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June 2009 | Don Norris
Squeeze play
http://smush.it/
Smush.it is a handy online tool for making your image file sizes as small as possible. To use the service, you simply browse from the website to your picture or pictures, upload them and wait for a few moments. The site will tell you how much it shaved off the file size and then allow you to download the results. It will work its magic with image URLs too and there's a Firefox extension to make it even easier to use (if your browser is Firefox of course!)
Surreal Swede
http://www.alltelleringet.com/
Erik Johansson's album style site has a simple and solitary purpose - to show off his clever and beautifully executed photo manipulations.
Fractal world
http://www.thegreenguide.com/infinite-photograph
You've no doubt encountered photo mosaics before, but with its 'Infinite Photograph', National Geographic takes the concept a step beyond simple composite images. Using a simple mouse-controlled frame, you can zoom in on a part of the initial picture. This reveals a mosaic of small images into which you can zoom for more detail. But however much you zoom, you never reach the end. Every picture is in turn made of more pictures.
Moody Motown
http://bit.ly/axaEQ
Photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have created a powerful photo essay for the Time Magazine website on the abandoned buildings of Detroit. What makes it both beautiful and horrifying is that these are not small or non-descript commercial buildings, but monumental works of commercial architecture such as the main train station, 35-storey office towers, schools, great theatres and the like.
Just Natural
http://www.naturephotographers.net
It is the rare photographer indeed who has not found inspiration in the natural world. There are hundreds of websites for nature photographers of course, but one of our favourites is the Nature Photographers Network's home page. If you're feeling dull and unimaginative, a few minutes spent here looking at great photos and reading thoughtful editorial content will soon revive those creative juices.
Workflowing
http://bit.ly/woRvU
If you're interested in the art of travel photography, you'll want to add www.travelphotographers.net to your bookmarks collection. The site has an editorial staff and no doubt as a direct consequence, the quality of the contributions is very high. I was intrigued to find a terrific article by Kah Kit Yoong on his approach to the digital workflow. We featured Kah Kit's work in issue 38 and this article is such a model of clarity, that I've provided a shortened url directly to it. Highly recommended.
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