Photojojo » Inspiration

Remake Famous Works of Art, With Your Friends

photojojo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:50:39 +0000

What does the Battle of Gettysburg have in common with Yu-Gi-Oh, Washington Crossing the Delaware, and Star Wars?

They’ve all challenged you to make a cameo appearance.

Photo-reenactments are pure-distilled fun: start by picking your favorite movie/show/poster/painting, then gather friends, props, and costumes to recreate it. Instant inspiration!

Banishing photographer’s block for good while slipping goofily into the annals of history? Hand us our tri-corner hat.

Our Favorite Photo-Reenactments

Photo Philosophy to Brighten Your Brainy Bits

matt — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:43:16 +0000

Award-winning photojournaist James Pomerantz is studying for an MFA in Photography, and now you can read the books that he’s reading.

His list is dense and scholarly (what’s this, no excerpts from the Photojojo book? Haaaaaarumph) but your gray matter (and your photographic output) will thank you for peeking over James’ shoulder.

For example, Barthes’ “Rhetoric of the Image” ponders:

“if the image is in a certain manner the limit of meaning, it permits the consideration of a veritable ontology of the process of signification. How does meaning get into the image? Where does it end? And if it ends, what is there beyond?”

That noise your hear are your dendrites cheering.

Twenty-Six Thought-Provoking Essays on Photography
(Our fave: Michel Foucalts’s “Of Other Spaces: Heterotopias.”)

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon

The Best Roundups of the Best Photos of 2009

matt — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:30:17 +0000

Ready to throw yourself in a heap across the finish line of yet another decade?

Say goodbye to the Nads and hello to the Tweens with our roundup-roundup: the best photos of 2009 as chosen by experts at Time, National Geographic, Billboard, and more.

Of course, it’s fun to reminisce about Twitpics of planes on the Hudson, or to imagine that there could have been life before Glee.

But it’s even more fun to imagine the photo-ops that await us in the new year.

Your mission: Say a proper goodbye to 2009, and go make two-thousand-and-awesome the best photo year yet!

The Best Roundups of the Best Photos of 2009

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Wedding Photos You’ll Love (Even if You Hate Wedding Photos)

kelly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:50:04 +0000

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We thought wedding photos were just something that came free with the double Elvis special in Las Vegas.

Fancy our surprise when we saw the lush spread from Design*Sponge’s wedding extravaganza!

Design*Sponge is one of our most favoritest design blogs ever, so you know it’s gonna look good when two of those kids get hitched.

What we really love are the shots of small details, like a glass of tea or a vase of flowers, because we don’t always photograph the little things that keep a memory fresh in our minds.

Keep the details in mind the next time you want to remember something well, whether it’s your wedding day, your trip to Croatia, or just a lazy sunlit picnic in the grass.

The Design*Sponge Wedding Gallery: Part One

Part Two: Decor

Part Three: DIY

Part Four: Flowers

Part Five: Food

Photo credits: BelatheÃ©

What Was Your Toughest Photo?

kelly — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:50:41 +0000

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Was it the time you had to dodge a charging hippopotamus?

Or when you braved the beer-soaked mayhem of the World Moustache Championships?

And remember the time you wrapped a model in 10,000 meters of dental floss for the cover of Ukranian Vogue?

Well, what was your most difficult shot?

Show us a snapshot and tell us your tale!

Enthrall us with your moxie and tell us how you plunged into the maw of Photography Itself. (Plus, you know, show us your pictures.)

The most fabulous story of perseverance wins an equally fabulous mystery prize! Ooh la la!

Post Your Very Most Difficult Photo!

16 of the Hardest Photos Ever
via Kottke

p.s. Jalbum (an app for creating and sharing photo albums) is dishing out freebie Premium Accounts to the first ten Photojojo fans that RT @JalbumFrog!

p.p.s. It’s week 2 of 3 of the knock-down, drag-out JPG lightpainting challenge. Enter your finest pic to win one of 10 copies of our book!

Photojojo! The Book

jen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:45:44 +0000

Extra photos for bloggers: 1, 2

Three years ago, we set out on a mission: to inspire your digital photos to be more than mere megapixels.

So we started a website, and sent out a newsletter. And then we sent out more newsletters. Then the Photojojo Shop was born (while we kept sending newsletters).

And now … WE HAVE A BOOK! You know — paper, ink, a table of contents. The whole shebang.

Complete with 192 full-color pages of our most popular photo projects (all souped up) plus tons of new ones, and some great ideas from the most talented folks we know.

It’s been a year in the works, and we can. not. wait. for you to see it.

Photojojo! The Book Twitter It!
$21.99 at the Photojojo Shop & bookstores near you!

p.s. To celebrate our launch we’re giving away tonso stuff from the Photojojo Shop; Bottle Cap Tripods, Level Camera Cubes, Magnetic Photo Rope and ten copies of our book. All week long!

Just RT @photojojo … we’ll be picking winners until Friday.

AND we started a Photojojo Book Group on Flickr for everyone to share their first cuddly book moments.

Look! Below the jump! A sneak peek for you, darling reader: one of the projects from our super fantastic master work of literature (plus 3 more crafty tidbits). Enjoy.

Inside the Book: CD Jewel Case Mural

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How Shooting Just One Thing Can Improve Your Photography Chops

photojojo — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:50:48 +0000

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You know how Monet became an unstoppable Impressionist juggernaut? He painted the same stuff over and over again.

It works for photographers too — Cecile Figuette takes a Polaroid of everything she eats. Every. Single. Day.

Focus on one subject, and you’re forced to evolve your style to keep it interesting… change your perspective, change the way you see things, change everything!

Do it for a while and everything you shoot starts looking better, not just your spicy sopressata with Italian Fontina and pesto on country bread. (Fancy pants!)

Leftovers: The Prettiest Polaroid Food Blog You Ever Saw

Thanks for the heads-up @cecilefig!

On twitter? Follow @photojojo and let us know if you’ve seen a site we should write about!

The Zumi Digital, Vintage Video

jen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:00:29 +0000

Extra photos for bloggers: 1, 2

*A Photojojo Confession*

For all the boasting, and oh my gosh wowing over digital photography stuffs — we sometimes miss shooting with film.

What we don’t miss is the hassle of buying film and getting it developed.

Which is why we are so truly, deeply, and madly in love with The Digital Zumi. She’s a palm sized camera that takes the dreamiest lo-fi videos (and photos) that look just like vintage film.

All the charm of film with the ease of digital? This camera is so us!

The Digital Zumi Twitter It!
$170 at the Photojojo Shop!

p.s. We’ve only got a bit of our Zumi stock in and more is on the way. So if you’ve got a hankering, best act now to reserve for the next shipment ;)

Glow Doodle: Paint with Light in Real Time!

kelly — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:50:23 +0000

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“Photograph” literally means “light drawing”, and that’s never been clearer than with our new favorite boredom-buster, Glow Doodle.

It lets you take long exposures so you can paint with light in real time using your webcam.

Try different lights for different effects: write your name with with a mini-flashlight, fire your camera’s flash, or play with the metamorphic effect of moving while the webcam is exposing.

If you’ve never played with lightpainting before, this is an easy way to try it without setting up the tripod.

And now, what to doodle?
Noodles? Poodles? Oodles of strudels?!
Gotta draw something: resistance is futile.

Glow Doodle: Paint with Light in Real Time!

p.s. Browse through the Glow Doodle favorites set to see the dreamy, arty, surreal and downright creepy images other folks have made.

Remember Everything With Your Camera and Evernote

kelly — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:50:44 +0000

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Study the following phrases carefully:

Absent-….ed professor
One-track ….
Get your …. out of the gutter

If any words appear to be missing, you may have lost your mind.

The good news is, your trusty camera can keep your mind from wandering off!

Snap a picture of anything you want to remember and drop the photo into Evernote.

This clever little app turns your picture into a note (it can even read text in your photo) and creates a collection of little reminders.

Use tags to search for related notes, or add them to a to-do list. You can access the database from your smartphone, desktop, or the web, so it’s available wherever you go.

Take snapshots of places you want to explore, or ideas scribbled on napkins, and pretty soon you’ll remember everything!

Your mind may still wander, but at least you’ll know where it was.

Evernote: Use Your Camera to Remember Everything
Thanks to reader to Lindsay Leung for the tip!

p.s. Evernote works with your scanner too! (And screenshots, and your webcam, and Eye-Fi cards…) Check out their blog for ideas and tips on using the app.