Portfolio: Filippa Smedhagend Sund’s Innovative Style

Wow. The portfolio for make-up artist Filippa Smedhagend Sund features one of the most innovative and stunning interfaces I’ve ever seen. Filippa’s work is showcased in unbelievable gorgeous photos and an incredibly unique interface.

Using Filippa’s portfolio is as simple as grab-and-pull with your mouse. In an instant you’ll see how engaging and effective it is to interact with photos in this way. The website was designed in Flash by Mocoro, a Berlin-based web design shop. Check them out for other innovative designs.

Now go and spend some time with Filippa Smedhagend Sund’s work.

– chris

The Business of Photography

To help tide you over during our vacation it only seems fair to pass on some interesting blogs. A fairly new blog that I’ve been particularly impressed with is The Business of Photography.

The Business of Photography was started by Ed McCulloch out of frustration at the lack of emphasis put on business in photography programs. His sentiments echo my own frustrations and motivations for the writing the Tropist Weblog. Typically there is little to no time in spent in school on marketing, negotiations and promotion, which in practice turn out to be so important.

McCulloch’s journey is focused on photography, but his experience and advice are applicable to any artist. Start paying attention, McCulloch is just about to release his first major portfolio that will be released Nationwide (in the US).

Make sure to read through the archives for the full experience.

– chris

The Wholphin Quarterly DVD Issue #1

This weekend I started watching the first issue of Wholphin, McSweeney’s quarterly DVD magazine. The Wholphin team compiles an array of interesting, rare and quirky short films which are sent straight to your door in glossy DVD format.

McSweeney’s note on the name:

What, you may ask, is a Wholphin?! Photographic evidence can be found languishing in the nooks and crannies of the internet, but those too busy to visit Google for the 28th time today can trust us that it’s the lovechild of a bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale. A beautiful hybrid born of invention and exploration.

I’ll save you the trip to google.

The first issue has some amazing work on it. In fact, when putting together my highlights I realized that I was going to name almost all the films. Instead I’ll point out a few gems for now and you can grab out the DVD for more.

The Al Gore Documentary directed by Spike Jonze.

This doc, produced at the beginning of Gore’s 2000 presidential run, may have changed the world we know today if it had been released. It would have shattered the impression that people had of the ‘stone-like’ Al Gore. It was shot in one day, entirely by Mr. Jonze.

Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?

Directed by Miguel Arteta on a budget of less than $150, this is a short but poignant film questions our place in life. It was written by Miranda July and filmed in a weekend. Watch it.

Grab the DVD to enjoy all the other great films. I’ll report in on the later issues at another date.

– chris

Four Eyed Monsters Premieres on YouTube

Four Eyed Monsters, the 2005 Slamdance hit that has been the subject of mainstream media because of their emblematic indie story, can now be seen in its entirety on Youtube. The filmmakers, Susan Brice and Arin Crumley, have struck a deal with Spout.com, a film review site, where they will get paid $1 for every person that signs up at Spout because of Four Eyed Monsters. They hope to get the film to a wide audience using YouTube’s platform and hopefully rid themselves of their debts through sign-ups at Spout.

This is innovative new way to monetize a film and I expect that Susan and Arin will be very happy in a week or so. At the time of writing, they’ve already made about $4000 from sign-ups! Four Eyed Monsters is only going to be available free on YouTube for a week, so make sure to re-arrange your schedule so you can fit this gem in.

You can watch the film here, on the official site or on YouTube. For more on the filmmakers plight, check out a great interview that Ajit at Ticklebooth had with the crew last year. Finally, sign up at Spout to help reward Susan and Arin for all their hard work.

– chris

(via TechCrunch)

DIY Backyard LCD Projector

Popular Science recently featured a very sexy do-it-yourself backyard theater. Roll this guy out of the garage and you’ll be watching backyard movies in minutes. The rig should only cost you about $400 using new parts and it’ll be cheaper if you scour ebay.

You’re going to need to find someone with some mechanical skill to help put this guy together. Apparently taking apart LCDs is not for the faint of heart.

Weare definitely going to be making one of these in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sure to spread the word on how things go.

Read more about the project at Popular Science. If you’re ready to proceed just download the instructions and get started.

Happy screening!

– chris

(via Gizmodo)

“Speed Demon” Photography Competition

Sprinting greyhound by EcoShow 

Crestock, a creative stock image provider, has been running some really exciting photography competitions. They’ve just recently entered the third round of their current competition, “Speed Demon” and the work of the finalists have entered  is top notch.
Most of the finalists are all working with high-speed photography on their quest to win a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II. It appears that the pot of gold was the right size, because the quality of the entries is pretty unbelievable.

My favorite of the bunch are below.

 Snap frozen by rbphoto

Shattered Glass by raniel 

– chris

Portfolio: Will Pearson’s Stunning Panoramas

Will Pearson is an incredible photographer specializing in gorgeous panoramas of his hometown, London. Not only is Pearson’s work breathtaking, but there is an enormous amount available for consumption on his site.

Pearson also has one of the most innovative ways of showcase a series of photos I’ve ever seen. For his Rain Project, shot in 2004, he has a series of photos taken in the rain from his front door. He is showcasing the series with an interactive 360 degree Quicktime VR, taken from the inside of his front door. Once in the QTVR, which is a gorgeous shot itself, pan to the floor to see all the photos taken from the same perspective. If you’re having trouble getting the photos to open in a new window, just head here.

Clear the next 30 minutes of your day, cause you’ve got some gorgeous photos to appreciate. Will Pearson’s Official Site.

– chris

See Yourself in 3rd Person

Marc Owens, a Design Product student at the Royal College of Art, has created a hilarious and amazing piece of ‘apparel’.  Owens has fashioned what he calls The Avatar Machine, a suit which allows the user the incredible ability to bulk up and live their life in 3rd person, if only for a fifteen minute period.

Owens created a back-mounted tripod with a camera, that broadcasts to a screen that fills the vision of the wearer. He was inspired by the 3rd person experience often associated with video games. There is a phenomenal short film here, aching to be made. Think about how self reflexive it could be: the audience of the film, watching the character within the film watching themselves. With a plot and some effort it could even be interesting!

The hipsters at we make money not art conducted a interesting interview with Owens about his first experience with others using the machine., check it out.

After a few minutes, users began to gain confidence not only with faster and more fluid movement, but also began to mimic the types on movement that they imagined the avatar would demonstrate, ie: sto[m]ping around and swinging of arms.

You can read Owens’ blurb about the project for more info or head to his official site to see his other interesting projects.

– chris

(via we make money not art )

2000 Chase Jarvis Photos in 5 Minutes

Ever wonder how much film commercial photo-shoots burn through in five minutes? Well look no further, commercial photographer Chase Jarvis has put together 2000 shots from some recent shoots into a very cool five minute video. Apparently, only 6 to 10 of the 2000 photos will be used commercially.

Jarvis’ official site features samples of his impressive portfolio, other interesting videos and his blog which he updates quite regularly.

– chris

(via David Airey::Creative Design )

Megunica Trailer Online

The trailer for Megunica, the latin-american travel and street art documentary has finally made it’s way online. From the looks of things, they’ve captured the communities they’ve traveled through as much as the art they’ve created. Impressively, they cut the trailer  just a few weeks into editing.

The Megunica team has done a great job of promoting themselves thus far and I expect them to continue to do so. It’s nice to see them embrace the net-art scene and build a following by making themselves available and open to the community.

Check out the trailer, give them some feedback and see our previous coverage for more of Blu’s street art.

– chris