beez and beez – daily coffee mini picture project

for the new year, me and my buddy discussed how we wanted more creative elements in our busy lives for this new year.

so we started a mini picture project that we think would force us to be a little more creative.  obviously daily life gets a little crazy at times so we decided our subject for this project would have to something we both have access to every day.

well, it was decided that coffee is a mandatory routine that we both ensure happens daily.  so our subject became our daily cup of coffee.

we’ve set no rules on what layout we shoot, only that we shoot something related to our cup of coffee of the day.  we’ve been shooting with our cell phones and cameras – so theres been no rules on that either.  (i’ve been shooting primarily with the iphone mainly because it’s convenient size) and we’ve set no rules on post-processing.  we just shoot what we like and post.  :)

check the rest of them out here —> beez and beez are busy bees

kermit shows us real life

photo credit: pictureclub 2000

i was searching for some inspiration through flickr and found an AMAZING series.

of course when i find super work, i have to share it.

introducing pictureclub_2000!  (no real name is listed, so i apologize…  :(  i can only provide the flickr username of pictureclub 2000.)

Pictureclub_2000 has brought Kermit to life in an awesome series of photos. you must check them out.

interested in buying or licensing one of these?  lucky for you that you can…

contact him at:  pictureclub_2000@yahoo.de or pvp-fotodesign@gmx.de

doggie glove family!!

i came across this project to make some cute stuffed animal dogs.  here’s what i made for a couple of friends who just had a little boy.  i created an entire little family for them

pics by the iphone

snow storm = apocalypse

the one funny thing about being here in the DC metro area is witnessing sheer stupidity on a daily basis.

last weekend we had a snow storm roll in and stupidity went into full force.  with the announcement on the news and weather stations, people around here freaked out so badly that you’d think that we were expecting 20 feet of snow instead of 20 inches of it.

the storm rolled in Friday night and continued all the way through Saturday night. if you had 4WD, you can get around in the stuff.  well i do have a 4WD and we decided to take a field trip to the grocery store to get some junk food and snacks. we went to the local grocery store up the street and i must say – wow.

typically i’m very weary of photographing anything in the grocery store since i know they’re usually jerks about having a camera in the store and you taking pictures of their layouts.  but since there were so few people in the store and no one to really stop me, i went ahead and used my iphone to take some pictures.  i had to document how ridiculous people have gotten when it came to preparing for this storm.

ONE DAY.  i understand we havent seen this much snow in almost 5 years, but do folks really panic so much they have to buy food and tp as if the world was coming to an end? and if you dont have enough toilet paper to get you by for ONE DAY – you got some serious problems.

all pics taken with the iphone

recycling candles on the cheap

I’ve had some favorite candles that burned uneven and ended up with tons of wax that never melted. so I’ve been wanting to recycle my favorite candles but never got around to it.

till today.

went to the thrift store and went looking for two things. a cheap glass container and somethin to melt the wax in. I found a nice glass container that came with a lid for about $1.60 and a melting container for $2.90.

score.

a melting container at Michaels will put you down almost 15-20$. got mine for a fraction of the price. went home and gave both of them a good cleanup and got started.

all pics taken with iphone

1. a bag of your favorite candle leftovers

food!

domo kun – all domo videos

as we all know, domo is Japan’s NHK mascot.  domo got his break by appearing in between shows (i guess like a commercial)

want to see exactly where domo came from?  this is a collection of all the domo “short clips” combined into a single video stream.

yay domo!

ketchup restaurant = epic fail

5 reasons NOT to go to ketchup at National Harbor.

(yes, that one —->

ketchup restaurant FAILS

1. reservations are a joke. we were informed over the phone

that we HAD to be there within 15 mins of reservation and all party members HAD to be present or we would lose our place. the funny thing was they still had plenty of tables available when we came in.

2. two items on the overpriced menu were out of stock (shake n bake chicken and crab cakes appetizers – critical foods imo). cmon, its sat night (8:00 PM) – anticipate volume and be prepared.

3. next issue was warm beers – cold bottles but warm beer. apparently they must have been mowing through beer and not getting them in the fridge fast enough or long enough to get chilled. but hey, we’ve all had warm beer at one point or another. i just didn’t think we’d be charged for it at some “high end restaurant”. AGAIN – anticipate volume and be prepared.

4. my friend and i ordered the lobster mac and cheese. other members of our party ordered ribs or pasta. hour later, half our table got their food. our food never came out – because they RAN OUT… and didn’t tell us (we had to ask) till 10 mins AFTER everyone elses food came out. in a nutshell – my friend and i didn’t get to eat. AGAIN – anticipate volume and be prepared!

5. manager seemed to shrug us off after bringing the issue to his attention. explained the order was put in almost an HOUR earlier but he says he ran out of the lobster mac & cheese 10 mins ago and it’s not his fault. (wow. really? i’m still trying to understand this logic. what does you running out of what i ordered an HOUR earlier have ANYTHING to do with you running out of it 10 MINS ago?) simply put – poor management and service skills.

save your money and go to taco bell – you’ll get better and friendlier service there.

ps. my empty soda glass stayed empty for over 40 mins. after pointing it out, i received another soda which tasted a little odd. on second sip i realized there was no carbonation. it was flat – AWESOME.

KETCHUP = EPIC FAIL

apparently i’m not the only one who thinks so either…

YELP

OpenTable.com

yahoo

iphone picture project

so i mentioned before, i’ve been in this massive photo funk. the funk got so bad i seriously considered selling off ALL of my equipment.  i have been trying all kinds of ideas trying to get the creative juices going but no projects or ideas had really grabbed me.

until now.

it started with a magazine that i got in the mail that i don’t even remember subscribing to – American Photo. there’s this article about iphone photographs being covered.  being an iphone junkie, it immediately grabs my attention.

they interview different people and discuss people’s workflows and inspirations.  they talk about all the pictures they take and how freeing it is. i didn’t finish reading the article right away, but i did start taking pictures with the iphone.  it became an instant crack habit.

i began taking tons of photos with a device i kept with me all the time.  i had a nifty little camera with me all along and never thought once about utilizing it for what it was.  who knew?

i had been contemplating the purchase of the Zumi by the good folks over at Photojojo – but after discovering the iphone images i was getting, i started to reconsider the Zumi’s purchase.  i’m getting similar results: low-res, high contrast, punchy color, grainy images just from the iphone.  sure, i have to do some extra processing to get similar effects but the investment into a couple of $1-3 apps are still way cheaper than the $170 Zumi option.  obviously i don’t have video options with the iphone (at least my model) but i’m not much of a video person anyway.

i’m taking more pictures than i have in forever it seems.  and i seem to feel content with it.

here’s some recent examples of the photos i took with my nifty little camera phone…

after a couple weeks, i went back to the original article and finally read the whole thing.

i connected perfectly with Melissa Lyttle who shot an assignment with the iphone camera and had an unexpected surprise.

“its like it freed something up in my brain, she says.  some sort of blockage… it took all the rules that i subconsciously impose on myself in my regular photographic life and it threw them all out the window.  i felt really free to just go and play and have fun and not take myself or my photography too seriously.  in a  lot of ways it was like some sort of visual yoga.”  Melissa Lyttle (St. Petersburg Times, FL)

i blinked in disbelief after reading what she said.  it was like she read my mind.  she managed to say what i’ve been feeling exactly on point.

so now i’m a little relieved – i don’t want to sell off all my gear just yet.  i’m hoping that this new development will guide me back to the simple pleasures of photography and back to the passion i think i lost.

who knows how long this novelty will last – i’m hoping it will last long enough to break my creative funk i fell into.  i’m anxious to start posting pics again – hence the title, the iphone picture project.  i’ll try to start posting photos taken with the iphone on a semi-daily basis.

in a nutshell, i think the dinky iphone camera and the American Photo article (authors Jenny Andrews & Laurence Chen) have saved a critical piece of my life.  so i must say thank you to both the iphone and jenny and laurence!

i’m reminded that even though i can’t carry my SLR around with me everywhere – as long as i have a phone, i’ll always have a camera available.  and as fellow iphone photographer chase jarvis says, the best camera is the one that’s with you.

my next tattoo artist

is going to be this guy —->  Jesse Smith.

holy shit, i’ve seen some good tattoo work – but this guy’s work is awesome.

Jesse Smith currently tattoo’s in Richmond, Virginia (YESSS!! a localish talent)

he’s an artist of various sorts – paintings, illustrations, tattooing and all of it is extremely impressive.

his most recent piece of spectacular painting come to life —>

The Dumb Politician

check out more of his work here:

http://www.jessesmithtattoos.com/

http://jessesmithart.blogspot.com/