goldengod

I found a lot of really sexy photography related links this week. If high quality glass and light-sensitive chemicals make you horny baby, click here like you’ve never clicked before. And for the love of Justin Timberlake, clean up after yourselves!

• Thomas Hawk’s Top Ten Flickr Hacks - There is some hella useful stuff on this list that I’m going to start using right away, some of these are a must if you use Flickr.
• BushHawk - A company that sells similar products to the KGB Photosniper I wrote about previously.
• Future Shock by David Sims - I’m not normally given to linking to random LJ photosets, but there’s some really high-quality work here. (via Jhayne)
• 100 Self-Portraits in 100 Days - This guy took a pretty limiting concept and did some amazing things with it. One of the best self-portrait collections I’ve ever seen.
• Red Bull Illume - Sports and action photography contest, voting is still open for the People’s Choice award. (via Josh Spear)

I mean it, clean up that mess or I will turn this website right around young man!

The Alchemists is an upcoming documentary about five individuals who changed the face of advertising forever. The movie is directed by Doug Pray (”Scratch”, “Infamy”) and for me, that’s all I need to know.

His film Scratch, on the history of hip-hop and turntablism, is one of my favourite documentaries and I don’t even really like hip-hop. That’s how good this man is. This gives me high hopes for what he’ll be doing with this film. The summary sounds like something I definitely want to sink my eyeballs into:

THE ALCHEMISTS is a surprisingly personal exploration of some of the most influential advertising giants of the last century, and the communication they created which rocked our culture. Inspired by the social movements of their time and driven by the need to communicate some greater truth, these artists and writers despised mediocrity and the status quo of the advertising industry and brought a revolutionary spirit to their work.

Josh Spear said it best when he said, “if you only watch one trailer this week– make it this one”. I agree wholeheartedly, hit the link, check it out, and tell me what you think.

The IMDB is telling me I need a Pro account to view any further information on the film, so I’m going to attempt to get in touch with someone at The One Club. With a little luck and some friendly PR people, I’ll have a follow-up post on this in the near future.

(Found via Josh Spear)

Somewhere by Andrew Ferguson

The Ad Generator is an art project created by Alexis Lloyd as a part of her Masters thesis in Fine Arts. By mashing up remixed slogans with images from Flickr, she explores the layers of meaning within modern ads.

The ad generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly.

I really like the fact that she took it one step further than simple slogan and image mashup by adding an element of randomness. It raises questions about the meaning of language in advertising and sometimes results in some classy Engrish.

How can something that normally seems meaningful appear so nonsensical without proper context? The elements of advertising work together to attack a part of our brain that we ourselves are not fully aware of. New Scientist has an excellent short piece on branding and the brain.

Disagreement by Andrew Ferguson

Tasty brainmeats aside, I can think of at least a couple ways to improve on the ad generator. Even now I want to set it to only choose photos from the first page or two of Flickr’s interestingness search.

This will result in photos that are higher quality and, well, more interesting. Most of the photos that the program selects now are pretty low quality and bad photographs overall, something we don’t generally associate with advertising. Ads should be shiny and beautiful and look like they took forty devout monks eighteen weeks to create using unicorn-hair calligraphy brushes goddamnit!

That’s not to say the ads created by the generator aren’t impressive. Sometimes, the generator is nothing short of genius. The pairing of the phrase “LOVE IS MILK” with a phonecam shot of a bloody tampon is truly a thing of beauty.

Desolate by Andrew Ferguson

Hey folks, allow me to drop character for a minute. I’m going to switch my update schedule to once every two days. It seems that attempting to update every weekday can only be successful when my work is slow.

This past week has been pretty hectic, and it has taken a bit of a toll on me. You may have noticed me going five days without an update. So from now on, I’m going to attempt a solid update once every two days. Link roundups will continue on Wednesdays and not be part of this schedule.

I’m hoping this will allow me more time to work on getting a buffer of completed posts and some longer articles, including a few how to articles. We shall see. What kinds of different content do you readers want to see on goldengod? Please let me know in the comments.

Quantification by Andrew Ferguson

One of the things that put a lot of people off from photography is the exorbitant cost of absolutely everything. Equipment and camera rental can be an affordable way to get the shots you want without sacrificing quality.

I am poor. Not ridiculously so, but a large portion of my income is going towards paying off old credit card debts. I can’t afford fancy lenses right now. Renting lenses is a good way for me to be able to play with fancy equipment on a tiny budget.

I currently use a local outfit here in Vancouver called Leo’s Camera Supply for all my camera rental needs. These guys are mad sexy. If I were the kind of gentleman who’d attempt to court a store as if it were a lady, this would be the first place to receive tacky chocolate roses. I have only ever had one problem with them, and it turned into one of my best customer service experiences ever.

They accidentally double booked a Canon EF 24-105mm F4 ‘L’ IS USM lens I wanted for a single day. I couldn’t get my lens because they technically promised it to the other guy first. I understood, but was frustrated because I still had to shoot an event that day. They set me up with a Sigma EX 24-70mm f2.8 DG Macro for three days, at no charge, and I didn’t even ask for a deal. That’s service.

Obviously if you’re outside of Vancouver, Leo’s is not so helpful. If you’re in Canada, my advice is to check your local photography shops and pray for the best. If you’re in America, options expand somewhat. I’ve found two companies that do mail order lens rental in the US: ZipLens and RentGlass. Sadly, I know nothing about either company beyond what’s in their FAQs.

Casual by Andrew Ferguson

If forced to choose one, I’d go with RentGlass but I probably couldn’t tell you why. Photocritic wrote a quick entry about these two sites, but (for once) Haje doesn’t seem to know any more than I do.

Renting equipment is a choice I’ve made because it works for me, for now. I know I won’t be doing it forever, and I know it’s not the best choice for everyone.

Lens Rental Pros:

• This is an excellent way to save money on equipment costs when you’re starting out, particularly if you schedule multiple shoots during the same rental period.
• No need to buy accessories. Most rentals come with a good UV filter, lens hood, and carrying case.
• Let’s be honest, how often are you going to need that 400mm fixed lens? That’s what I thought.
• Less risk of damage if you have kids/pets/roommates. It’s easy to be vigilant about a $2,000 lens when you’ve only got it for two days. It’s a lot harder when you own it.

Lens Rental Cons:

• You can’t always get what you want. You are at the whim of what they have in stock, unless you reserve well in advance.
• The cost on frequent lens or camera rental can add up fast. This will start to dig into the money you were saving to purchase equipment.
• You can’t be as spontaneous as you’d like to be. I run into situations all the time, sometimes right after I return my rental, where that lens would be useful.
• It’s cool to own things! There is a distinct happiness that comes from owning your own equipment.

Ultimately, it’s up to everyone to evaluate the idea of camera equipment rental and make the decision themselves. Those of you who use special camera equipment and lenses, do you rent? Why or why not?

Edit: This is also featured as a guest article on Photocritic.org

Here is a paragraph of text talking about my selections for this week and why I chose them. Or perhaps just a meta-sentence!

• 7 Rules for Maximizing Creative Output - Hopefully the strategies in here will help me keep my posting schedule up. I’m starting to implement them, but due to my recent Heroes addiction I’m battling sleep deprivation.
• Twenty Amazing Short Animations - There’s always something you can add to any “Top Whatever” list, but this is still a pretty great collection of animated shorts.
• Emeric Trahand’s Design Portfolio - A French designer whose work I’ve been enjoying looking at for inspiration.
• A Selection of Obscure Robert Anton Wilson Essays - Obscure essays by a recently deceased Discordian may seem a bit out of place on this list until you remember that I am currently Discordian as part of the Year of Faith.
• Ads of the World - A large collection of ads from all over the world and a community built around them. Pretty straightforward
• Best of Bootie 2006 - The best mashups of 2006, this is my constant soundtrack these days.

pirates! 2 by Wade B

Infamous BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay has launched a plan to buy the Principality of Sealand and is offering citizenship to those willing to help their cause.

The Pirate Bay’s satirical army, the Armed Coalition Forces of the Internets or ACFI, have launched a site at BuySealand.com announcing their intentions to purchase the micronation.

A statement on the site announces that they will be collecting donations in the hopes of being able to purchase the island and operate it as a copyright haven. In addition, they have made promises of citizenship for anyone who contributes financially.

It should be a great place for everybody. With high-speed Internets access, no copyright laws and vip accounts to The Pirate Bay, press officer of ACFI says.

If Sealand is no longer available by the time the donations are raised or the donations are simply not enough, Plan B is to simply buy a different island and set up shop there.

For those who aren’t familiar, Sealand is a small principality off the coast of England that recently garnered media attention with its sale. No countries have yet to recognize Sealand’s status as a nation, but so far that also hasn’t seemed to matter. Sealand claims to be an island but in actuality it’s a manmade offshore installation; an old gun battery from World War II.

The Pirate Bay has yet to address whether they will be working in conjunction with or ousting Sealands only data haven company, HavenCo. Hopefully an answer to this will turn up in the forums shortly.

The Jobby Roger by fullgl

The news was only recently announced, but has already hit major sites like Boing Boing and the front page of Digg in addition to torrent news sites like TorrentFreak. I am intensely curious to see how traditional media covers this, if they do at all. The press tends not to cover The Pirate Bay or The Pirate Party, their political arm, in a favourable light.

When a Swedish newspaper speculated TPB’s ad revenue to be in excess of $75,000USD monthly this past July, a number of press outlets wrote editorials about how The Pirate Bay is less about people’s rights and more about making gobs of money.

So far there has been no word on whether or not the name “Sealand” will be kept if they are successful. The “Seamen” jokes found on the internet have already quadrupled, so it may stay the same because it’s funny. So far, the best observation on the whole situation has been offered by Digg user sockpuppets:

“…if they actually wind up owning this thing they *better* be arriving there on a pirate ship.”

Related:

• Talk Like A Pirate Day Flashmob Vancouver 2006 Photos

The Unseen Video is more engaging than a triple digit group marriage. The project is a weather-controlled dynamic music video created by Daniel Scheibel and Ferdinand Weinrother.

Made for the song “You Make Me Feel” by Canadian photographer and musician Mike Milosh, The Unseen Video represents a new type of interactive media. The video, built in Flash, changes how it looks based entirely on weather data it gathers online.

Every element of the weather, from current P.O.P. to when the sun rises, will have an effect on what you see. The website has a sizeable chart mapping out the relationships between the visual elements and the related weather conditions. The temperature outside will affect the colour, scale, and quantity of ornaments and flowers seen while the sunrise and sunset affect the overall brightness.

Why did they create such a thing? For school, of course!

theunseenvideo is the final year project of Daniel Scheibel and Ferdinand Weinrother. The work was generated during the summer term of March-July 2005 at the Department of Design, University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Germany.

This is a brilliant final project for a design degree. Hell, for anything. I’ve already lost a sizeable chunk of my time watching it so often, take care the same doesn’t happen to you.

I’ve decided, based on advice from a series on better blogging that I’ve been reading, to begin going a weekly-ish link roundup. I’ll post links and short summaries of around half a dozen sites that I’ve visited in the past week that I spent a lot of time reading or were particularly worthwhile. These will mostly be related to photography, but not always.

• The Simple Dollar: Building A Better Blog for 2007 - A really excellent guide for getting a new blog off the ground by building and maintaining a healthy long term readership. The author is also really great about responding to any feedback or questions you have, check it out.
• Matt Greer Photography - A talented Halifax area photographer and blogger. I found his tutorial on Curves in Photoshop via Photocritic and haven’t looked back. This man has helped me improve my Photoshop skills immensely in a short period of time, whether he knows it or not.
• 24 Ways: Photographic Palettes - A concise tutorial on sampling for design colour schemes from a photograph, including how to handle tonal variations. This was written by local Vancouver designer & founder of Bright Creative, Dave Shea.
• Color Scheme Generator 2 - This was linked to in the comments of the above post and is by far the most useful tool I’ve ever encountered for design colour schemes. The options available to you are insane, including options to show how the colours would look to someone with specific optical disorders.
• Academy Films - When I need new inspiration for photography, I love to watch well-directed music videos and commercials. This site has a small but quality collection of both, including work by directors Martin De Thurah, Jonathan Glazer, and The Brothers Quay.

Is this a worthwhile endeavour? Let me know in the comments.

Neatorama has posted a gallery of thirteen photographs that changed the world. Each picture includes a short history of the photo and explanation of why it’s significant. If you want to see how photojournalism can move mountains, these are the images that did it.

There are dozens of photos that could have been added to this list. I’m arguing with myself over the inclusion of some of these, such as the surgeon’s photo. I can’t fully justify removing any, but I can definitely justify adding at least one.

The one photo that I would add to this list is Tank Man. This photo is incredibly iconic and important to me. This shot is of an event that occurred during my lifetime, so that may be why it holds a larger sense of importance to me.

Photographically, Tank Man (or The Unknown Rebel) symbolizes the core of photojournalism. When it comes down to the wire, all the technical acumen and artistic sense in the world isn’t worth anything if you don’t get the shot. Artistic merit is a secondary concern. It comes after getting a shot that will move people’s hearts and mind.

Stuart Franklin and Jeff Widener each present us with a photo that is fairly devoid of any obvious technical wizardry and artistic merit. The interesting thing is that this does not matter in the slightest. The photo is important and iconic in it’s own right, not despite that but because of it. The fact that the only photo of such an event was taken from a hotel room over half a mile away speaks volumes about how tightly controlled the foreign press were at this time.

This gives the photo a sense of the forbidden. We have glimpsed a brave act committed as part of a protest that we were not meant to see, for fear it would galvanize the people against the Chinese government.Almost twenty years later, it is still one of the most recognizable photographs in the world.

I’ve made my case for an addition to the list, what do you think? I know most of you have at least a passing interest in photography, or you wouldn’t be here. Take a minute out of your day if you can and comment with what photographs you think are most important to our world and why.