virtualDavis

Fishing lures, seen in a window by South Kensington Station, April 3, 2010.
(I would be a very dead fish, because these little guys were so attractive.)

2min15 is a video blog to share urban life in different cities around the world. Videos with a length of 1min to 2min15 using digital cameras and basic editing software is the base of the project. This blog was created with non commercial purposes.

2min15 is interested in expressing a personal side of life in cities and the way people live it through different cultural situations. The increase of disposable technology as digital cameras, telephones, iPods and webcams makes it easy to express it without losing its essence and making it accessible for everyone. Every city has its own sounds, colors, languages and even smells. 2min15 would like to create a place where simple videos show their people, streets, cafes, women, architecture, parks, subways and specially, the flow between them.

via 2min15

via dailycognition.com

Although the idea underlying the twenty five photographs in this posting isn’t terribly innovative, the visual impact of the hand holding the old image is compelling. It adds a subjectivity, diminishing the clinical feel of the exercise and provoking the curiosity of the viewer. An interesting scrapbooking concept that I’ll continue to explore further.

Have you used picnik? It’s an online image-editing software that’s free, easy and powerful. And it integrates nicely with flickr, facebook, etc. It’s no PhotoShop, but did I mention that it’s free?

image via mashable.com

Main Street, Essex, New York (Photograph via ebay.com )

It never ceases to amaze me how many antique photos and postcards of Historic Essex make it onto eBay. This old photo of Main Street is the most recent example. I should have long ago set up a flickr gallery to collect them. This postcard appears to be looking north with the Essex Inn on the left hand side in the foreground. If you’re feeling like you just can’t live without it, you can find it for sale on eBay (item 260559292272 end time Mar-04-10 05:12:54 PST).

Le jeune flâneur’s self portrait inverts subject and background, inserting the photographer and the viewer into intimate voyeuristic contact with this contemplative lady in Paris.

Ask people who have been there, and they’ll all tell you India is like no other place in the world, a land that stirs every one of the five senses and stays in your heart forever. It is this India that brought together three friends, Waris Ahluwalia, Mortimer Singer and Tina Bhojwani to raise funds, spirits, and awareness for the victims of the attacks in Mumbai in November, 2008.

The editors set out to create a scrapbook-collecting personal photos, stories, and memories from people who, like themselves, love India. The contributors include Wes Anderson, Adrien Brody, Francesco Clemente, Anthony Edwards, Jeanine Lobell, Natalie Portman, Yves Carcelle, Jean Touitou, Owen Wilson, Laura Wilson, Cynthia Rowley, James Ivory, Matthew Williamson, Rachel Roy, Tory Burch, Padma Lakshmi, Shobhaa De, Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani. This book declares to Mumbai and the whole country that we are all thinking of them and support them: hence To India, with Love: New York to Mumbai. Profits from the sales of the book will go to support families affected by the attacks. This book can truly make a difference, by opening eyes to the wonders of India and by once again letting the pen-or a camera-dominate the sword.

via mumbaiwegotyourback.com

Bravo, Tina Bhojwani! This is an exciting accomplishment and a creative twist on humanitarian philanthropy. I’ve ordered To India with Love, and I can’t wait for it to show up in the mail. I hope all you Indiaphiles will consider purchasing this dazzling publication and spreading the word to your friends. More once I’ve had a chance to meander through the colorful pages…

Rosslyn Dock House via twitpic.com

I took this photo a day or two before they closed the ferry. I was sitting in my car, waiting to be ferried across Lake Champlain to Charlotte, Vermont.

This evocative image, created by Gene Aker, a friend and former colleague in Santa Fe, transforms a lonely road in Lamy, New Mexico into a quasi-inebriated dreamscape. Or maybe a stormy sunset when the skies are tinted with soot from forest fires? Gene explains how he created the image: “shot old school. 5×7 Korona camera (100 years old). Hp5 sheet film, D76 developer… I selenium toned the print. Then when I scanned it, I hit the sepia button — then cranked up the shadows to darken. Everything digital is a lie! but the print looks pretty cool–a 5×7 contact print.”

Today’s National Geographic Photo of the Day, though an unstaged, unanticipated photo opportunity, is oh-so-compelling. Admit it? Or not? We’ve all felt that way. Probably looked that way too!