cool

Michael Zhang

This Camera Van Has Rolling Shutters

In 1993, a guy named Harrod Blank had a dream in which he drove around in a camera-covered car taking pictures of people staring at his camera-mobile. When he woke up, he decided to make the car a reality, and spent the next two years designing and building the thing. In 1995 he completed the Camera Van complete with a working camera to capture the expressions of onlookers.

Michael Zhang

Liquid Leaping from Wine Glasses

Flickr user Vincent Riemersma shot this beautiful photograph of colored liquids splashing up the side of wine glasses champagne flutes using a Nikon D300s, a custom rig for sliding the glasses down a ramp, and a sound trigger.

Michael Zhang

Shooting with Two 35mm Films in a Medium Format Camera

For those of you who still shoot film and are adventurous, have you tried double film photography? Flickr user Chuck Miller stuck two 35mm Fuji 200 films -- one normal, one redscale -- into a Holga 120N and shot the films simultaneously to get these unique sprocket hole, layered photographs.

Michael Zhang

Decorate Your Wall with Fake Frames and Real Photos

You might have framed photographs up in your home, but what about using an entire wall to show off your pictures? Photographer Lyanne Wylde turned her hallway into a photo wall by putting up wallpaper with frames and slowly filling in the frames with her own photographs. You can buy the wallpaper, titled "Frames", yourself from Graham & Brown for $45 a roll and start your own wall!

Michael Zhang

Pentax Spotmatic F SLR Completely Disassembled and Laid Out

What would it look like if you tripped and with a Pentax Spotmatic F camera in hand, and it somehow smashed neatly into its most basic components? Artist Todd McLellan gives us an idea by taking one apart, neatly arranging it on a table, and photographing it in a style similar to Carl Kleiner's IKEA baking book shots.

Michael Zhang

Broken Bat Smashes Camera Lens at MLB Playoff Game

During Game 4 of the series between the Yankees and the Rangers this past tuesday, a player broke a bat when making a hit and the broken end of the bat flew all the way into the camera well, shattering the front of a Canon DIGISUPER 86II TELE xs camera lens worth $90,000. Luckily there was a protective filter being used over the lens, though it will still cost $20,000 to replace it. What's neat is that cameraman Steve Angel kept on shooting with the smashed lens, framing the scenes through the small hole in the shattered glass until the camera was replaced an inning later.

Michael Zhang

Working Leica M8 Created Using Lego

Behold -- A Leica M8 camera created using Lego bricks! Schfio Factory this awesome toy camera using a $50 pink Lego digital camera and carefully building bricks around it to turn into Leica look-alike. It shoots at 3 megapixels and holds up to 80 photographs on its internal memory. Sweet.

Michael Zhang

Extreme SD Memory Card Testing

Remember Sid, the "disturbed, hyperactive, sadistic 10-year-old boy" in Toy Story that abuses his toys? This viral ad for Samsung SD cards shows what it would be like if Sid grew up and became interested in photography.

Michael Zhang

Backwards Music Video with 600 Pillows

The music video for "My Favorite Pillow" by Rhett & Link has the same kind of awesomeness and creativity that made OK Go the kings of viral music videos. Released less than a week ago, the video already has millions of views. It's a backwards music video in which everything is playing in reverse, but the singers still manage to mouth the words correctly. There's also 600 pillows used in the video, which obviously creates instant awesomeness in itself.

Michael Zhang

Unique Handmade Cameras by Mats Wernersson

Mats Wernersson's website is aptly named, "The Camera Maker". Wernersson creates his own custom cameras by hand, making everything from 9x12 field cameras to "frankencameras" created for specific purposes from existing bodies. The above camera is a 3D 35mm camera created by fusing two Konica FS1 bodies together.

Michael Zhang

Hands-On with the Nikon 24-70mm Cup

We reported on the Nikon coffee cup that finally appeared on the web months ago, but didn't get our hands on one until today. We did an unboxing of the Canon coffee mug and thermos back in June, so we'll do a similar hands-on for this Nikon one. Like the Canon ones, there's a whole bunch of places making these things (none of which are the camera companies themselves), so there might be some variation on how the thing looks depending on where you buy it from.

Michael Zhang

Cardboard Cameras by Kiel Johnson

Kiel Johnson is an American sculptor and painter that creates a lot of his work using cardboard. Among his works are a collection of cardboard cameras that are extremely realistic (given that they're cardboard, of course). Now all he needs to do is team up with some brilliant engineer that can help him figure out how to have these awesome things actually make photos.

Michael Zhang

Attempts to Fly by Conan Thai

"Attempts to Fly" is a series of photographs by Conan Thai in which he freezes people as they leap into the air, resulting in photographs that could be mistaken for alien abduction photos. It's a pretty fun idea that you can try with your friends. Bonus points for shots where you can capture jumpers at impossible heights, as Thai does in some of his photos.

Thai is a recently graduated graphic designer that's venturing more into photography.