Our jaws dropped when we came across Matthew Albanese’s work. He uses everyday materials to create astonishingly detailed small-scale miniatures of stunning landscapes, and then photographs them using forced perspective techniques.
Here’s his statement and a taste of his work:
My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes. Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials.
Tornado made of steel wool, cotton, ground parsley and moss
Paprika Mars. Made out of 12 pounds paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder and charcoal
Volcano, “Breaking Point”, made out of tile grout, cotton, phosphorous ink. This model volcano was illuminated from within by 6-60 watt light bulbs.
Aurora Borealis. This one was made by photographing a beam of colored light against a black curtain to achieve the edge effect. The trees were composited from life ( so far the only real life element in any of these images) The stars are simply strobe light through holes in cork board.
Fields, After the Storm. This model is simply made out of faux fur(fields), cotton (clouds) and sifted tile grout(mountains). The perspective is forced as in all of my images, and the lighting effect was created by simply shifting the white balance.
To see more of Matthew’s work, you can visit his website.
This is one of the coolest gadgets we’ve seen in quite some time. The Parrot AR.Drone is a quadricopter that you control visually through wifi using your iPhone or iPod touch. The quadricopter has a built in camera that displays the real time view of the drone on your screen while you control it. We’re not sure if still photography or video capabilities are built in, but this could open the door to making simple aerial photography accessible to the general public.
What’s even cooler is the fact that the AR.Drone comes with augmented reality games for both single and multiplayer. This means the real world is turned into the battleground, and you can either have aerial fights with virtual enemies or your friend’s quadricopter!
Parrot is currently showing off the carbon-fiber toy at CES 2010 in Las Vegas, and there isn’t any word on the pricing or availability yet. If the price is anything reasonable, you can be sure these things are going to be flying off shelves!
To whet your appetite even more, here’s a super-awesome video demonstrating how the AR.Drone works:
Here’s a video for your inspiration that shows what can be accomplished through good ol’ fashioned dedication and hard work. These guys started in Toronto, Canada, and walked for 26 miles over 14 hours to produce this mesmerizing stop-motion video. Enjoy!
Update: In case you didn’t know, Yonge Street was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world, at 1,178 mi/1,896 km.
Here’s your daily dose of (semi)photographic inspiration: Musical duo Gloobic put together this creative video in which Eric Gunther, one of the two members, dances to a Gloobic track in timelapse. I’ve never seen choreographed dancing in timelapse before, and there were all sorts of different words that went through my head as I was watching this (i.e. awesome, hilarious, strange, creative, and difficult). Keep an eye out for the guy who stops to take a close-up picture. Hilarious!
It’s pretty amazing what two guys and a little creativity can accomplish.
I wonder what the dancing looked like in real time, and what onlookers were thinking during the shots where the cameraman is pretty far away. It must have been somewhat bizarre.
If you liked the music, you can purchase the duo’s latest album, Music for Nothing on Amazon.
If you know of any other examples of time-lapse dancing, please share a link to it in the comments!
What’s even cooler is the fact that the AR.Drone comes with augmented reality games for both single and multiplayer. This means the real world is turned into the battleground, and you can either have aerial fights with virtual enemies or your friend’s quadricopter!
