Photo-sharing apps run the gamut between the hyper-social (ala Instagram: like, comment and share to your heart’s content) and the secretive (ala Snapchat: this photo will self-destruct in 3 … 2 … ). Ustwo’s new app Rando falls somewhere in that latter category, because while you can share photos with Rando, you have no idea who you’re sharing them with, or who is sharing them with you — and forget about likes, comments and favorites. Read more…

What kind of imagery results when you mix photo paper and fireworks? That’s a question photographic artist Ross Sonnenberg has been exploring for the past few years. He creates one-of-a-kind camera-less photograms that look like abstract images of galaxies, but are actually random and colorful patterns created by the light of firecrackers.
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If you think about it, any digital photograph is simply a finite collection of pixels, with each one showing a specific color. There are also only a finite number of colors each pixel on a display can be. Thus, there are only a finite number of photographs that could possibly exist. An unfathomably large number, but finite nonetheless.

That’s the basic idea behind artist Jeffrey Thompson‘s Every Possible Photograph project. Thompson has created an installation that, given enough time, will generate every possible photograph by stepping through every possible combination of pixels.
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If you’re forever alone and want to photograph yourself locked in a warm embrace in a doorway, check out this article by Japanese website Daily Portal — one of the strangest photography tutorials we’ve ever seen.
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You know the infinitely long tunnel that appears when you look into two mirrors that are pointed at one another? Have you ever noticed that the tunnel becomes more and more green, the deeper you go?

YouTube personality Vsauce has a fascinating new video titled “What Color Is A Mirror?”. In it, Mr. Sauce explains that this is due to the fact that there is no such thing as a perfect mirror (i.e. a mirror that perfectly reflects 100% of light). The fact is, a typical mirror best reflects light in the 510nm range, which we perceive as green light.
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Here’s a random but interesting piece of photo-related trivia: did you know that Kodak used a calendar that had 13 months? It was called the “International Fixed Calendar“, and was proposed by a guy named Moses B. Cotsworth in 1902. The system divided each year into 13 months of 28 days each, with one or two days each year not belonging to any month. The extra month was named “Sol”, and appeared between June and July. Although it was never officially adopted by any country, Kodak founder George Eastman became a huge supporter of the new calendar, and instituted it as the official calendar of Kodak in 1928. It would remain the company’s calendar of choice until 1989. Because of this, an alternate name for the calendar is “the Eastman plan”.

Image credit: Calendar Advice by brandoncripps

To promote its new One X phone (and the camera on it), HTC came up with the bizarre idea of doing a skydiving fashion shoot with photography student Nick Jojola and model (and professional skydiver) Roberta Mancino. During the photoshoot above the Arizona desert, Jojola plummeted to Earth at 126MPH while Mancino whizzed by at 181MPH, giving the photographer a tiny window of 0.8 seconds to squeeze off the shot.
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Here’s your completely random photography fact of the day: Nutella lids can double as lens caps. Belgian photography enthusiast Frans Leys lost the 72mm cap to his 18-200mm Nikon lens, but found that the cap from his 220g jar of Nutella was a perfect fit. 220g isn’t the standard size sold in the US, but can be found in some shops.

(via Lifehacker)

Image credit: 18-200 mm Nikon VR lens cap by Frans Leys and used with permission

Having a flattering portrait as your drivers license photo is difficult to achieve, but so is having a portrait that stands out as being bizarre. Reddit user adambard successfully accomplished the latter. He wanted a novelty drivers license photo, so he decided to shave half his hair and the opposite half of his beard. Just in case you’d like to follow in his footsteps, you can view a step-by-step documentation of his process here.

(via Imgur via Reddit via Laughing Squid)

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.
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