The sexyest and best invention EVER

I finally gave in to my 'need' for an iphone and took the plunge last week to pay out the cash for a nice shiny new iPhone 3Gs. And since then its been an extension of my hand. One of my housemates at the moment also has just got one and we both sit there on the sofa iphones in hand winding up the rest of the house. It has to be said apple know exactly how to make a sexy product.. if anything the iphone is too good looking, I have had to cover its smooth curves with a rubberized case to protect my new pride and joy from my drunk antics. It's like a mini mac in your hand, all your internet needs bundled into a shiny little package. An on going joke now in the house however following the 'there is an app for everything' advert campaign were anything said or done in the house someone pipes up with 'theres an app for that'. It has to be said though that the accessibility to the world trough the palm of your hand is something quite addictive.. whether the novelty will soon ware off i'm not sure. The iphone however is definitely the 'in thing' in todays culture for the moment anyway. 

The Annual IKEA Trip

Saturday my mam my sister and I went to IKEA, my sister is off to uni this year so she needed all the relevant pots and pans, and I needed to buy forks to replace the forks I lost last year, as in all the student houses I've lived in there is a fork black hole somewhere. And while wandering round the massive showroom like warehouse that is IKEA I found this kitchen table that's just great. This space saving solution with style just works.

The New way to release a typeface

Better Than 'Next day' From DHL

DHL delivery at the turn of a page. This very clever advertising campaign by DHL perfectly shows the simplicity and speed of using DHL as a courier. The ad is a 4 page spread, the center page is a transparent sheet with the delivery man printed onto it, so as you turn the page, the parcel passes from one set of hands to the other. There isn't much more to say about it really, it just works, and it works because its so simple. High five DHL, wish I'd thought of it.

The Perfect World of HDR Photography

These astonishing images are of course due to the effect of High Dynamic Range photography, they come from a book called 'The World in HDR' by blogger Trey Ratcliff aka 'stuck in customs'. With HDR photography now being made easy by digital SLR's and post production software there is no need for sandwiching negatives together.

HDR photographs use multiple exposures and sandwich them together to create an image that can represent a wide range of light sources and intensity levels of light. A photographer who is well known for doing this is Gregory Crewdson, I tried to reproduce a Crewdson image this year and found shooting multiple exposures and sandwiching them together an interesting experience. As I was trying to emulate Crewdson who has his own style of working, none of my images were quite as dramatic as these images by Trey Ratcliff. It would be interesting to try and emulate some of these more dramatic shots, but of course for the majority of these you need that dramatic landscape or subject.

You are seeing more and more of these HDR photographs around, I don't think I've seen a copy of Digital SLR magazine or something similar without a HDR image on the front. Although you can see why, the detail and quality of almost every part of the image is perfect, you get rid of the blown out or shadowed areas you would normally get with a single exposure. Is this the way forward? Or will people get bored of the 'perfectness' of the photos and long for the artistic imperfect colorless mess of polaroid, or the grainy elegance of high speed black and white film?

Face For Radio

Today Terry Wogan announced that he will be retiring from his morning spot on Radio 2. I have to admit that normally Radio 2 is not my thing, but this morning my grampa gave me a lift to the train station and that is all that is ever on in his car. I have to say it saddened me to hear that the voice that anyone under the age of 27 has grown up with will no longer be soothingly whispering through stereo speakers nationwide. I think it must have been the amount of time I spent at my grandparents while I was young that's given me the love for 'the Wogan' because friends I've asked about the subject tend not to care. But to me he is one of those voices you like to listen to, like Morgan Freeman, Eddie Butler, Stephen Fry, and Patrick Stewart. (although I think Eddie Butler is just a personal thing, or maybe a welsh thing because the rugby is never missed in my house) The Wogan retired from the Eurovision a couple of years ago, and I haven't watched it since, it was his half drunk sarcastic remarks that made the show worth watching. And his retiring from the morning show on Radio 2 will truly be the end of an era.

Fallen Princess

This is Dina Goldstein's fallen princess it is a striking 'real life' image of a disney princess. It immediately made me think of Annie Leibovitz who did the celebrity disney photo shoots with David Beckham and Scarlet Johanson and also the humor of David Lachapelles work just without the extreme colour. Were as Annie Leibovitz's take on the disney princess stick to the disney story-line of the perfect world and just brings it into a modern celebrity culture context, this image brings the nothing's perfect real life culture into the disney world. I think its a clever image that portrays some of culture at the moment and the face of snow white just says it all.