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The latest from our resident zoologist and London-based editor, Justine.
I finally made it to the California Academy of Sciences in its new Golden Gate Park home! I have been looking forward to checking the new facilities out in person, ever since Jean visited (and posted about) it a few years back (see previous posts here, here and here). As expected, the facilities are incredible and the animals it houses are phenomenal. I can’t recommend visiting strongly enough. With a walkthrough rainforest filled with terarria and aquaria as well as the dedicated Steinhart aquarium, the Cal Academy is a real treat to visit and proved to be the perfect playground for a macro lens! Here are just a few of the academy’s incredible creatures. More pictures on the next page!
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This post is part of NOTCOT Having Fun In The Dark series sponsored by Canon Powershot’s Your Second Shot While taking pictures in the dark often means standing super still, you may still end up with more graininess than usual… armed with Canon’s low-light HS SYSTEM, you can trust the tech to help you capture the perfect shot the first time! 
Wow. Our Tasteologie Editor (and resident photographer), Jackson Stakeman, was in Albuquerque, NM for the holidays and while wandering around in search of awesome holiday lights ~ ended up discovering this insane holiday light show at the New Mexico Biopark Society ~ they turn their botanic gardens into the “River of Lights”! Even better ~ as far as how much energy it takes to power this glittering installation, their site says, “the River of Lights crew, which works year-round to design and build new sculpture, in addition to repairing and refurbishing old ones, has begun using more LED lighting in the construction of new pieces and replacing incandescent bulbs in some of the older pieces.” Take a peek on the next page at the spectacle of lights in the form of gardens, whales, octopi, t-rexs, cars, and so much more… and there’s even a video at the end to give you a feel for the experience!
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Wow. Nick Veasey x-rayed the Macallan HOUSE! I can see the room i stayed in in there! If i ever wanted to be someone’s intern ~ i think this would be it. I’m also reinstating an xray machine to the top of my wishlist…
Take a close up look at these awesome limited edition Macallan 12 boxes for the holiday season featuring Nick Veasey’s x-ray imagery of the Macallan’s six pillars. Each box is sold individually and features a feather, scissors, liquid drop, still, cask or the house to represent the six pillars. Take a peek at the beautiful images in high res on the next page ~ i can’t wait to see these all in person!
p.s. I’d love it if the back of the box was an xray of the box itself printed on showing the bottle within!
p.p.s. They should have x-rayed a highland cow from the property.
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This post is part of NOTCOT Having Fun In The Dark series sponsored by Canon Powershot’s Your Second Shot! While taking pictures in the dark means standing super still, you may still end up with more graininess than usual …armed with Canon’s low-light HS SYSTEM, you can trust the tech to help you capture the perfect shot the first time!
One of the most surreal and perhaps even magical aspects of night photography is when the camera manages to capture views that even your naked eye couldn’t imagine. To turn that sensitivity so far up that every seemingly dim/dark speck of light simply glows is stunning. One of the photographers who’s night photos we love does this beautifully ~ Stephanie Izzo’s Lumiére series of magically sparkling postcard like images are gorgeous! Take a peek at her view on New York on the next page… makes me almost ready to hop a plane over now!
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On amazing little journeys ~ we started at the dock/house/helipad area on the water where we originally met the group of Mercedes-AMG SLS Roadsters… and our bags were waiting for us to head to the airport… via helicopter! So i have some video of the quick flight along the Cote du Azur as well as the landing (i felt like i was in a toy as we came in to land, it’s fun riding shotgun!) Then on to a quick Nice to Munich flight… over the alps, which are always stunning. The shadows. The way the snowy mountain tips peek through the fluffy clouds. The melting snow into lakes. The tiny green towns tucked between it all… and before landing there were amazing amounts of teeny tiny sail boats below out in a lake! Take a peek at all of it on the next page!
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In exactly a week i’ve gone from LA to Frankfurt to a few hours at the Auto Show, doing a live interview with the heads of global communications for Mercedes, to Paris and directly into a car to Reims to visit the Hotel Du Marc of Veuve Clicquot for a few hours, only to be back in Paris by dinner, then driving through France, stopping by a chateau, sleeping on a ferry, only to wake up in the UK and end up at Goodwood, crash for a night in London, and have ended up in Mallorca yesterday. Phew. What. A. Week. Is your head spinning as much as mine right now just reading that?
Well before another week not too dissimilar than the last, the Orient Express has invited me to experience one of their relaxing escapes, and the timing seemed perfect to see the world of Hotel La Residencia, nestled in Deia, Mallorca, Spain while catching my breathe. Currently curled up on the patio lounge chair in a bathrobe with laptop staring out at the most serene town, mountainside, and peeks of ocean 5 minutes away as i write this post. And last night after getting in, you can see the delectable tapas and wine we indulged in… before coming back to a nice bottle of bubbly cava they kindly left for us… at which point i couldn’t not grab my camera and share the stunning star filled night and glow of the town. So before i give you a peek into the room ~ take a look at the breath taking night! Exactly what i needed after quite the euro-whirlwind of a week!
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It’s a beautiful thing when a brand wants to encourage passionate, playful exploration. When Bentley invited us to join a fleet of their cars, Brian Gush - Head of Drivetrain and Motorsports, Robin Page - Head of Interior, a skeleton film crew, designer Cory Grosser, and former lead designer of Nokia/founder of Vertu - Frank Nuovo at Mister C in Beverly Hills, to just “be creative and play,” how could i resist? So we loaded up a bunch of new (and old) toys ~ and spent the day all over beverly hills and bel air playfully exploring these cars in new and inspiring ways… and while there is much to come from that… first things first!
At around 11am we ended up borrowing the Bentley Supersports Convertible ~ jetting back out to one of my favorite bluffs near home, and had fun playfully shooting it underneath the unbelievably bright moon and stars while overlooking pacific coast highway far below and the vast expanse of ocean and ~ it’s definitely different at night! Shawn managed to take some stunning shots of the car ~ and while he patiently took those, you can also see some of the silliness i ran around shooting in between on the next page! The car simply glows in the moonlight…
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If you recall, i’ve been a bit research obsessed with mini-HD-action cams ~ and while i have a GoPro, the Contour+ was the one i was waiting for… First impression, i’m impressed with the Contour+ ~ nice packaging, solid chunk of hardware, and the 1080p video quality with GPS and bluetooth connection to both iphone and android devices as monitors are great (though a bit finicky to get connected at times) ~ while this and a few other toys just got acquired for some more playful projects coming up this week, wanted to take a moment to share the unboxing with you to get a first look at what’s included (and you know i’m a sucker for simple matte black boxes with crisp graphics) ~ so check it out on the next page, and more soon as i start playing with it more and comparing it to my GoPro… so far it already has me wishing my GoPro was more aerodynamic and had apps to let my phones be the preview monitor… anyhow, to the unbox on the next page!
p.s.
Unboxing occurred while famished at lunch at Father’s Office.
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Fresh in my inbox ~ my dad’s latest adventure seems to have landed him at Art Center for the new 2011 Pagani Huayra’s photoshoot on its way up to Pebble Beach ~ where all the stunning cars are migrating next week… from the sleek and agressive exterior styling i can’t stop staring at (and that COLOR!) ~ to the carbon fiber leaf like side mirrors ~ to the steampunk-retrofab interiors (the BUTTONS!) ~ and well, the Mercedes-AMG V-12 twin turbos and carbon fiber chasis and body… there is so much lustworthy loveliness to stare at, take a peek at his pics on the next page. Seriously, this seems like the hardest week to try to car shop with so many incredible launches and lustworthy cars passing through… enjoy the design details and sketches!
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So, who would have thought the Pittsburgh/LA direct flight route (one a day in each direction on United!) would be so awesome. With no wifi, a small plane, magical first class upgrades, food, and super nice crews… with window seats and great timing on the flights to catch sunsets mid flight… i’ve been getting some of the best meditative/ME time! Awesome naps and placemats filled with notes ~ and between naps today i scrambled for my camera as soon as my eyes opened a crack and thought i was in some otherworldly place. Turns out a cloudy day below can make for quite the surreal flight home… some of the shapes were unreal, how did the clouds even make those angles and layers?!?! How did those layers of clouds start to look like a glassy ocean with peeks of the midwestern farmlands below barely showing through? And the way the dramatic shadows change as the sun begins to set… mesmerizing. While cloud watching is fun laying on the grass, staring up at the sky… seeing what creatures and objects you spy… it can be even more amazing from the side, or from within the layers of them! So take a peek at Operation Window Seat’s first Cloud edition on the next page… what do YOU see in them?
p.s.
for whatever reason the first thing my subconscious thought was: care bears + game of thrones. And the picture above looks like a rather pointed submarine with an arrow like periscope… or am i just seeing periscopes since its one of the current NOTlabs research project?
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This series/post is brought to you by Gillette. Learn more about Gillette and its products at Gillette.com. As usual, thoughts and ideas are all NOTCOT, Gillette is sponsoring us to do our thing! 
Technology is AWESOME. I love that moment where it becomes SO easy for just about anyone to capture things we couldn’t even fathom/experience fully without it… like all these tiny everything-proofed action cams that are becoming more and more easily available and create incredible imagery/video ultimately reminding us how amazing humans are… or mounted to things like RC flying magines to create incredible aerial flyover vids of Venice Beach. Why tradeoff between living the action and capturing it on camera? With these Mini HD action cams, you can capture and even stream your activities live and in HD. There’s something for surfers, divers, cyclists, drivers, and just about any other use if you get creative! Whatever your activity, they make a mount for it and a housing tough enough to withstand it. So grab a cam, a mount and get out there! See some of our most enticing finds on the next page!
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It’s been a little while since i’ve looked out a window, scrambled to find my camera, and just felt insanely inspired for one of these Operation Window Seat posts ~ but today was STUNNING. And there’s always something about falling asleep in one place (this time Pittsburgh) only to awaken somewhere about an hour out of LA to an absolutely BREATH TAKING sunset.
While i’m uncertain whether it’s the influence of the engineering/prototyping madness of the weekend i just spent at CMU with Toyota’s Ideas For Good adventure (sneak peek part I is here)… the unmistakeable sparkle of the city as we came in today kept feeling more like a giant circuit board… don’t the warehouse lighting patterns make them look like little chips? Also SO many brightly lit baseball fields! Even flowers of them jumping out between the glowing grid of the city… So anyhow, take a peek at more pics while i wake up here in LA and sift through so much more to share with you.
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It’s like gorgeously mesmerizing artwork, no? Now imagine it constantly moving… I was too shaky to make a video of it for you, but believe me, it was mesmerizingly trippy and beautiful… amongst a strange 2 days. Not sure where to start ~ but i think i was mostly horizontal for about 48 hours on that Mercedes-Benz sailboat trip… and for those of you who got curious and have been asking if things were ok once they saw the posts on Mike Horn’s blog from the adventure… i get why you were worried now! Anyhow ~ after a super rough ~48 hours… which ended up being some massive mix of hibernation/seasickness for most on board (except of course for our fearless adventurer hosts!) Don’t worry, it all ends with some gloriously gorgeous shots as we sail under the Golden Gate at sunrise… a dozen or so hours later than expected (and of course, far more pics of that later). And right after that, i hopped back on the road and cruised back down to LA! So having left LA saturday morning, reached SF by Monday dawn, and back by late afternoon ~ what a whirlwind to say the least… so on where to start ~ how about what’s still stuck in my head tonight? Some delirious views of how i saw the world while drifting in and out of so many trippy dreams and inspiring conversations… and LOTS of water? Rolling in and out of sleep ~ being picked up by massive waves that would suddenly DROP the whole boat (and you along with it) creating the strangest sensation of gravity-free dreaming, only to catch you again? (Yea, brain trying to rationalize scattered series of those ended up interesting in dreams…) So, ready to see the crazy part? To the next page!
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On shows that would be lovely to see in person ~ the master manipulator photographer, Jill Greenberg, has a NY show coming up ~ “Glass Ceiling” at ClampArt starting on June 16th. She “revisits her interest in feminist art for her new series (which was the focus of her senior thesis at the Rhode Island School of Design over twenty years ago). The photographs in this body of work picture female athletes and dancers underwater engaged in a variety of ambiguous and dynamic movements. The women wear colorful bathing suits and high heels in complimentary hues, forcing one to question how and why these models are immersed.” Even in times like today, so much, yet so little has changed. And it’s hard not to be reminded you’re a woman (which of course is a double edged sword… depending on how you wield it!) ~ and these pictures capture a feeling that i’m sure we’ve all come up against…. is she breaking through the glassy water tension? or is she just gasping for air? Take a peek at the stunning series on the next page…
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This post is sponsored by Best Buy, and is the brainchild of NOTCOT. These tips for great photos are brought to you by Best Buy. 
It’s absolutely amazing what you can see through the window of your computer these days. I won’t lie ~ my high res camera has definitely been my third eye when i’m out and about. Coming home and taking images off my Canon 5D Mark II, I ALWAYS find details i could not have possibly seen with my naked eye ~ at events, off in the horizon, tiny details… it’s unbelievable. Now take that even further… there’s an awe inspiring trend of super high res imagery from view points around the world. With sites like Paris 26 Gigapixels, 360 Cities, Gigapan, and more - the world is literally at your fingertips to spin around, and zooooooooooom into! Think of these as panoramas on steroids ~ with super vision? Take a peek at a few examples of Paris, Dresden, London, and Alpstein on the next page!
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On fun toys that just arrived… i think i’m in love ~ some things just flood your brain with ideas and it’s the best high. So tiny. So simple. Yet does SO MUCH. With a massive dslr and decent mobile pics these days ~ it’s hard to figure out what else is a car/purse worthy photography gadget. Well, i can think of a million ideas of where to stick, hang, clasp, dunk, strap, swing, launch it… this teeny tiny GoPro HD Hero Camera has infinite mount options, waterproof housing is a default, windproof audio, wide angle views, 1080p HD, super low-light sensitivity, interval photo modes, an awesome sounding battery life ~ and so much more. AND - with the LCD BacPac, i can check the pics on the go… So before the fun begins ~ wanted to share the unbox, because on top of all the features packed into the stealthy little cam… it’s well packaged and designed too! Take a peek on the next page…
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The Minox Classic Digital Camera available at Photojojo… their email this morning got me lusting after this little digi-replica all over again… “The MINOX Classic Camera Collection are just like their timeless analog predecessors, except these beauties are digital and recreated at a scale of 1:3. The mini cameras are fully functional and take impressive photos too, with 5.1 megapixel hardware resolution, a 2-inch display and attachable viewfinder.They can even shoot video in AVI format and record onto external SD cards.” And the wooden box it comes in ~ gorgeous! And the accessories are even more fun! Swoon Take a peek at pics from Photojojo and Minox on the next page…
p.s.
Just imagining how silly i’d look switching between 5DMKII and this at events…
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This weekend ~ to kick off spring and celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Boutique champagne house, Perrier-Jouët, they brought 200 people from around the globe to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts… what a beautiful space! Skip the red carpet for a Perrier-Jouët grassy green path… and upon entering, you encounter a mysterious box popped up in the center of the cavernous space covered in projections… and surrounded by flowing bubbly and black and white old hollywood glam Harcourt Studio photos specially commissioned for the gala showing important people and someone they are passing their legacy to, and the Daniel Arsham limited edition piece to go with this concept. The surroundings were surreal to say the least, you must see a video on the next page of the projections from within, as well as all the lovely details!
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We’re so in love with and inspired by nature here at NOTCOT ~ Here’s another peek into the world of our resident zoologist and editor, Justine! So amazing and adorable to see how these little birds come to be! Oooh and you can follow her on twitter now ~ @NotCritters… say hi!
With spring on its way, it’s time to get ready for the bounty to come. Here are some photos of the adorable blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) family that made their home in a nestbox on my office balcony last summer. Take a peek at their growth from eggs to fluffy teenagers on the next page!
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While this isn’t exactly a “window” seat ~ the stunning images of 
As painful as waking up at 4am was to grab a 5am cab to catch a 7am flight out of Mallorca earlier than planned (but for good reason! Off to german adventures to see siblings of my car being made and meet the guy who built my engine! but more on that later) ~ the sunrise was gorgeous out the airplane window from Mallorca to Barcelona… take a peek on the next page!
On fun ways to kick off the weekend, these are like ninja cooking mama ~ or sesame street/eureka’s castle ~ or crazy art video/baby noise/pot clanging remixed… These amazing videos you can see on the next page are The Art of cooking series by
