Around the web today; November 16th, 2011.

American photographer Evan Joseph's photo of the NYC skyline at sunset which features on the cover of his new book 400 Fifth Avenue: http://pdnphotooftheday.com/2013/11/23228

His portfolio site shows more of his impressive architectural work: http://www.evanjoseph.com/



A review of sorts by Joe McNally and another photographer, commenting on Gregory Heisler's stunning new book '50 Portraits.'

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2013/11/13/required-reading/

http://www.bobkiddphoto.com/blog/2013/11/50-portraits



Some extensive discussion about the shocking - but not surprising - step the Chicago Sun-Times took earlier this year; laying off its entire photo staff of 28 people, among them Pulitzer prize winner John H. White, replacing them with pictures from the iphones of reporters:

http://gawker.com/sun-times-lays-off-its-photographers-on-slow-crawl-to-i-510490745

http://gawker.com/a-sad-shot-of-sun-times-photojournalists-learning-they-510565175

Looking through the amazing gallery of images that John H. White has captured in his career, it's sad to see that his journey as a veteran newspaper photojournalist comes to an end with a piece of paper, his four decades of experience and prodigious talent replaced by reporters with an iphone, who have not been educated in any way about visual journalism.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/May-2013/Black-Chicago-In-the-1970s-Through-the-Lens-of-John-H-White/#/0

Instead you get stuff like this: http://suntimesdarktimes.tumblr.com/post/61423785374/i-normally-stick-to-the-sun-times-main

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2013/05/31/how-to-insure-your-extinction-look-at-what-newspapers-are-doing/

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/215016/john-white-on-sun-times-layoffs-it-was-as-if-they-pushed-a-button-and-deleted-a-whole-culture/

http://buzzmachine.com/2013/05/31/to-the-dauntless-lensmen/

http://www.robbmontgomery.com/2013/05/chicago-sun-times-photo-gallery-tribute.html

Around the web today; November 14th, 2013

A cool shot of an epic Christmas tree destined for the Capitol in Washington D.C., being hauled across the country from Washington state by a gleaming 2014 model Mack Pinnacle:  http://www.overdriveonline.com/photo-mack-pinnacle-loaded-with-the-capitol-christmas-tree/



A time-lapse video showing the construction of a Transformer robot based on a 1988 Ford Fiesta, the creator's first car:
 http://www.rides-mag.com/videos/2013/11/watch-ford-fiesta-transform-transformer/
http://www.psfk.com/2013/10/ford-transformer-car.html



Chicago Tribune photojournalist Alex Garcia discusses the pros and cons of professional photographers using an image editing program like Instagram for their work:  http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/assignment-chicago/2013/11/sitting-on-the-fence-with-instagram.html

Kenneth Jarecke offers a much less subtle critique here:  http://kennethjarecke.typepad.com/mostly_true/2012/10/instagram-the-devil-and-you.html



Photojournalist Pete Muller has shot a powerful series of images in Africa, focusing much of his efforts on the war-ravaged Eastern Congo: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/a-congolese-rebellion-routed-a-photographers-work-continues/



A surreal and somewhat amusing project from American photographer Nina Goldstein, showing her interpretation of what Disney princesses' lives might be like, following the 'happily ever after' endings of their respective fairy-tale stories: http://www.demilked.com/fallen-princesses-dina-goldstein/

The images are visually striking, ethereal and quite jarring, mostly because you're so used to seeing these characters in their sickly-sweet pretend Disney worlds. The photo of Rapunzel in particular is one that made me stop in my tracks. The picture shows her sitting on the side of a bed in hospital, bald, with her golden locks in a plait trailing from the bed and onto the floor, accompanied by an IV drip, implying she is having chemotherapy.



American photographer Chase Jarvis shows what happens on a commercial shoot for an Aspen ski resort's ad campaign: http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2013/10/exlusive-behind-the-scenes-aspen-campaign-photoshoot/

Around the web today; November 8th, 2013.

Chicago Tribune photojournalist Andy Garcia talks about photographing a famous local chef over the course of several years, who sadly passed away earlier this week. He sounds like a very nice guy, and a great subject to work with.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/assignment-chicago/2013/11/photographing-charlie-trotter-an-appreciation.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-charlie-trotter-obit-20131105,0,1530510,full.story


On a related note, I had a call last week from the son of a truck driver who I'd photographed about 4-5 years ago, at the Wingfield BP truck stop here in Adelaide. He was a great character, and we chatted for a little while as I took some pictures of him. I was saddened to hear that he passed away a couple of years ago, but it was tinged with a note of sweetness, as it meant a lot to the son to find these pictures of his father that he'd never seen before.



A collection of highly emotion-charged imagery from the past century or so. Some of them may cause distress given the content, so be warned; the one that actually hit me the hardest was a photo of a wall. But not just any wall; it's the wall of one the gas chambers at Auschwitz, covered with fingernail scratch-marks.  http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-powerful-photos/

I'll run through some of my thoughts about the other pictures as well:  

The scene in photo #3 is one that's quite familiar to me; it was shot by legendary National Geographic magazine photojournalist James Stanfield, and has been featured in several photography books, as well as the magazine. He perfectly captured the feeling of what the mood would be like after a marathon open heart surgery; the doctor looking exhausted but satisfied, with his patient on the operating table alive due to the successful surgery, and his assistant passed out asleep in the back corner of the room. Looking at the tangle of wires and tubes attached to the patient, to say nothing of the surgery wounds you can't see, it's amazing what the human body can recover from.

#4 is a nice family album memory, showing a father and son walking hand in hand in the yard in 1949. On its own, the photo isn't anything particularly special for the casual observer, but it's accompanied by another photo, showing the same scene and people, but 60 years later in 2009. In the first photo it's clear that the father is taking care of and looking after his son, who looks to be around 6 or 7 when the photo was taken. In the updated version, it appears that the roles have been reversed; the father is elderly, looking a bit frail and walking with a cane, while his now grey-haired son towers over him alongside.

#6 certainly catches your eye, being such an unusual scene; a lone Russian solder with a machine gun slung over his back is playing a piano which looks to be sitting in the middle of a forest. It's a picture that makes you ask questions, like why the soldier is alone, who put the piano there, and does it actually work ok?

#9 is a bit of a cutesy one, showing a CFA volunteer firefighter giving a koala a drink of water while holding one of its paws, during the lethal 2009 Victorian 'Black Saturday' bushfires. In a time of destruction, death and suffering, a light-hearted picture like this helped to lift peoples' spirits in a way;

#14, while nothing special in a technical sense, is actually kind of depressing to look at and think about, captioned 'alcoholic father and his son'. A young boy of perhaps 4 or 5 is trying to pull his father up by his shirt, who is partially slumped sitting on a gravel road. If this is what the boy is used to doing already- helping his publicly drunk father walk - his home life must be difficult. It has a very different tone to the father-son photo #4.

#17 depicts a scene which would appall pretty much everyone; a five year old Gyspy boy holding a lighter while smoking a cigarette. It was taken in 2006, so not a long time ago, and is quite jarring given the health implications of a kid smoking at such a young age.

#23 shows just a tiny segment of the utter devastation caused to Japanese towns from the 2011 tsunamis. Mangled metal, trees, houses and furniture are piled in heaps from the foreground to the horizon, with a distraught woman sitting on the road in tears.


This is a similar series of images, but all different to the ones in the first post. Again, you may find a some of the photos distressing: //www.boredpanda.com/must-see-historic-moments/


Two pictures of Walter Yeo, the first person to undergo facial plastic surgery with a skin implant in 1917, following the loss of upper and lower eyelids while fighting on a ship in World War 1:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2636507/Pictures-of-first-person-to-undergo-plastic-surgery-released.html


In local news, the Shahin family company Peregrine has purchased the Tailem Bend Motorsport Park land, reportedly planning to spend $40 million on the site to turn it into a world-class motorsport facility in the next year or two. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19731345/owners-share-plans-for-sa-motorsport-park/

It's quite far away from the city compared to the current drag racing facility at Adelaide International Raceway, meaning events would be harder to get to for many people, but it's certainly exciting to have something like this in the pipeline.

The driver of a stolen Nissan Murano in Chicago demonstrates appallingly poor car control after being confronted by the angry taxi driver he just rear-ended:

http://jalopnik.com/this-video-shows-what-not-to-do-when-you-hit-someones-1459678532

Out of my way, I'm a motorist! This Russian psychopath's driving is pretty shocking, driving up to people walking on the footpath and expecting them to scatter like pigeons before he runs them over:

http://www.carthrottle.com/this-crazy-russian-is-the-worlds-most-inconsiderate-impatient-and-immoral-driver/



A Toyota AE86 Corolla getting some serious angle drifting at Tsukuba circuit in Japan. Without a whole lot of power to work with, some enthusiastic Scandinavian flick entries are the order of the day, along with some clutch kicks to keep the wheels turning in 3rd gear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmpBtCwEuBk

A very lucky escape from serious injury for both these truck drivers, thanks to the quick thinking from the truck driver with the dashcam, who managed to only hit the front of the jack-knifing Kenworth with a glancing blow from his trailer, before navigating some pretty rough terrain and pulling up in time to avoid hitting a whole bunch of trees. Unfortunately, the accident pretty much put him out of business:
http://www.bigrigs.com.au/videos/truckies-quick-thinking-keeps-him-out-harms-way/20903/



Some very intimate and heartbreaking images of a woman's battle with cancer, with the journey documented every step of the way by her photographer husband: http://zengarage.com.au/2013/11/this-guys-wife-got-cancer-so-he-did-something-unforgettable/

This is a pretty badass pickup and boat combination; they even share the same 411 horsepower V8 motor:
http://jalopnik.com/now-your-boat-can-have-the-heart-of-a-ford-raptor-1459439357

Around the web today; October 23rd, 2013.

An interesting photographic comparison of what a weeks' worth of food for a family looks like around the world: http://fstoppers.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world



Some in-car footage from Beau Yates' AE86 Toyota of the big drift crash at WTAC:  http://youtu.be/ZH0xl8X4Ewk



A preview clip for what looks to be a very interesting documentary movie based around the history and drivers of Formula 1 racing: http://youtu.be/ZHlK2HCh12U



American photographer Carli Davidson has taken some cool and hilarious studio photos of dogs shaking themselves dry: http://www.diyphotography.net/photographer-carli-davidson-makes-epic-portraits-splashing-dogs

Her website features a heap of excellent photography of animals and wildlife, and well worth spending some time on: http://www.carlidavidsonphotography.com/Pets/thumbs/



A preview of Gregory Heisler's stunning '50 portraits' book: http://strobist.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/an-all-nighter-at-vista-greg-heislers.html  I've already spent far too much on photography books over the past ten years or so, but the content looks fascinating.

Around the web today; October 19th, 2013

An insanely fast hillclimb run in an open-wheeler Formula car, by a driver who seems to be missing any sort of fear genes. I'd crash and kill myself in the first couple of corners trying to match that sort of pace: http://youtu.be/kGqdcz6bLps



A deliciously raspy TWR Jaguar XJS racing car belting around Donington in the UK, followed by a run at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed. Be sure to turn the volume on your speakers up:  http://youtu.be/DpnlwPv60B0
http://youtu.be/cA52JK_2sWo

Here's another local clip showing a sibling of the car above, flying around Mt. Panorama nearly 30 years ago, with Tom Walkinshaw behind the wheel: http://youtu.be/c5jtf83eKGs


A street photographer taking his work to the streets of Los Santos in the wildly popular video game Grand Theft Auto V: http://petapixel.com/2013/10/17/street-photographer-takes-craft-video-game-world-gta-v/

He has a tumblr blog where he posts his images here: http://streetphotov.tumblr.com/

And a website with photos from the real world: http://fpgomes.com/


Photojournalism from around the world at the Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/2013/10/17/photos-of-the-day-oct-17-3/?mod=WSJBlog



A very cool series of photos combining model cars on small dioramas with real streets, houses and trees; all taken on a cheap point and shoot digital camera: http://twistedsifter.com/2013/10/recreating-the-past-with-model-cars-and-forced-perspective/

His flickr page has many more images, accompanied by behind-the-scenes pictures showing how the lifelike look was achieved: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/



Some interesting commentary on the current state of newspaper photojournalism: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/assignment-chicago/2013/10/photojournalists-and-buggy-whips.html



A related post to the Jasmine Star plagiarism controversy: http://www.cmphotography.com/blog.cfm?postID=107&stealing-makes-me-angry-not-sad