Remember those amazing photographs of nudibranchs David Doubilet shot for National Geographic where i couldn't stop gushing about how amazing they were on pure white, like a model or product? Well in our ever shrinking world, i get an email from my globetrotting explorer of a dad, who happened to be in Manado at the Lembeh Strait on North Sulawesi, Indonesia at the Kungkungan Bay Resort scuba diving ~ with pictures of him holding the mini underwater studio setups David Doubilet used for those shoots! He even said that the resort folks were encouraging him to use them, but he decided they were too much of a hassle, but thankfully he took some pics to indulge my curiosity about the set up.

On the next page you can see more pics of the mini studio, as well as some of his scuba diving discoveries i loved ~ i've picked out my favorites of my dad's nudibranchs and frog fish pics!

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Tags: ocean - photography - scuba diving - travel

What a bizarre morning, definitely one of those, surreal, "this isn't my life" kind of mornings... up at 6:30, over at A+R store in Venice for a Lucky Magazine photoshoot (nov issue) by 8 (and you know i don't really do mornings!)... honestly so bizarre being on that side of the camera. I think its definitely safe to say i'm most comfortable behind the lens! And fascinating to watch pros in action ~ we worked with photographer Joe Schmelzer and make up artist Asia Geiger. Funny thing was the iPhone 3G fest at the shoot, and the many complaints and comparisons about mobile me, black vs white, cases, etc. Anyhow, few people asked for pics, so dan snapped a few of the process you can check out on the next page!

p.s.
While we were chatting, i learned about a new blog that Elise Loehnen, Lucky Editor At Large, who set this all up, just launched - check out Style Steals.

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Tags: magazines - photography

So i took a bit of an internet break the last few days (blame the Sands motel in Bird Rock ~ but the relaxation and beachiness was awesome)... so unlike most die-hard comic-con-ers, we just popped by for a few hours on thursday - then went to the zoo for a few hours, and then found ourselves at the G4 + StrangeCo party for the new "Wonder Women of America" book which featured a few hundred photographs of the cosplay women of comic-con 2007... and many were present! They also had Nerdcore performances, and the place was a madhouse! But what grabbed me that you'll definitely want to see... the boys of Polite in Public, have come a long way since we last saw/talked to them. (Catch up here for their back story and to see the old set up.)

So what's new with this young revolutionary photobooth company, Polite in Public? With their impressive hollywood and technical backgrounds - they have taken their glossy, gorgeous imagery filled with props and sets and real prints on the fly! - to a whole new level. Instead of laptops, screens, printers, and more set up on a desk, we were amazed by their new set up with one large sleek machine that took the pictures, processed them from original form to the glossified form, and had a nice interface for their photobooth attendants to quickly browse and print from. It seemed like a large simple UI, and i was dying to run up and poke it, if only they weren't SO busy! Also, from only being a small 2-3 man operation, sounds like they are expanding quite a bit, since on the same night as the San Diego event, they were also doing events in SF, NY, and LA! I got a few pics of the crazy scene - and some video of their impressive automated photoshop like filtering on the fly to give you a feel for how incredible their process is - check it all out on the next page!

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Tags: comics - events - party - photography - san diego - technology - travel

Nudibranchs ~ i've been obsessed with these gorgeous creatures since my first dives as a kid in south east asia. David Doubilet ~ i grew up on his breath taking photography. Combine them ~ and video ~ and National Geographic... and i've been swooning over this Nudibranch feature on the National Geographic website for days now. So looking beyond the subject matter for a moment, from a photographic/design perspective... what really struck me about this series of photos, was the process! Seldom do you see these beautiful (tiny) little slug like creatures pop off so vibrantly on a perfectly white background... they look more like supermodels in a photo studio... so watching the video blew my mind to see that David Doubilet and his team actually went diving with a portable studio that they brought TO the nudibranches, shooting them where they found them, and only moving them when they weren't doing any complicated nudibranch activities (mating, feeding, etc). See the full gallery here, and see some of my favorites as well as the set up they used on the next page!

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Tags: animals - nature - ocean - photography - video

I was just introduced to Prairie Vodka this morning via email, and although i have yet to try this supposed organic goodness, i'm absolutely smitten with the photography, website, and branding! It's gorgeous! So they really run with the Prairie meets the City theme ~ and have these breathtaking images of a woman on her NY patio with the city behind and the wolves at her side... and then the gentleman in his plush red chair at the fireplace with his bison... and then the subtle details and styling of the logo and site... *swoon*... and then you must see the actual bottle design as well, so sleek and simple. Even the transitions... to have the wolf walk up, and breathe on the screen till it gets foggy and fades into the next page... little silly, but an interesting approach! Is it any wonder that Prairie recently received a gold medal at the 2008 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirit Awards, as well as "Best Overall Design" and "Best Package of Show"? See more screenshots and imagery on the next page... and read more on Prairie Vodka at their site.

P.S. i'm so distracted by the prettiness of the visuals, that i'm saving discussing the organic and kosher aspects of it and the unique partnership between Phillips Distilling Company and a co-op of over 900 Minnesota farmers who are stakeholders in the brand - for a product review to come!

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Tags: animals - drinks - nature - photography

Catherine Ledner is known for her incredible animal portraiture that gorgeously paired with beautiful wallpapers and color palettes... in fact she's even been featured twice on .org - her site as #4667 and her NYTimes Slideshow with images from her book "Animal House" as #7345. Now, i'm excited to announce that she's created a new site Catherine's Animals where you can order limited edition prints of these animal portraits!

Each image is available in 4 sizes - 100 of 11"x14" at $250, 20 of 16"x20" at $500, 20 of 20"x24" at $750, and 10 of 32"x40" at $1700. See more of my favorites on the next page!

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Tags: animals - nature - photography - prints

As i'm sure you know by now, yesterday i disappeared to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on my spontaneous roadtrip up california. Normally i'd think on a weds/thurs this should be a breeze, avoiding the crowds, etc... but no. I seem to have overlooked that it is spring break week for most kids, and it was INSANE! None the less, we had a good time oooooohing and aaaaaaahing and remembering why i really need to take more random excursions and maybe get to some scuba diving all over the world again... (hey, i'm sure i can find inspiring things to post down there too!). Additionally Dan took over my Canon 40d and showed me how its really done (as you may have noticed, i'm more a shoot fast, photoshop later kind of girl, whereas he's more of a technical, play with settings, take your time kind of guy...) - so here's a post *mostly* of his incredible pics of the inspiring jellies (and some fish, and some crazy splashing, and a bit more).

But before we jump into the pics ~ anyone in the bay area (or california and neighboring states that can just pop over here) ~ you creatives HAVE to come check out the Jellies: Living Art exhibit... they put the jellyfish tanks in these overly ornate frames, and have them in the context of the works of calder, pollock, chihuly, and more. Its really fascinating - not to mention absolutely mesmerizing - i shot some video i'll add on when i have time... but for now... To the pics below!

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Tags: animals - nature - photography - travel

Polite In Public. The standard for photobooth/party photography has just been raised dramatically. Imagine this ~ you show up at a party, and in one section you see a crazy well lit open closet of sorts with people lined up... as you get closer you see that the "closet" is lined with white fur and has gold port holes in it, as well as a rack of clothes... and people are trying them on and striking poses within it! That was the scene at the Dussault party i went to back in November 07, and combined with having half of melrose closed off and covered in astroturf, with fake "snow" fluttering down on us, a wooden hottub and girls in leaderhosen dancing about, i didn't think twice about this set up at first. Until i got home and noticed the "Polite In Public" sticker in my purse with a url on it. That "closet" was apparently the new generation of photobooths, and the images were unlike any i'd seen. Flash forward a few months, and when my friend's pics from the Obama Rally for Super Tuesday had some more great Polite In Public shots, i had to take note.

Well, playing with ideas for perhaps the next blogfest or maybe a NOTCOT party, i finally gave them an email, and was surprised to find that Polite In Public is the brainchild of Joe Rubenstein and Joe Miller, two SCAD graduates. Joe R, 31, is a painting and film double major, and Joe M, 29, is a Graphic Design major and Computer Artist... and with backgrounds in lighting/cinematography and photography, it's no surprise that after trying out their photobooth concept at their own myspace publicized house party (early 2007), the idea spread fast throughout LA and before they knew it they were flying around the country going on tour and doing jobs for PlayBoy, Verizon, Svedka, Dussault, Mercedes, Burton Snowboards, The Obama Campaign, Universal Home Entertainment, 944 Magazine, and GenArt among others.... More info about how these are set up, and pictures behind the scenes after the jump!

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Tags: events - photography

I think i nearly drooled on my keyboard reading about this Adobe Light-Field Camera. I am by no means a traditional (or even a good) photographer. I know i'd be no where without Photoshop, playful compositions, and a fancy camera. As a product of my technology, i am sitting here dreaming about what could be done if each image could contain 19 different depths of field... a magical adobe "focus brush" that would paint using the seemlessly morphing interstitial images the software already created from all the image data. Watch the video after the jump.

Seriously this fly-eye lens capturing multiple perspectives and instantly being able to process all the various pieces of data completely changes the possibilities of not only photo-editing, but HOW we perceive photography and imagery... ok, i'm giddy for the day. See more images and the video below!

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Tags: camera - photography - technology

Inspiration comes not only in all shapes and sizes, but from literally anywhere... and all of us at NOTCOT have a particular fascination with the inspiration from nature (ok some more than others, since Justine picks nature over design with her phd studies!)... So when we heard about the new deep sea species found in Antarctica, and then found these high res images and video of them, we swooned. And realized we HAD to post them. Here's what we found out from the Australian Antarctic Division: "The return of the last of three Antarctic marine science research vessels marks the culmination of one of Australia's most ambitious International Polar Year projects, a census of life in the icy Southern Ocean known as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC). Australia's Aurora Australis and collaborating vessels L'Astrolabe (France) and Umitaka Maru (Japan) have returned from the Southern Ocean, their decks overflowing with a vast array of ocean life including a number of previously unknown species collected from the cold waters near the East Antarctic land mass." Some of the shapes and curves of these are just incredible... don't those tunicates look like glassy hearts? Lots of imagery after the jump!

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Tags: animals - nature - ocean - photography

iHole... yes, someone has gone and done it - made use of that gorgeous iPhone box and turned it into a camera! Scot Hampton announced "the world’s first iHole™; the revolutionary analog photographic device constructed from the recycled packaging of digital technology." (i wonder if he really trademarked that?) on his blog Feb 13th... see more of the fun pics after the jump. He suddenly has me overflowing with silly homemade cameras from recycled packaging ideas... like a collection of portraits of products as taken by their packaging?

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Tags: camera - iphone - packaging - phone - photography - technology

Two things happened when the gorgeous lingerie of The Lake & Stars showed up on NotCouture... i wandered to their site, and fell for, perhaps simultaneously, the photography of Tim Zaragoza and their trench coats. While at the moment i'm not sure which one i'm more in love with, or if perhaps the combination is irresistible, i'll let you know when i finally meet one of the coats in person, or find images of it alone. Brooklyn photographer, Zaragoza, has found the perfectly moody, mysterious, dramatic look for these ladies in the trenches with their felty looking shades... and The Lake & Stars have mastered the classic combo of beautiful lingerie, trench coats, and heels. See after the jump for more images i've dug up so far.

p.s. What better name for a trench than - Opportunity?

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Tags: fashion - gifts - photography - shopping

The third series of Annie Leibovitz and Disney collaborations has just launched, and like last time, i've updated the original post so we can have the full collection in one place! Above is a close up of the tiny Tina Fey as Tinkerbell ~ with such a priceless expression! She's perfect! Definitely my favorite part of the series! Additionally you can see J.Lo and Mark Anthony as Jasmine and Aladdin, Jessica Biel as Pocahontas, Giselle Bundchen as Wendy, Mikhail Barishnykov as Peter Pan, and Whoopi Goldberg as the Genie. Click here to see the images, some behind the scenes pics, and a video showing the making of with the stars comments.

Tags: advertising - architecture - photography

I gave in the day after xmas and finally went over to the Red Monkey store/workshop in West Hollywood, played with all their beautiful leather goods, and ordered one of their camera straps (i wrote about them before and featured them in the photography gift guide!)... what i didn't know was how sweet the packaging was, with the strap in bubble pack, with sticker and warranty, in a black matte plastic chinese take out container with the logo pressed into it! Also the store itself is pretty sweet as well, if you're anxious, jump ahead to the store pics here, with guitars hanging from the walls, chandeliers, mirrors, motorcycles and more. The quality of their workmanship is really high, and their service and really fast turnaround for custom jobs was quite impressive (they got this one ready for me in half the expected time)... Anyhow, browse the many pics below!

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Tags: camera - gifts - photography - reviews - shopping - technology

On upcoming things to look forward to at CES ~ Liquid Image ~ the ultimate underwater third eye cam? A new level of strap-on waterproof wearable tech? But this really would be pretty fun for everything from diving to playing in the pool, bathtub, hot tub, fish tank? And the images aren't bad with the camera coming in a 3 and 5 megapixel option for pictures and videos! See examples below!

Another option? How about they have strap on bluetooth camera/headset in my mask/regulator? and then my phone can just come with in a drysack? With voice activated "email image to..."? And while we're at it might as well add a heads up display in the mask? and google maps with gps and instead of traffic it could have current tracking? with a dot for where i am and where my boat is? Ok ok, so maybe getting a bit out of control here, since my favorite part of scuba diving was always that serene relatively tech/internet free peacefulness of the vast unknown under the surface.

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Tags: camera - gifts - outdoors - photography - shopping - technology

Gift Guide Day 2 ~ the second to last of our 31 Days of Gift Guides! So today's is all about Photography! Unexpected mounts, tripods, suction cups, lens distorters, look around corner adapters, sd-usb sd cards, rockstar guitar straps.... you know, the fun stuff your camera needs! Afterall, what fun are the holidays without lots of pictures to document it with?

Tags: camera - gift guide - gifts - photography - shopping - technology

Rankin is an incredible photographer who has shot celebrities, covers, editorials, etc... but these Eyescapes at the Art Department are absolutely mesmerizing. It truly changes what you imagine when talking about *really* looking into someone's eyes.

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Tags: art - photography

Between the overdosing of digital and physical mass consumption going on all around us this month ~ it is refreshing to see this email from Kelly about the Terrazo: Views of Mexico City photography exhibition by Pablo Lopez at the Sasha Wolf Gallery. There is something mesmerizing and calming about the perspective and detachment in these images... between all the shopping and dealing with the masses, these images certainly help you step back for a moment.

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Tags: art - photography

Creature by Andrew Zuckerman... i've been pretty obsessed with this book since the post, but been so slow and busy i hadn't gotten around to ordering it until making the gift guides (it showed up on Day 28 and Day 21)... at which point my mom apparently took the hint and ordered it. Well good news + bad news. The book is BREATHTAKING, even more so in person with the large coffee table format. I wish i could have ordered a copy for everyone i know... truly incredible. The bad news is... she happened to order it from Powell's (the largest independent bookstore!) instead of our usual Amazon since she had some credit to use up... and unfortunately the packing wasn't quite up to par and being the book/product junkie that i am, its driving me absolutely mad that the corners were all bashed up, and the bottom right corner of all of the pages are buckling a bit... enough to notice when flipping through such pristine white pages... oh, and somehow this copy has it looking like the cat on the cover is crying green... So, as my random Saturday night post, just wanted to vent slightly, and let you know i'm suddenly reminded why its more satisfying to buy things in person sometimes... in brick and mortar stores... or sticking to super huge giants who take too much care in packaging for survival during the holiday season! more images of some of the awesomeness within, as well as what's driving me crazy.

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Tags: animals - books - gifts - photography - reviews - shopping

No one can dispute the fact that Brian McCarty is THE best toy photographer these days. His images are legendary, and they are the best portraits of toys you can find... check out some images from his 2008 calendar in collaboration with StrangeCo and MTV. See a preview of all 12 months here... and my favorites are below. Wow.

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Tags: gifts - photography - shopping - toys

Ok, so here's something new i want to try... i was noticing that it seems a bit silly to write a lot of posts on the same thing and keep posting them separately. Frankly, it hasn't been making NOTCOT, as a resource, very efficient for me when i try to find something... SO, i'm testing something out, and i haven't worked the kinks out yet. But here's a start... Annie Leibovitz and Disney have added to their actor/actresses as classics set (Rachel Weisz as Snow White, and Julie Andrews as the Blue Fairy with Abigail Breslin as a fairy-in-training)... SO instead of posting a new post just about that, i've decided to UPDATE the last post, so all the info on that stays in one place... and since i haven't quite figured out how to notify NOTCOT readers about it, i'm linking you to an anchor.

p.s.
yes, i see the silliness of giving it a new post, while not giving it a new post with the images and information in it. Have any ideas of how i can efficiently pull this off for us all?

Tags: advertising - art - photography

Joshua Targownik has left me speechless. This guy emails in saying "I am a professional photographer who shoots products for Reform School. I recently shot the exterior and interior for Los Angeles Magazine. Take a look and see if you'd like to use a better image for your post." (referring to NOTCOT.org #6732)... and at first i'm thinking, wow, no one's ever really written in to suggest a better picture before, and first thing in my mind is "uh oh, i wonder if the picture up is REALLY bad!" OR... "maybe this guys images are better,... or he just wants us to look at his portfolio?" YES i'm a bit jaded these days, people send some weird stuff to try and get written about ~ some are quite shameless. BUT. Joshua Targownik's images are GORGEOUS. Reform School looks like this picture perfect dollhouse filled with goodness. And instead of trying to justify why i'm posting them, even though Reform School is already linked on .org... well look how pretty he made it? I couldn't help myself? The images are so inspiring. So, i'm thinking... next time we need to shoot things in LA, we may have to call up Joshua and beg him to help us look pretty.

Also the Reform School's redesign is really beautiful in that playful collagey way that we love so much ~ so thrown a screenshot of that below as well. And it figures that it was designed by ALSO ~ who also did Design*Sponge's new site and all the Busy Beaver stuff i love.

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Tags: art - photography

View At... is an incredible collection of panaoramic/google map mashups that JuanK just shared over at NOTCOT.org. And they are breathtaking... suddenly feeling the travel bug again, and just clicking through these (with their great ability to navigate and float through these worlds), i almost feel like i'm an arm chair traveler bouncing across the globe. As you can see, you can even embed them... so click and drag to explore Collioure - Chapelle St Vincent: "Famous as one of the most beautiful village in France, Collioure welcomed Van Gogh and Matisse who enjoyed the light and the colors of this place." A few more random screenshots and panoramas i love below, but for the full experience, you must go see View At.org. Also try clicking the full screen icon on any of these panoramas, they will be a nice little escape between all the working... also don't forget to tilt up and down, not just left and right... (i.e. you can see the feet and the tip of the eiffel tower below!)

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Tags: photography - travel - UX

Question of the day i'm posing to all readers: What camera bag do you use for your dSLR? The reason i ask? I got a new lens for my "much overdue for an upgrade to the 40d" digi-rebel, and it got me hunting again for camera bags. What IS the nicest, most elegantly designed camera bag? I couldn't find any. I went through every camera store online, and then the brands official sites from there, and even trailed around through all the randomness on amazon. The nicest looking options really are going the messenger bag route which moves you away from screaming "there's a camera in here" slightly. But the issue i'm having is, i want the protection for the body and lens, but i dont want to have to sacrifice needing to schlep yet another bulky thing around (usually i've just been sticking it in whatever purses i have that it barely fits in). So i'm curious what you use or recommend?

My solution of the moment is my Botkier Bryant "Camera bag" Satchel. just wide enough to fit it nicely (as well as all the other contents of my purse, which usually include my smaller digicam and huge wallet, etc)... and i'm thinking of making a light foam insert for the bottom and around the lens. So i'm just curious, am i the only one who doesn't treat my dslr with the loving care i know it deserves and just sticks it in my purses? Isn't it about time someone designs some bags for those of us who take our camera everywhere with us, but don't want the hardcore photographer look? (I'm no photographer, but i do love taking the random snapshots at gallery openings and such for here) Ok i'm done griping... time for solutions!

Tags: bag - camera - fashion - photography - shopping - technology

Bubblescope... bringing the 360 degree omni cam into the hands of any and everyone! This on brings me back to my UCSD HCI Lab days, where we had our omnicam strapped to the top of Infiniti Q45, capturing 360 degree video data of subjects' drives... which were then used to process lane changes, driving behaviors, etc etc... fascinating stuff, naturally i was amused with watching the circular video footage both in circle form and after you stretch them back to normal.

But enough about that, the Bubblescope!= was over on Josh Spear and i hadn't had time to write about it until now (with all that iphone madness and what not)... Tom Lawton is turning this into a water bottle looking camera for everyone. Now we can ALL take 360 view images... its especially fun indoors as well as capturing vast expanses of fields, etc... really fun way to completely change your perspective of a space. Point and shoot panorama's anyone?

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Tags: camera - photography - shopping - technology