Following on from the images I posted a few weeks ago of Eleanor, taken at the Miss Aniela Fashion Shoot Experience, here are another two showing Eleanor on the bed.

Eleanor on the Bed No. 2 (click image for larger view)

Credits (as before)

Photography Jon Milet Baker
Dress Reem Juan
Model Eleanor Cooper
Stylist Pash Stylecreative
Hair Tati Zarubova
Make up Cornelia Page
Assistants Aimee Wollard, Matt Leonard

You can find more information on Miss Aniela’s Fashion Shoot Experience here

Following on from the recent movies on creativity by John Cleese and Aaron Draplin comes a video from Michael Wolff. Michael is co-founder of design consultancy Wolff Olins and Intel recently put together a short video about the his three key ingredients to seeing more and finding inspiration.

As usual I have made some notes on what Micheal says below the video for convenience.

Notes

Michael knows what he looks like but doesn’t know what he looks like to others. A certain packaging is needed to present ourselves to the outside world.

When he attended school he obtained a wide education. Now designers get segregated into discrete subjects, so less likely to have the holistic education that Michael had.

He is highly tuned appreciator, he takes delight in everything he sees and says you need to have three muscles of seeing that allow you to see more in your everyday life.

1. Curiosity – why is it big? why is it the colour it is? why? why? why?
2. Appreciation, not just questioning but noticing. Take it all in.
3. Imagination, enabled by the first two. Putting things together in unique combinations. [Much like the Juxtapositions talked about in John Cleese talk]

Professionally, his role is about helping clients find their voice and identity, not forcing his own design preferences on them. His first role was redesigning a magazine about muck spreading and cow dung and he redesigned the look using fonts that move people emotionally.

Michael suggests seeing is a musclar exercise, as is curiosity. If you are preoccupied you won’t notice anything.

Be obsessively interested in everything.

(via PetaPixel)

When I launched Old Maps of New York a few months ago it only had a handful of maps, today I have uploaded 3 more maps onto the site which you can pan and zoom into as you would with Google Maps. The three newly added maps are shown below.

New York 1756

The 1756 Tobias Conrad Lotter’s map of the Middle Atlantic and New England regions during the British colonial period

View Larger Map

New York 1831

A pocket map of New York City issued in 1831 by J. Langdon. It has a Westward orientation and covers New York from Forty Fifth street south to the Battery. The map is divided and color coded according to the 14 wards. All streets are marked, as are the piers, slips, parks, and important public buildings including Bellevue Hospital, the West Battery Castle, City Hall, the House of Refuge, the Alms House, and the Penitentiary. The following Parks:  City Hall Park, Washington Square Park, the Battery, and the Parade (today’s Madison Square Park) are all included.

View Larger Map

New York 1835

This is c. 1835 edition of David H. Burr and Edward Walker’s pocket map of the City of New York. It covers New York City south of 26th street to the west and south of 40th street to the east. Churches, theaters, ferries, government buildings, museums, and other public centers are shown in detail. Columbia College is indicated on Murray Street and Fulton Fish Market, St. Marks Church in the East Village and the nation’s first hospital at Bellevue are also included. The map includes parts of Brooklyn and Williamsburg, separate cities at that time.

View Larger Map

You can view all the maps at www.oldmapsofnewyork.com
You can also view the Paris version at www.oldmapsofparis.com 

I recently attended the Fashion Shoot Experience run by Miss Aniela which I highly recommend. The event is run every month or so around the globe and provides attendees with a unique opportunity to experience photographing a location fashion shoot and working with a large creative team. Rather than being instructional, your are provided with all the ingredients and tools for success and then left to your own devices to experiment and have fun.

The day is split into 5 slots, each slot allowing an hour with each model, in a different area of the location. All the models are styled with their outfit, hair and makeup professionally done. The creative team are available throughout the day to adjust and ensure the models and outfits look their best. In addition to this, help is on hand to help hold things, create small sets and to help technically with setting up the lights to achieve your artistic vision.

The locations that Miss Aniela uses are excellent, providing lots of props that allow you to quickly put together small sets. You are allocated a different area in the location, as well as different lighting equipment, for each model you work with; giving variety and a broad range of tools to try that you may not normally have access to.

The images here are from my first shoot of the day with Eleanor

Eleanor

Eleanor and the Bull

Credits

Photography Jon Milet Baker
Dress Reem Juan
Model Eleanor Cooper
Stylist Pash Stylecreative
Hair Tati Zarubova
Make up Cornelia Page
Assistants Aimee Wollard, Matt Leonard

You can find more information on Miss Aniela’s Fashion Shoot Experience here

Veteran Graphic Designer Aaron James Draplin recently shared 50 things in 50 minutes that he lives by. The video is not only funny and inspiring but also contains some excellent advise. Although aimed at graphic designers a lot of what he says can equally be applied to photographers and artists in general. It is worth watching (below) but as usual I have included my notes; his 50 points, if you don’t have time to watch below that.

Aaron Draplin’s 50 Points

1. Enjoy the moment
2. Love where you are from
3. Move somewhere wild
4. Frequent Eateries that use decimal points in their menus
5. Know your fucking condiments (keep it simple)
6. Get out there and get dirty (go explore and find things)
7. And then, share what you find
8. Work with your friends
9. Know your tools, and be thankful they exist
10. Go wherever they’ll send you
11. Shed any goddamned sense of entitlement
12. Provide proof of bonifide graphic art existence (using multimedia)
13. Fight for the long dogs [All dogs are descended from dachshunds]
14. Lose the crutch [there is no excuse for creative block, if you are on the clock make it happen, don't find excuses]
15. Exhibit a little humility
16. Quit spending yer money on bullshit
17. Be wary of certain business professionals (In order: Telemarkers, TSA Agents (transport security in US), Pickpockets, DMV Employees (US Dept. Motor Vehicles), Horse Thieves, Tax Collectors & Web Developers)
18. Pay off those fucking school loans now
19. Laugh at stuff
20. Turn yer back on organised sports
21. Dream up a plan (Then figure our how to pull it off)
22. Get cosmic (Put things into perspective, we are tiny in the universe)
23. Take colour theory very seriously (Nothing says I don’t quite get it like the colour purple – don’t use it)
24. Make room for some magic [See John Cleese interview last week & be prepared for when it comes]
25. Say what you mean
26. Get it on vinyl (Records rock)
27. Be ready for when they call you up to the big league
28. Learn an instrument
29. Be the client (invent something)
30. Go by car (take it slow and see the country)
31. Know what really matters in the end (help your friends and family)
32. Buy things made in America England [Sorry Aaron]
33. Question stuff constantly
34. Know who’s got the power
35. Collect cool shit
36. Grab yer social media by the throat (Make your posts count)
37. Savour the little stuff
38. Support yer local rock bands
39. Know all the shades of being professional (prove yourself by being professional but keep it fun)
40. Don’t worry about awards (but if you are invited to go judge, bite their hand off; take the hotel and abuse expense account)
41. Quite saying the word “dude” (THis isn’t the 90s anymore, let that be reserved for your uncle and your dentist)
42. Make big ass posters (Then sell a shitwack of ‘em)
43. Go pantless
44. Get free (have an exit plan)
45. Treat the UPS guy, mail lady and printing pressman like they are gold. (Treat the people you rely on well)
46. Know what you love
47. Don’t forget about the things you hate
48. Learn to roll with the good, the bad and the ugly
49. Work hard and love this shit
50. Be thankful for everything

You can find more about Aaron Draplin and his company here

(via 37 Signals)

I came across a great video the other day where John Cleese shares his wisdom and research on how to be more creative. You can watch the video below and if you don’t have 30mins to spare, you can glance at my notes on his talk below.

Notes

Telling us how to become creative is a complete waste of time. Creativity can’t be explained. Freud denied psychoanalysis can say anything about creativity. Our childhood has a huge impact on our ability to be creative.

How many folk singers does it take to change a lightbulb? One to change the bulb, four to sing about how better the old one was

It is easier to say what creativity isn’t. Creativity is not a talent it is a way of operating.

How many actors does it take to change a lightbulb? 10000s to say they could have done that.

Research by Donald MacKinnon shows that creativity is not related to intelligence and it is not a talent. Creative people find a way to get into a creative mood that allows creativity to begin to happen. This mood is an ability to play and be childlike. Playing with ideas and exploring them for enjoyment. Play for play’s own sake.

People function in the workplace in two modes, the open mode and the closed mode. Creativity is not possible in the close mode.

• Closed mode is what we are in most the time we are at work. Under pressure we have lots to do. This can be exciting, even pleasurable. We tend to be a little inpatient and purposeful.
• Open mode is when we are relaxed, less purposeful, more inclined to humour and more playful. Curiosity can operate, we can play, there is no presure to get things done or for them to be right.

Alexander Fleming, must have been in the open mode when he found a petri dish with no culture growing. In the closed mode he would have discarded it as a failure but in the open mode he became curious and this led him to discover penicillin.

In the closed mode the uncultured petri dish is useless, in the open mode it is a clue.

We need to find a way to be in the open mode when pondering a problem, but then we must implement the close mode to follow it through. We don’t want to contemplate a jump seconds before we leap. The pressures of modern society push us into the closed mode so getting into the open mode can be a challenge.

How many psychiatrists to change lightbulb? One, but the lightbulb needs to want to change.

For those that don’t easily slip into open mode. John suggests the following requirements:

• Space: We can’t be playful under our usual pressures. Create space away from demands. Seal yourself off.
• Time: Create space for a specific period of time, have a set start and end. Give yourself time for your mind to quieten down. John suggests 1 1/2 hours is optimum.
• Confidence: Nothing will stop you in your tracks faster than the fear of failure. You need to allow for mistakes and see them as possibilities.
• Humour: The fastest way to get from the closed mode to the open mode. Having a laugh about something does not make it less serious. Solemnity is overrated.

“Play is distinct from ordinary life both as to locality and duration” – Johan hoisinger

Research shows that the most creative professionals play with a problem longer before attempting to resolve it. During your open mode, keep bringing your mind back to the subject (just like meditation) sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious, but only if you have put in the pondering time first. It is easier to be creative if you have people to bounce ideas off of.

Danger, if one person around you makes you defensive, you lose all confidence and can say adios to creativity.

A good way to trigger ideas is through juxtapositions. In a joke, the laugh comes when you connect two unique points of reference together, that create new meaning. Combing two random ideas in a new way are only significant if they generate new meaning.

(via BoingBoing)

I often blog about how the internet is changing how we create and experience art works. I came across an interesting video the other day by PBS Arts: Off Book that takes a look at how three Internet based companies (Kickstarter, Creative Commons, and The Creators Project) are helping artists fund their project and gain recognition and audience for their work.

The key messages from the video are:

• Kickstarter is a distinct project that helps artists find funding and build an audience. Projects have gone on to get book deals, be displayed in Whitney Museum, receive Oscar nominations, be selected for the Sundance Festival and SXSW. Work funded on Kickstarter is not just limited to novelty internet creations but work that has gone on to have cultural significance.
• Creative Commons is a non profit corporation that makes it simple for artists to choose the freedoms that their creativity can carry. In a digital world many are not looking to profit from their work and don’t care about copyright. Creative Commons tries to bridge the gap between copyrighted and public domain so that those that create art for the love of it, can still gain value through attribution.
• The Creators Project aims to enable artists that create physical art works and art experiences to digitise and share that work online with the internet community. Brining together the original creator’s content with fan submitted images, stories and remixed/inspired work, it allows these art pieces to live on beyond the original event.

(via Laughing Squid)

You can visit the featured sites here:

• Kickstarter
• Creative Commons
• The Creators Project

I created this image in dedication to Guy Bourdin (1928-1991) the French fashion photographer whose fashion photography broke the mould with it’s surreal narrative.

During his career he created many collections of themes in his images but a reoccurring theme was women’s legs, which came about initially from his work with French shoe designer Charles Jourdan. If you are unfamiliar with his work it is well worth checking out.

• You can see more of Guy Bourdin’s work on his website
• You can also read about him on Wikipedia 

Alltop

On a separate note. I am delighted to announce that Alltop, a great service co-founded by Guy Kawasaki, have selected to include my blog content on their site. They have a high standard to meet before you can be included so this is a great honour for me. You can find me in the Photography category.

Late last week Adobe released the public beta of Photoshop CS6 to the world. I have now had a chance to create an image from start to finish and wanted to share my thoughts.

Overall, I love the new Photoshop. The darker interface is much easier on the eye, allowing you to focus on your work. Not only that the interface is more compact. The adjustment layers pallet now opens as needed, allowing for the side bar to be narrower. Many of the big headline grabbing features work as expected but to be honest, I have hardly used them. This is mainly as I have an established workflow which doesn’t include these tools yet, I am sure this will change in time.

So for me and what I do, the best of the new features are as follows:

• The new Camera RAW is a huge advancement on the last and the sliders now make much more sense. Though it is a shame it is still in the old light grey.
• Mini bridge is now really well integrated, gone is the old Air powered pop-out and you can now view all the resources you are working with at the bottom of the screen and simply drag and drop them straight into the image. For a compositor this is a welcome addition.
• The new crop tool makes more sense and works a treat.
• The patch tool, which when you put the tool into content aware mode, acts like content aware fill but allows you to choose the source. In the few cases I used it, it did a great job, better than content-aware fill.
• The Liquify tool has a simpler interface, still unfortunately in light grey, but does seem quicker

For me though it is the subtle new features that make Photoshop CS6 a must buy, in particular, being able to modify multiple layers at once as well as little things to help tab through layers when re-naming them.

You can download Photoshop and use it for free until Adobe release the official release. Although Adobe has done this before with Lightroom 3 and 4, this is the first time I am aware of them doing a public beta of Photoshop in their Adobe Labs. This is a great move by Adobe and not only that, they are welcoming feedback in the Photoshop forum which shows they are listening to their users.

You can download Photoshop CS6 Beta here
You can provide feedback to Adobe here
You can see my image I created in CS6 here

The confusion of the maze, the involuntary actions of the robot and the conclusion of the poppy.

There are three motifs in this image which I will briefly explain below. Together they explore the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious.

• The key idea comes from a recent Horizon I watched on BBC2 on the 16th March, titled “Out of Control?” in which scientists put forward the notion that our sub conscious is really in control of us, not our conscious. This got me thinking about our similarity to robots. Our autopilot is on but we are lead to believe that we are in the driving seat.
• Labyrinths and mazes traditionally symbolise confusion and in finding one’s way through the maze, knowledge is gained. It is interesting, in a way, if we were to look at the physical characteristics of a brain that it indeed looks like a box hedge maze, like the one above.
• The ancient Greeks associated poppies with sleep and dreaming and more recently we associate them with death and loss. In either case they can be interpreted as unconsciousness. There is hope, however, as the dead seed head is filled with the potential of new life.

I recently came across Aaron Nace’s work on 500px and am impressed with his work. Aaron produces digital art that is convincing, using similar techniques to my own, in Photoshop. His work is excellent, he has an eye for light which is key to this process and success of a composite image. A lot of the time we need to hand draw in shadows or recreate highlights to convincingly blend images into a image and make them feel connected to the scene. In fact getting the colour and lighting right is probably more important than how good your selects and masks are.

The best thing about Aaron is his generosity, he makes time every day to film a 10-20 minute video podcast on Photoshop or photography in general and doesn’t hold back from sharing tips, techniques and inspiration on how he produces his work for free. It is well worth subscribing to Phlearn if you are interested in working this way in Photoshop. If that isn’t enough he has created 1-2 hour long tutorials for most of his key work, including the source files. These tutorials are available for $19 but considering the knowledge contained is extremely good value.

Note: Phlearn happens to be one year old today. At the time of writing, Aaron is offering 50% off all his paid for content as well as bundles of 5 for $39, I have just purchased a whole load and have already learnt several shortcuts or better approaches to my own Photoshop skills

Aaron has created some fantastic images both commercially and as part of his personal projects and he is well worth checking out.

You can see more of Aarons work on 500px
Check out Phlearn.com for his free daily tutorials
You can purchase his PRO tutorials here 

Last weekend my friend Dan and I headed off to photograph seven models in an old Stuart period house in Liskeard (imaginatively called Stuart House). It was a great day and everyone was lovely which helped make the day really enjoyable. I learnt a lot, both technically as well as working with professional models, but I also learnt a far more important lesson.

Erinx

Before the event I had a lot of ideas for concept shots that I wanted to create on the day, but unfortunately I was not able to pull them off. My first reaction was to blame the location “In future, I need to scout the location first”, but this isn’t the main reason they didn’t work.

The real reason these didn’t work, was that as the event approached I convinced myself I needed to work on my portraits skills. If I am honest, I think that lately I have been drawn to the success and attention Dan’s work is getting and lost sight of my own direction. Dan is well on the way to becoming an excellent wedding and portrait photographer but this isn’t me. I have no intention of becoming a professional photographer, I love my day job, for me photography is a creative release. My work isn’t mainstream so it isn’t going to be as popular, but that isn’t why I create it. Obviously, we would all love recognition for what we do, but in regards to my own photography, I know I haven’t earn’t that yet.

Roswell Ivory

I did a lot of thinking last week about my direction, why I love photography and what I really what to do with it. I have come to the conclusion that when there is a narrative or meaning in my work, it is stronger and more enjoyable for me to create. This meaning doesn’t have to be overly deep and complex, for example my Orchid series was simply about my wife’s growing orchid obsession collection.

The images here were taken on the day and while I think they have come out really well, they don’t fit what I have been doing so far.

You can see my Orchid Series here.

I want to get a more human touch into my images. I love photographing people and a lot of the ideas I have for my surreal personal projects involve a person or people in the image. A hurdle, that I have wanted to cross, is working with professional models. I get a little anxious as I want to approach the situation with confidence and a clear vision of what I want to achieve, without wasting anyone’s time. Getting over this barrier, will open up a lot of opportunities to do more interesting projects.

My first experience of working with a model was with Sophie Hennessy (featured above). We did a group shoot on the beach with some other local photographers. Everyone was cross guiding/posing Sophie which didn’t put her at ease and we tended to get in each other’s way. It was a good experience but I didn’t learn all that I had hoped. You can see some of the images I took here.

This weekend will be my second attempt. Dan and I are heading up to Liskeard on Sunday to join a group of 6 other photographers and 7 beautiful models at a great venue. Dan and I are sharing a slot as the event sold out in 4 hours and we got in on the reserve list, but this time we are doing things differently. Dan and I have a different shooting style Dan will be perfecting his style and I want to try to get some more concept, surreal fashion, type shots. Inspired mainly by Tim Walker, Guy Bourdin and Miss Aniela (incidentally, I am doing a workshop with Miss Aniela in London next month – more on that in a future post). We have decided to split our one hour time slot with each model into 30 minutes each. This will allow us to get the shots we want, albeit in limited time, and while one of us shoots, the other will assist.

It is pretty much all natural light so we will bring reflectors and flashes but I think we will mainly work with the available lighting. Posing is something that I have little experience of, but having watched Sue Bryce’s excellent Creative Live last weekend, I think I have a good grasp of some basic techniques to help me. Other than a few interesting props we should be good to go.

What are other’s experiences of working with models for the first time? I would love to hear your stories and tips.

You can checkout my images of Sophie at Crantock here
You can checkout Dan Ward’s work here, oh and be sure to join his Facebook page if you like his work and would like to receive large amounts of love and gratitude from Dan.

Last year I started a side project at Go Tripod and brought you Old Maps of Paris, today we am pleased to announce the launch of Old Maps of New York.

There are only a few maps on there at the moment, starting with the earliest known map, of the east cost of America dating from around 1635.

The map embedded below was created around 1660 and known as the Castello Plan of New Amsterdam. It is the oldest known map of New York City dating from the dutch period.

I am currently adding them chronologically. The site operates in exactly the same way as Old Maps of Paris, with the ability to easily pan and zoom around the map using Google’s excellent Google Map user interface. You can also download the original map and even embed the map in your blog.

I’ll be regularly adding maps so please keep an eye on the site if you have a passion for old maps like I do.

View Larger Map

You can view the maps at: http://www.oldmapsofnewyork.com 
You can read more about the project here.

I was on the Fal last year and I saw a bear row past…

In 1896, Richard Kyle Fox editor and publisher of the National Police Gazette set a challenge. A prize of $10,000 would be awarded to the first crew to successfully row across the atlantic from New York to Europe. Two Norwegian-born American friends, Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo,  collected together their life savings and took up the challenge. With an 18ft clinker-built row boat, the only modification being rails to help right the boat should she capsize, the two friends set off from New York on 6th June. They rowed, and rowed and the rails saved their lives on at least one occasion. They finally reached Bishop Rock setting the record for rowing the Atlantic at 55 days.

Although Richard Kyle Fox came to Paris to bask in the glory he never made good on his promise of the reward money.

On their return journey to New York, their steamer ran into trouble and the Captain ordered all wooden objects be used to stoke the fire. Frank and George would have none of this and launched their row boat off the side and rowed the remainder of the journey back to New York.

In their lifetime they never received any fame or fortune, their only recognition was a gold medal each and 10 Krona from Swedish king Oscar II.

Although their record was finally broken in 2010 by the four man crew of Artemis Investments, Frank and George still hold the record for two people rowing across the atlantic.

This picture is dedicated to all unsung heroes that keep doing what they do.

Flickr are releasing a major overhaul to their platform tomorrow centred around improving how photos from your friends are displayed. The problem is their whole approach to friends needs an overhaul, not just a facelift.

I love Flickr and have discovered many inspirational and highly talented photographers through their site, but they don’t make it easy for me. Yes, they do have groups and Explore ( I have made my opinion clear several times before on the latter and other algorithms, so won’t again now).  The problem for me, is that the team at Flickr seem to fail to understand (or refuse to acknowledge) even the most fundamental principles of social networking.

Social Networking, at its core, is about friendships and personal connections. Although this update is an improvement to this area, it is still hugely underplayed and Flickr are missing out on a huge potential. I know Flickr is not a social network, it came along before all of that, but it’s core purpose is to share photos. Flickr’s whole approach to sharing, is about self promotion. This is too user centred and they need to make it easier for you to share other’s photos. This is the very reason why Flickr photos don’t go viral on Flickr. There is no mechanism for images to propagate.

Here is what I believe Flickr should focus on and why:

1. Friend feed

The friends that we connect with on Flickr are either photographers we like or “real life” friends, so it is not unreasonable to think we might be interested not only in what they upload but also the photographs that they like and comment on. Flickr should do away with the current activity feed that has limited purpose and focus more on your friends activity. This will benefit users, as it helps build relationships and networks as well as discover new images through our friends. Flickr also benefits as it increases engagement and user interaction on the site and in turn Flickr’s value to its users.

2. Facebook and Twitter integration

Currently Flickr would consider itself integrated with Facebook, which is designed around you uploading pictures and Flickr announcing this to your friends. It would be far more socially interactive, if it also shared photos we favourite and/or comment on. There are some great photos out there and if we chose to favourite or comment on them, there is a good chance that our friends on Facebook and Twitter will like them too. This benefits Flickr’s users again by increasing the network value of the platform. Flickr benefit massively, as it brings extra traffic to their site.

3. Better User profiles

The current user profiles are okay but it would be great to have more prominence on photo and stream pages. If we like a photograph, we often want to know who it is by. We may want to find out if they have a blog, Facebook or twitter account that we can follow  or if we have any friends in common. This would help users find new friends. Flickr can only benefit from this increased engagement on the site.

4. Clearer and easier user to user messaging

You may be shocked to know that Flickr already has user to user messaging. They do, honestly, it is just well hidden. It would be better if this was clearer on all profile pages and then re-organised so that messages show the full transcript. The current messaging in Flickr is so poor that I often resort to email or Facebook. Better messaging would prevent users leaving the site when they want to message each other and once again increase engagement. Win all round.

5.  Password protected sets

Sharing pictures to a select group of friends of family is not easy without making those pictures public. You can create a private set, but it involves setting all the images in that set to private and then finding the share URL that allows anyone with the URL to see the set. A far simpler and elegant solution would be for Flickr to allow users to password protect a set. That set could then be accessed by anyone with the password and you have the option of revoking access by changing the password. This would make Flickr more attractive to professionals that need to securely and privately share images with their clients.

6. Print Fulfilment

A lot of photographers would love to be able to sell their work directly from their Flickr page. Both users and Flickr could benefit from this financially and this also incentivises the user to market their own Flickr pages, bringing more fresh users to Flickr.

I am sure there are people at Flickr that recognise the potential that features like this could add. I don’t suspect we will see any big changes soon but at least tomorrow’s update is a step (albeit small) in the right direction.

The Heist was the first image in a recent series I did that explores the darker side of orchids. I based the project around three concepts, each concept exploring a criminal activity that orchids might get up to when our backs are turned. Without dispelling too much magic, I wanted to run through how one of the images was created.

From the start I didn’t want to use any stock images in my work. Stock images are expensive and their licence terms could make it tricky, if I wanted to self-publish a book or sell prints at a later date. Half the fun is being resourceful and working within the constraints you may have.

I could have had the orchid pulling out a diamond necklace from the drawer but I don’t have access to a diamond necklace. I know I could have got some costume jewellery, and I am sure my wife would have been delighted to receive a real one. However, the image is better for not being so obvious. A key leaves what the orchid is stealing open to the imagination.

As you can see below, there were not that many source images used in the heist. Other than the two keys (did you spot the clockwork key? – a little reference to… well I’m not going to give everything away) I needed to source longer aerial roots for the image, some that I could manipulate using Photoshop’s warping tools. The background was just too flat, so a texture of some panelling did the trick.

Tips

The key things to pulling off a good composite are clean selections and masking, consistent perspective and light.

• Although a lot of people don’t like the quick selection brush, I find it really good, quick, and gives the right amount of softness on edges. Though using the right method for the image you are masking, is key.
• Perspective needs to be consistent for all the source images in the composite. Thankfully the brain is fairly forgiving here. For example, in the image above, the key was shot straight on but in the final image the viewer is looking slight down towards the key. We can use some of Photoshop’s transformation tools to correct the perspective.
• Light consistency is probably the trickiest thing to get right, not only do you need to create source images with a consistent light source (you can sometimes fake it), you also have to recreate shadows that would be cast by the things you are adding. The best way is to hand paint them (I highly recommend a Tablet for this Wacom make excellent ones). This takes practice. Removing shadows is even harder…

You can see all the images from the series here: The Darker Side of Orchids

I launched my personal project oldmapsofparis.com a few months ago and it has been a huge success both technically and from the feedback of visitors to the site. When I launched the site I just wanted to get the maps up and online and at the time I didn’t create a home page. If you navigated to the site you went straight to the first map.

Today I have relaunched the site making it easier to navigate, as all the maps are now indexed on the homepage. In addition I thought I would make use of the Skeleton CSS framework again to make it a little more mobile friendly, now the site should resize and allow you to navigate the maps on your smart phone.

The biggest change is under the bonnet. Previously to add a new map, I would need to run a script locally to create the map tiles and then uploading all the tiles via ftp (100s of MB in some cases) and then set up the references to the files manually in the database. All that has now changed. I can upload the single processed file and the site now automatically processes all the tiles and sets up the references. What was previously a chore has become a pleasure, so expect more maps soon… oh and not just of Paris

You can read more about the project, on my projects page.

Please check out: www.oldmapsofparis.com 

I came across this documentary on PetaPixel yesterday and thought I would share it. Everything is a Remix is a short film by Kirby Ferguson that puts forward the idea that most things we celebrate as original and creative are based on previous work by others. Kirby presents a fascinating argument backed up by some convincing evidence and then goes on to describe how the original motivations of intellectual property mixed with human nature have lead us to the litigious world we now live in that stifles creativity.

It is an excellent documentary that is well worth watching.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

If you enjoyed watching that, you can also support Kirby’s next project “This is not a Conspiracy Theory” on Kickstarter.

I recently discovered the work of Erik Johansson who shares a lot of my beliefs about photography, then yesterday I happened to stumble upon a TED video he did last November. It’s only 6 minutes long and well worth the watch, as not only does he talk about how he started creating images like this, but he also shows some of the source images that make up his work

More recently he has worked on an interesting project at Sergels torg in Stockholm where he created a giant trompe l’oeil in the center of the square and is currently working on a project with Google. More details on Erik’s Stockholm project can be found in his blog.