Sharing is not only caring but also fun! Guess, what.. We just made sharing from Photocase a lot easier. You want more clicks, more comments and more of everything? Just tell the world! You can now spread the word to your Facebook, Twitter and Google+ account with just one click.

You can now easily

• give a shout out when you have a new photo on Photocase.
• show off the awesome photo print you just bought in our printshop to pretty up your walls.
• give people a heads up when you published a lightbox of great photos on Photocase.

We think social sharing is a great way to promote your work. You already made your mother proud, now go tell the world. Happy sharing!

No worries, the Photocase Trackr is not only for the geeks. Apart from tech news, we will also notify you about new blog posts that we’ve written and work we did on the keyword catalogue.

Everyone who wants to make sure not to miss any updates can subscribe to the Photocase Trackr Feed.

A photo by nicolasberlin

This project has been on my heart for about two years now. Photographs document reality. That’s what people say about photography and I find it very fascinating to play with this concept in order to mislead the viewer.

When I discovered phoenixies photos, those amazing Selfish’s how she calls them, I knew it was now or never. I wrote her to tell her about my idea to start a photo project together. Slowly but surely, the concept grew more and more concrete. Everyone took photos of herself/himself. Thanks to Skype and Dropbox, communication was easy. The biggest challenge for both of us was, to find the right photo in a pool of someone else’s photos that would be the best one to morph into a collage with a photo of your own. But in the end that part of the process was also the one that we enjoyed the most.

50% the photos were made in Berlin and Switzerland and 50% in Photoshop. Before the shooting, we adjusted aperture and focal length. During the shooting itself, we paid close attention that the bodies got enough light and shadow. The fusion of the two single photos into one was done in Photoshop. At first, we uploaded the 2 photos as 2 layers and adapted opacity and blending (multiply, overlay or hard light). Et voila, here’s a double exposure that is none. That’s why I prefer the term collage.

A photo by phoenixie

Brought to the point, what we wanted to show with this project is how well you can lie with the means of photography: What you see are photos of poeple, that are so close that they almost melt into each other and that leave the viewer with the impression that those two people are a couple or at least people that know each other very well. But in reality, these two people never met personally and live in different countries. A big lie.

What slowly evolved throughout our collaboration is the concept of melancholy of the end of an relationship. Even though two people still seem to be together, the truth is that they aren’t any more and haven’t been for a long time. Pure melancholy, that I was able to dive into too thanks to phoenixie’s photos.

Thanks so much to phoenixie and nicolasberlin!

See more photos from their fascinating series here.

More Photos

On our new start page we have the possibility to show better teasers and highlight important stuff. We can show off more photos in seasonal lightboxes or when Kai gets a new haircut. People who are looking for awesome summer photos for example, will immediately find a great collection of matching photos right in our shop window.

Bye, Bye Flash

We said “smell ya later” to Flash so the start page now looks just as great on your iPhone and iPad.

The Search Moves to the Top

You can find the search field now on top of the page, right under the menu bar, just like it has been already the case on the rest of the page. Also, we cleaned up the navigation. For some power users it might be a little unaccustomed at the beginning, but we are sure you will like it when you get used to it.

More Useful Information

Why you should use Photocase is now displayed right up front, on the start page. And because people often ask us, how much the photos actually cost, we put a little price information right next to it.

Testimonials

In the lower part of the page we now finally have a place where we can proudly show off, who is using Photocase and why. For more praise, we even set up a own testimonial page.

Signing up for the Newsletter Made Easy

Right underneath the testimonials section you can find a field where you can sign up for our shiny monthly Photocase newsletter.

We put a lot of time and effort into building these who sites. The main reason for this is, that we are switching from ASP to Ruby on Rails now step by step (for all non nerds: Ruby is a programming language and Ruby on Rails the according web framework). It just was about time. We already converted a part go the page, which means that we kind of to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds at the moment. That’s why there still might be a little jiggling. If you notice something, please let us know. As always, we appreciate any constructive feedback you might have for us. Just send us an email to support[at]photocase.com. Merci.

The stars within us. A photo by particula

What a vacation. And how much we were looking forward to it. A couple of days of pure relaxing at the island of Sylt! We brought our cameras,  along of course and a tripod and flashes. After we arrived and unpacked our bags, we went outside into the dark and headed towards the beach, which wasn’t the greatest idea maybe, given the drizzling rain and the time, it was already pretty late, but whatever, the sea was tempting enough for us.

Arriving at the beach, we had to find out that there was nothing much to photograph except for some lonely beach chairs and vending machines. So I took out my flash and started experimenting with it. The result was stunning. This photo – with Frollein S. as  the protagonist – was made in the drizzling rain, with a exposure time of 20 seconds and with the help of a stroboscopic flash. What looks like stars is the rain, multiplied with every flash and underexposure.

This was all so exciting for us, that we returned the following day in the early morning hours. Instead of the rain, a wonderful midsummer night awaited us. We started to flash again as long as the batteries allowed it and were amazed over and over again. This was also the night, the cover photo for our book “Hidden Tracks” was made.

Subway The Hard Way. A photo by time.

I turned the corner, just how 16 year olds do when they explore a foreign city – curious, exhilarated and hungry for adventures. It was a wonderful day and now I was starting to get hungry.

Full breaking. Suddenly there was this old man in front of me, wrapped in this thick coat, in the middle of summer, setting one foot in front of the other, grinding, making his way slowly.

Above, life was rushing by, but here it was suddenly quiet, calm. Time stopped, just the way it does in those movies, the better ones. I saw the warm light on the cold concrete and thought about the grandfather I never had. I wanted to have a picture of him, a picture of the moment, a grandfather for my memories. Nothing was more opposing than everything between me and this old man. But somehow I just saw my whole life.

Suddenly the noise from above came back and I passed the old man. I did not turn around. I didn’t want to be disappointed.

The photo was shot as a diapositive with a Kodak Retina II camera, 1975 in London. Here at Photocase, you can see a part of the scan. The whole photo, on which my grandfather looks even more aggrieved, can be seen at the exhibition.

Apart from the photos, that are exhibited at the Rossi in Hannover until June 2nd, there’s more to see. The two photographers had so much fun preparing the exhibition, that they also made a website and a book (link to the PDF version, ca. 2MB) with more photos. Being asked about the subtitle of their project,”music for the eyes,” the two of them replied: We often connect our photos to specific sounds or music tracks, just the way that certain pictures might appear in front of your inner eye, when listening to music. This is what we call “hidden tracks.” Those sounds, that are somewhere inside you and that come out when you are inspired by a picture – one way or the other.

Many thanks to our visual DJs particula und time.!

A photo by Wanda Depperschmidt

It could also be called “the calm before the storm.” I would like to begin with talking about what a nice feeling it is to arrive at a place where everything seems to be perfect: the light, the motif, the colors. The only thing you need is a camera to capture that moment.

The boy on the photo is my son and the person lying in bed is his uncle. My kids gave him the nickname “BÖSER”, which means “Meanie.” He is very funny and always plays with them when we visit Grandma and Grandpa, and the house gets turned upside down every time. I especially like the attic with its seemingly chaotic charm and bright colours. Now it has been renovated and lost its “construction site” feel.

This photo was taken during a timeout, siesta. Everyone is a little tired but soon they’ll get back to playing.

The photo was taken with a Sony Alpha-700 and a Kit-lens. Apart from contrast and resharpening, I didn’t have to change anything. These are the kind of photos I particularly like. Unforced and spontaneous and a the coming-together of many small, but crucial things.

Thanks, Wanda!

Check out her user profile here.

This is it. The fish, straight from the Persian Gulf. A photo by Safa Daneshvar.

The photo shows my little brother Ramtin Daneshvar together with my nephew Zahra at our home in Teheran, Iran. The Daneshvar family is dispersed all over the world and so we hardly ever get the chance to meet all in one place. That’s why the time we spend together is always very precious. My brother Ramtin works in the oil industries on Lavan island in the Persian Gulf and he has only 6 days off every month. The day this photo was taken, we (me, Ramtin, Zahra and my elder brother Arya) could finally spend some time together, at least for a couple of hours and we were obviously very happy about that.

That day Rantim, a passionate swimmer, scuba diver and fisher came home with a big “Shir” fish as a souvenir from the Persian Gulf [editor's note: According to fishbase.org, a "Shir Mahi" is a kind of Spanish mackerel]. We were all very excited because a fish like this can never be found in Teheran. It was huge. Before preparing the fish we had some fun time taking photos. When I’m at home, my family is always my favorite motif!

As for Equipment and settings: The photo was taken with a Canon EOS 50D and a EF 16-35mm L II USM lens. I used a Hoya Polarizer filter, 82mm HD. I did a little editing in Photoshop on Autolevel and contrast plus a little bluring effect and sponge tool at the background.

I especially want to thank my mom for a delicious lunch the next day.

Thanks, Safa!

About Safa Daneshvar

Safa, who is also known as the man who is always running and jumping, works as a Civil Engineer and is living in Teheran, Iran. He loves swimming, diving, biking trips, travelling and… surprise… photography. Check out his website or head to his profile.

And here are your top photos of the last 12 months:

Have a great 2012!

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Screw mass production, praise the handmade. Although we ourselves have only two left hands and all thumbs, we adore handcraft and like browsing through all those blogs with gorgeous photos of sweet handmade products. Last September now, a book came out on Thames & Hudson that is dedicated to those handmade designs and it’s called ”The New Artisans Book” by Oliver Dupon. In his beautifully designed and photographed book the French designer and blogger has captured over seventy artisans who use craft techniques to create stylish and desirable objects. Hundreds of colour photographs feature a huge variety of crafts, including art, ceramics, furniture, lighting, papercraft, textiles and more. The book also contains Olivier’s personal recommendations for inspiring shops and websites to visit, which makes it the perfect source for discovering unique and beautiful objects made by new, talented artisans from all around the world. And the best thing is: We give away one copy here on our blog! Yay.

How can I win?

If you want to win the New Artisans Book, just post a comment below and tell us about your favorite handmade object that you own or would like to own. We will pick and announce a winner on Saint Nicholas Day (Tuesday, December 6th).

Make sure to check out the New Artisans Book Facebook page and Oliver’s Blog where he features all kinds of cool stuff from photography to fashion and product design (We especially liked the post about Julie Blackmons awesome photos recently.). You can also buy the book on Amazon.

In honor of our 10th anniversary, our in-house production company spared neither trouble nor expense to make this formidable short film (we already submitted it to Sundance, Berlinale and the Telluride film festivals in the Best Drama category):

If you want, you can make your own little anniversary videos (try Loopcam) and send us the result! The winner will be rewarded with a prize and the movie will be shown on our blog.