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pics of chicks.
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animal noises as made by children from around the world.
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“These flat, ribbon-like creatures live inside the digestive tracts of vertebrates. The tapeworms that live in humans can get up to sixty feet long. They feed on our food, despite the fact that they have neither a mouth nor a digestive tract.”
Month: February 2007
I was looking back at some of my old digiscoped pictures yesterday.
‘Digiscoping’ is the trick of using your birding telescope as very high-powered telephoto lens. At the simplest level, you just hold the camera up to the eyepiece and shoot through the scope; to get the best results you need more sophisticated equipment. You could do this with a film camera, of course, but it makes it a lot easier to have a screen so you can see what you’re doing, and to know that you can just delete the ones that don’t come out.
Anyway, I was vaguely wondering what they reminded me of, other than themselves.
I realised that it was ‘toy camera’ pictures. You may not have encountered this trend, but there’s a [recent?] fashion for taking pictures with very basic old mass-market compact cameras, like the Soviet Lomo, or the Chinese Holga. The poor construction of these cameras, including plastic lenses and light leaks, produce distinctive pictures with lurid colours, dodgy focus, vignetting and other technical flaws. Which sounds crap, but actually the pictures have a rough-edged immediacy which can be very attractive.
My telescope doesn’t have plastic lenses, of course. But it wasn’t designed for taking pictures, either. And my adaptor consists of the bottom of a film canister glued into the lid of a pill bottle, with a hole cut through them. It serves to keep the camera roughly in the centre of the eyepiece, but it doesn’t keep it properly lined up along the axis of the telescope or keep it steady.
When I took them, I was doing my damnedest to take the best possible pictures despite the technical limitations of my equipment. The results aren’t going to win any wildlife photography prizes, but some of them do have something of that same weird vividness that I find attractive in toy camera pictures.
This kind of lo-fi aesthetic probably doesn’t appeal to everyone. But I might as well enjoy it in my own pictures. Not that I feel defensive about them; I enjoyed the challenge of taking them and never expected them to be anything other than holiday snaps. I’d never really tried bird photography before — they don’t make an easy subject and it’s difficult enough trying to see them normally — but if birding is the main point of a trip, it’s a treat to have a record of birds instead of just places.
I liked these pictures anyway. Does a spiffy aesthetic context make me like them any more? Should it?
Perhaps it doesn’t matter. I just wanted to note the comparison.
» All pictures are from Flickr and are links so you can click through to the relevant pages. The birdy ones are by me; the child was taken with a Holga by john.makarewicz and the Peruvian valley was taken with a LOMO by phoosh.
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loads and loads and loads of pictures to look at. Via Coudal.
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many many many snail and seashell photos.
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“This is a nice eraser for geeks. But it really doesn’t compare to MYZAR, the Eraser Robot, produced decades ago by purveyors of educational stuff Gakken.”
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“a selection of recent large-scale time-exposure color photographs taken in a Japanese high-tech Toyota factory, north of Paris.” via Coudal
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Can you beat my score of 50055?
Links
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‘Above, 182 species of bacteria found on the forearm skin of six healthy volunteers’ – cool or queasy-making, depending on whether you aspire to living in a sterile bubble.
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typographical examples by Zapf. via Coudal.
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“Ultimately, what are we to make of Polk Miller? He attempted to popularize and legitimize black vernacular music decades before it was acceptable to do so, but he also openly longed for the days of slavery.” fascinating post (with music) at The Tofu Hut
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via Metafilter
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Man, the GRL have all the cool toys. Via Metafilter.
The Incredible Hulk smoothie
Let me just make it clear, in case any of the lawyers from Marvel Comics (soft drinks division) should happen to be watching: by using the phrase ‘Incredible Hulk’, I’m not claiming that Marvel Comics endorse, recognise, or know of the existence of, this drink. Or indeed that it gives you a short temper or superhuman strength.
But you have to admit, it’s certainly green:
The flesh of a small pineapple and three kiwi fruit chucked in a blender, since you ask.
Links
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‘a photograph of a world record attempt for most snow angels at one time… this past Saturday, February 17, 2007 in Bismarck, North Dakota. More than 8,900 people took part, which should, if it holds up, obliterate the previous record of 3,784.’
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a huge gallery of American 1950s car art – advertising, catalogues and such. via Coudal.
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as Metafilter put it, ‘a hamster ball for gamers’.
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“Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a particular type of gospel that I gravitate to. As with this week’s selections, my tastes tend to run to the more… well, I’m not sure how to put it exactly. The more… psychedelic side of gospel.”