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Global children with their favorite toys

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Toyssssss Gabriele Galimberti photographed children around the world posed with their favorite toys and possessions. At top, Pavel (Kiev, Ucraina). Above, Maudy (Kalulushi, Zambia) and Noel (Dallas, Texas). "Toy Stories"

Photos & Recaps from the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

 I start the New York Times Crossword every day (I can't always finish) and have often fantasized about throwing down with the real puzzle masters at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Photographer Rufus Mangrove was there last weekend, and his artful shots of the event make it look like a blast.

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Tricky Dick meets RoboCop

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Richard Nixon and his pal RoboCop in 1987. Photo snapped by Chuck Pulin during a charity event promoting the movie's VHS release. (via Mental Floss)

Shuttle Discovery, just chillaxin' at Udvar-Hazy (photo)

Bryan Jones shot this lovely portrait of Space Shuttle Discovery at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. This companion site to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened in 2003, and is located near Washington Dulles International Airport. The shuttle arrived there about a year ago.

Starry night: skies over New Zealand

Photo: Ngauruhoe Rise, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (2.0) image from astronomr (aka Jason Brown)'s photostream, shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. Another beautiful shot, showing trails as the stars move across the sky, is here. Photographer Jason Brown has a blog with more wonderful astronomy photos, and says,

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National Geographic's Tumblr

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National Geographic has launched an excellent Tumblr of archived photos, called National Geographic Found. No, the above photo isn't from last year's Folsom Street Fair but rather a 1966 shot of some gents in London. (Photo by James P. Blair.)

Interview with author of The Art of Clean Up

I can't wait to show Ursus Wehrli's book, The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy, to Jane because her mind works this way. Here's a photo of her dinner place setting when she was five.


Is there a practical purpose to the book?

No. I don’t like to work with a moral goal in mind. If people see my work and like it I think that is ok. Of course, there are a lot of issues that come with it: we are living in a very complicated world and I realised the more topsy-turvy our world becomes the more satisfying it is to see these tidied up situations. It’s kind of reassuring to see these pictures even if it doesn’t make sense at all. I think it speaks to our complicated world because our days are full of decisions and sometimes it is really hard to decide what is right, what’s wrong and we have to fight against the mess and the chaos. I wouldn’t say it is a manifesto for a neat world, but I’m happy if it makes people think about the balance between chaos and order. Of course, we realise we need both poles and it’s the balance that makes life worth living.

Interview with author of The Art of Clean Up

Caturday

Two cat portraits shared in the BB Flickr Pool by reader __AK__.

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Photography exhibition under the sea

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For the last two months, Viennese artist Andreas Franke has had a new show of photographs on exhibition near Barbados. Thing is, you needed to SCUBA dive to see them. The photos hung on the hull of the Stabrokikita, a 365-foot Greek freighter that was deliberately sunk in 1978. Franke's photos of Rococo-inspired scenes are superimposed with underwater photographs, adding an atmospheric surreality to the final image. Seemingly, viewing these images 120 feet underwater would add to their dreaminess. This is the second series in Franke's "Sinking World" project. His first collection of images were displayed earlier this year on the USS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a massive military ship that in 2009 was sunk to the ocean floor and became the second largest artificial reef in the world. Those photos have since been recovered and displayed at The Studios of Key West art gallery. "The Sinking World" (via CNN)

Same couple pose as 9 different fashion-followers

Nacho Rojo is is photographer in Madrid, Spain. In this series, Rojo photographed the same two models posing as nine different fashion-following couples.

(Via 22 words)

Stunning snake portraits

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NewImageIn 2011, photographer Mark Laita created Sea, a book of stunning portraits of strange ocean creatures. Now comes Serpentine, in which Laita points his lens at a stunning series of snakes. Above, Rowley’s Palm Pit Viper (Bothriechis rowleyi).

Serpentine by Mark Laita (Amazon)

"Snakes in a Frame: Mark Laita’s Stunning Photographs of Slithering Beasts" (Smithsonian)

Slinkachu's "War Child" photos

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More "tiny people" installation photos by Slinkachu, whose work is compiled in several books including the recent Global Model Village. The pieces featured above and below were commissions for "20 Years of War Child," an exhibition at the British Music Experience museum running until March 28.

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The Glif: quickly mount an iPhone to a tripod

I use my iPhone to shoot video because the quality is excellent and I like the many different inexpensive video apps available for the iPhone (such as stop motion apps). I also like being able to email iPhone videos or upload them to YouTube directly from my phone instead of having to first transfer them to a computer.

The main drawback with using the iPhone to shoot video is that you can’t put it on a tripod — you have to hold it in your hand or precariously lean it against something. The best iPhone mounting solution I’ve found so far is the Glif, a tiny hard-rubber clip with a metal 1/4″-­20 thread that attaches to any tripod mount. Simply slide the iPhone into the Glif’s slot and you’re ready to go. (The Glif was one of the first breakaway hits on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, taking in almost $130,000 more than its $10,000 goal in late 2010.)


The Glif has one other function: it’s a “kickstand” that lets you use your iPhone as a mini-display on your desktop or airplane fold down tray.

If you want to use the Glif when you’re on the move, pay the extra $10 for the Glif Plus, which includes a separate plastic piece that locks your iPhone onto the Glif so there’s no chance of it falling off. - Mark

The Glif

Sunset, Santa Monica Pier

From the Boing Boing Flickr pool, a lovely photo of one of my favorite places in greater Los Angeles by Shabdro Photo, a Boing Boing reader and photographer.

Sci-fi scenes that use real ocean life as props

Jason Isley is an underwater photographer, which means that the strange and wonderful creatures you and I go ga-ga over are really just part of a workaday routine for him. This is a fact which has gotten him into fights on the Internet ...

I made a comment online recently that I was growing tired of nudibranches and was immediately bombarded with abuse and comments from ‘nudi-lovers’. Allow me to clarify: It’s not that I actually dislike the little flamboyant slugs, but once you have shot a few thousand images of nudies and other common macro life, I was running out of ways to maintain my passion for photographing them. I’ve shot them from countless angles and under a variety of lighting configurations. I know there are now lots of different techniques and gadgets to spice things up, like snoots, external macro diopters, and bugeye lenses, but for me, I really wanted to do something entirely different.

The result: A clever, cheeky series of photos that pair real underwater life forms with little miniature figurines from the hobby store and the toy store.

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