Links Plucked from the Ether

I think I'm going to start something new on here. Well, restart is probably more apropos. I spend a decent amount of time feeding my hunger for photography (and other interesting stuff) on the web every day. Probably far more than a sane person should. So as I come across this stuff, I'll drop it on here for you.

President Obama's first 167 days in office — Man these photos are awesome. Very engaging. I really enjoyed #16, #18, #32, and #36. Makes me wish I could step into a photography role like that, where I get to follow someone in the limelight and document their lives for posterity.

Kind of old and not really photography related, but this cover of Stand By Me is just damned inspiring. The amount of collaboration it took to pull this off is just amazing.

Over at the Lens, Todd Heisler discusses his work on the One in 8 Million series and answers a question about his black and white workflow. I love the photo of the violinist, Henrique Prince. The one thing about Heisler's workflow that struck me as worth trying out was setting the camera to b&w while shooting to help better visualize what the end result was going to look like. I'm going to have to try that and see if it helps me to better visualize the play of light on scenes.

Found at A Photo Editor, Ten Things I Have Learned by Milton Glaser. Number 5 revved me up the most. The emphasis is mine. I'll have to read some of his other essays.

LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’

And finally, I'm all about a good belly laugh. Really, there's nothing like one to shove a happy mood into someone. And with that, I leave you with Old Jews Telling Jokes. A warning: some just aren't safe for work because of language. I leave you with A Meeting with the Pope and Broccoli