Autonomy’s “Streetwriter.”

• People as smoke: the simple tricks of long exposure produce a ghostly presence.  [Via Marc Pawliger]
• The Big Picture showcases the wrath of nature:
  • I used to play soccer against the guys from Cedar Rapids, IA, and I hate seeing the city submerged.  Scroll down as the photography gets more and more striking.
  • Smoke from the northern California fires cast a bizarre light over the Bay Area last week.  Apparently the T1000 got caught in the flames.
• Vintage photo manipulation:
  • Wired New York features a wealth of early photos of the city. Among them you can find at least one example of rudimentary (yet surprisingly decent) photo manipulation.
  • Sam Haskins talks a bit about how composite photos were made in the time before Photoshop and shows an example. "At the time there was zero retouching after the event. Now of course I have the luxury of scanning the transparency to clean and refine the image in Photoshop – God bless its digital socks." [Via]
• Doing their own thing:
  • Phillip Toledano has created a photo essay of phone sex operators–a surprisingly articulate, diverse, and self-aware crew.  (Fair warning: The photos are tame, but some of the blurbs beneath them are fairly frank.) [Via]
  • Return of the ’70s Weirdos features 1978 & 2008 photos of a group of early Microsoft employees.  [Via]  Referring to aging dudes working for MSFT these days, a friend of mine calls the shuttle bus from Seattle to Redmond "The Ponytail Express."
  • You never know what you’ll find via the American Gothic tag on Flickr. [Via]

• People as smoke: the simple tricks of long exposure produce a ghostly presence.  [Via Marc Pawliger]
• The Big Picture showcases the wrath of nature:
  • I used to play soccer against the guys from Cedar Rapids, IA, and I hate seeing the city submerged.  Scroll down as the photography gets more and more striking.
  • Smoke from the northern California fires cast a bizarre light over the Bay Area last week.  Apparently the T1000 got caught in the flames.
• Vintage photo manipulation:
  • Wired New York features a wealth of early photos of the city. Among them you can find at least one example of rudimentary (yet surprisingly decent) photo manipulation.
  • Sam Haskins talks a bit about how composite photos were made in the time before Photoshop and shows an example. "At the time there was zero retouching after the event. Now of course I have the luxury of scanning the transparency to clean and refine the image in Photoshop – God bless its digital socks." [Via]
• Doing their own thing:
  • Phillip Toledano has created a photo essay of phone sex operators–a surprisingly articulate, diverse, and self-aware crew.  (Fair warning: The photos are tame, but some of the blurbs beneath them are fairly frank.) [Via]
  • Return of the ’70s Weirdos features 1978 & 2008 photos of a group of early Microsoft employees.  [Via]  Referring to aging dudes working for MSFT these days, a friend of mine calls the shuttle bus from Seattle to Redmond "The Ponytail Express."
  • You never know what you’ll find via the American Gothic tag on Flickr. [Via]

• Slate features an excellent photo essay from Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak, Wars: Chechnya and Iraq.  The subject is heavy, but his sardonic narration is well worth a listen.
• Happening to have a camera on hand during a terrible interruption yielded this rather amazing earthquake wedding photo gallery. [Via]
• The NYT profiles photographer Nikola Tamindzic.  “He uses long exposures, then shakes the camera while the shutter is still open, causing colors to blur and lights to streak. ‘I’m not recording what is really happening, but it’s something like what the brain is seeing late at night, especially if maybe you’re drunk or very excited,’ he said.” [Via]   On his own site he offers one of the more punishing self portaits I’ve ever seen.
• Ernesto Scott teaches photography near my old home town & offers lots of lovely bird shots.
• Raw in the raw: camera tech nerds (or just the curious) may enjoy Looking at a Real NEF Bayer Pattern. [Via Dave Polaschek]
• Photographer Jay Maisel is offering more intensive NYC-based photography workshops (July 14-18, Sept. 15-19, and Nov. 17-21).  Details are on his site.