Etsy shop soaprepublic sells flexible silicone molds for making homemade soap that’s shaped like a DSLR camera body (with a pancake lens attached?).
Read more…

Red Peak Branding conducted an experiment last year in which they chained a fully loaded bicycle (bells, basket, lights, and the whole shebang) to a post on a busy New York City sidewalk. They then visited and photographed the bicycle every single day, resulting in the 365-photo time-lapse video seen above. What’s interesting is that the bicycle remains untouched for roughly 230 days, but once small parts start getting stolen the rest of the bicycle soon follows. This might have something to do with what’s called the “broken windows theory“.

(via Gawker)

IKEA scored a viral advertising hit in 2010 when it released a cookbook with photographs by Carl Kleiner showing the ingredients of each recipe neatly arranged on a table. Now, the Swedish furniture company has teamed up with the photographer and stylist Evelina Kleiner again for a series of photographs showing kitchen items in beautiful arrangements.
Read more…

Here’s a video that’s fascinating in light of Kodak’s bankruptcy announcement today. It was created back in 2006 for the company by partners+napier, and was shown at the All Things Digital Conference in California before Kodak CEO Antonio Perez took the stage to talk about the company’s digital transformation. The predictions made in the video are seemingly prophetic, accurately describing the current landscape of digital and mobile photography. It’s too bad that Kodak couldn’t right its ship, even though it had a good idea of where things were headed.

(via Strobist)

Photographer Lilly McElroy has a unique series of photos titled I Throw Myself At Men that consists of self-portraits showing her launching herself into the arms of strangers.

For this project I went to a lot of bars and I literally threw myself at men who I didn’t know. I used my body as a projectile, hurling myself toward strong, vulnerable men who were waiting to catch me. Poised in a perpetual state of social awkwardness and in full possession of the ability to subvert stereotypical gender roles, the photographs pose questions concerning relationships, social connection, sex, gender, and the desire to form relationships quickly that are both intense and long lasting.

The project got started after McElroy placed ads on Craigslist asking for men who’d be willing to meet blind date-style in bars and have McElroy throw herself at them.
Read more…

Want to know what it’s like to cover a football game as the chief photographer of a school’s athletic department? Photographer Joel Hawksley created this day-in-the-life time-lapse video after being assigned to cover a football game between Ohio University and Temple University. It starts early in the morning when he pulls out of his driveway, and ends at night when he pulls in. In between we see everything from setting up, shooting, post-processing, and uploading/emailing photographs. Hawksley used a Nikon D700 and D300 to photograph the game, and a Canon G9 to capture the time-lapse images throughout the day.

We’re about three weeks away from the rumored February 8th unveiling of the Olympus OM-D — a new Micro Four Thirds camera designed in the style of old school Olympus OM SLRs. The mockup above shows what the camera might look like based on the latest spec rumors. The 16MP camera will reportedly offer ISO 200-25600, a grip and a leather-covered surface, built-in flash, in-body image stabilization, a 610000-dot swiveling LCD screen, and speedy autofocus

(via blog.livedoor.jp via 43 Rumors)

Upon first glance, the photograph Double by photographer Katsuhiro Saiki might look like some sort of abstract modern painting of a blue canvas divided by a thin white line. Look a little closer, and you’ll find that it’s actually a photograph of the sky divided neatly in half by an airplane vapor trail.
Read more…

Well, the rumors were true: today the iconic photography company Kodak announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. What this means is that the company is given permission to continue its normal operations as it struggles to restructure and transform into a sustainable business. While we probably won’t see the death of the Kodak brand, the company has stated that it intends to transform into “a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company”, and that they’re planning to sell off “significant assets” during this process. It remains to be seen whether Kodak continues to play a significant role in film photography once it emerges out the other end of bankruptcy protection (if it ever does).

(via Reuters)

Thanks for sending in the tip, Ian!

Image credit: kodak by zrs_one

Fujifilm and Olympus have been hard at work lately bringing the beauty of film cameras to the world of digital. Perhaps sensing a new trend, Samsung wants in: the company is planning to release a “retro” mirrorless camera of its own. Sadly, it’s effort pales in comparison to what the other manufacturers are doing. Rather than imitate rangefinder cameras (e.g. Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the Leica M9) or resurrect old film SLR designs (e.g. the Olympus OM-D), Samsung has seemingly decided that retro camera designs can be boiled down to one thing: silver-colored top plates. This Saturday, Samsung will be announcing a “retro” version of the NX200 called the NX200 RS. The only thing that differs from the standard model is a silver top plate.

(via DaNaWa via Sammy Hub via Photo Rumors)