A friend of mine calls me up every week or so with a photography question. Usually, he’s looking for the magic incantation or editing technique that will make his photos turn out in a particular way. Sometimes there is such a thing (e.g. wait for the the flash to charge, use manual focus, etc.). But usually there isn’t. Usually, getting a particular effect in a photograph, either at the camera or in post-production, requires experience, artistry, experimentation, and work. And a lot of the stuff you learn on one photo can’t just be applied blindly to the next one. School portraits aside (ha!), every photo is different.
I try to take pictures every day. Some days, of course, I’m inspired by something I see. At other times, I need to inspire myself and come up with an idea. This week, an idea was prompted by discovering an old discarded medicine cabinet that had mirrored doors. The doors were removable and provided me with two relatively large rectangles of mirrored glass.
One day, I decided to play with the mirrors, and it certainly was fun. First, I washed them to eliminate distracting blotches and spots. Then I tried laying various objects on them. I found that some objects are pretty boring on a mirror. For example, most thin flat objects do not produce interesting reflections. All you see are the edges. Plump or rounded objects reveal more of their undersides. If the underside is a different color from the top side, you can get interesting images. Although you can , you will have far more fun experimenting with real ones.
Irregularly shaped objects make the most interesting reflections, I think. It’s hard to tell where the object ends and its reflection begins. I set a half-peeled clementine on the mirror and was tickled by the result; later, I piled the segments on the mirror and liked those results as well.
Remember those plastic scramble puzzles you used to get in cereal boxes or from the toy vending machines at the grocery store?
Now you can create a puzzle with your own photo (without pushing around hard plastic chicklets with your fingernails) with Befuddlr.
Upload your photo to the , go to Befuddlr and click “photojojo”, select your photo, and scramble it into an online puzzle game!
The site will even time your unscrambling attempts, making for a perfect mid-day office-wide showdown.
We did in . Can you beat us?
Photo by
p.s. Our pal Amy, one of the site’s founders, tells us they’ve got lots more on the way, including user accounts and a way to challenge your friends directly!
“Cyber Monday” is a made-up online retail “holiday”. But whatever, we’ll play along. Fun sale prices on fun Photojojo things!
This season’s hit! In stock and available with CompactFlash adapter! ($99 and $129)
Bendable and flexible mini-tripod wraps around just about anything to hold your point & shoot. $20 — TODAY ONLY!
8 neodymium magnets hold your photos to a thin cable you can hang just about anywhere. EXTENDED! — $10 for 1 more day. (+ discounts on 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24-packs!)
Gravity-defying tripod belongs in sci-fi. Sticks to anything: glass, trees, walls… even upside down! EXTENDED! — $30 for 1 more day.
Circle-ize your photos, then use the included to create fun photo arrangements! $12 — TODAY ONLY!
Uncle Herman may be a greedy, monopolistic tycoon, but you’re the one with the deed for your sister Betty’s dusty old garage.
In the game of Photo-opoly, it doesn’t matter if you own Boardwalk or Park Place – because it’s your photos and memories in the game instead!
Photo-opoly lets you make the game; with everything you need to make a customized version of your own ‘opoly, just add your photos!
If you’re planning on spending some time with the fam this holiday, you may have just found the perfect pastime.
Photo-opoly includes board, playing pieces, dice, cash and cards, a glue stick for adding your photos onto property lots and deeds, simple instructions, and a photo cutting guide to slice your photos to size.
Photo-opoly – Yeah, it’s like the original. Only way more awesome.
A customized photo-opoly board is the perfect “warm, fuzzy memory”-inducing gift for even the grouchiest in your life.
More gift ideas from our shop of photo goody goodies…
8 neodymium magnets hold your photos to a thin cable you can hang just about anywhere. Only $10 through this weekend! (+ discounts on 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24-packs!)
A stripey, felt-lined neoprene cocoon that attaches to anything. Baby your tiny digital camera. ($22)
Gravity-defying tripod belongs in sci-fi. Sticks to anything: glass, trees, walls… even upside down! Only $30 through this weekend!
Elegant bags, totes, and more, made-to-order from photos you upload. Holiday deadline: December 4th
These clever plastic clips allow you to construct anything you can imagine using ordinary photos as building blocks. ($10)
Create two sets of stunning hardwood photo blocks using our Do-It-Yourself kit. Everything you need in one box! ($25)
Stand out from the crowd this year by sending your photos in our elegant, self-standing, .
Only $2 each (cheaper in quantity), and they even take normal letter-rate postage. Send one to everyone on your list!
See also: Our .
Our old pal Isaac Newton spent his whole life trying to prove that Up was Up, and Up pressed Down on things that were Down.
Well we’re bucking that now-established wisdom and making Sideways where it’s at.
Jan von Holleben’s photo series, “Dreams of Flying,” cleverly switches Up with Sideways by having neighborhood kids lie on their sides amid props on the ground around them.
We guess von Holleben figured that kids spend most of their time crawling around in the dirt anyway, so why not make the best of it?
Bucking gravity, his photographs recreate wondrous scenes from our childhood dreams – taking us back to a time when our grandest ambitions were to , walk the moon, and blaze across the Sahara .
The results are imaginative and brilliant. And, taking a page from von Holleben’s book, we’re now off try this for ourselves! All we need is a ladder, some kids, and a camera… Viva la Sideways!
p.s. Try this out along with us! in the Photojojo Forum, and you may be randomly chosen to win a special prize.
p.p.s. Keen readers may note that Karina blogged this . We just loved the idea so much we had to write about it twice!
If you would like to be inspired by photographs, take a look at the winners in the . I was surprised not only at the variety of work displayed there, but also at how appealing many of the images were.
is a monthly magazine for professional photographers, and I feared that all the images might be just ads or promotional pieces. However, photographers competed in a number of categories:
Since it's autumn, and the leaves here in the mountains are still beautiful, I thought I'd post a photo I took a few years ago in my sister's front yard in Vermont. It had rained and there were drops of water on the leaves, which glistened from the wet. I've used this photo to make note cards, which seem to be popular with their recipients.
I will be offering this for sale on my photo art Web site in the near future. Check it out at . If you'd like this picture and it hasn't been posted there, please contact me at .
Our canine compadres always seem to get the short end of the bone in life, so that’s why we’re inventing a Photojojo first: The Doggie-Cam.
By sticking a camera on our four-legged friend Molly, we’ll finally see the world as she sees it, and maybe then we’ll be able to sympathize. No more doggie disrespect!
Who knows, after this we might just start lobbying for dogs’ rights – Dogs deserve to vote, we think. And where’s all the doggie mayors? Well, we’ll change that. The 2008 presidential elections? We’re talkin’ third-party dog candidate, baby. Before you know it, dogs will be in positions of power everywhere – dogs could rule the world!
Whoa, Nelly. So we might not go that far. But sometimes, we think it’s worth it to look at life from the underdog’s point-of-view – and with the Doggie-Cam, now we can.
p.s. Help us out,
(Thanks to reader Wayne Pile for pointing us to what we should admit is , and hooking us on this idea.)
Remember those plastic scramble puzzles you used to get in cereal boxes or from the toy vending machines at the grocery store?
If you would like to be inspired by photographs, take a look at the winners in the . I was surprised not only at the variety of work displayed there, but also at how appealing many of the images were.
