Onement 1, 1948, Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman is easily one of my all-time favourite painters. Why? Because his work is brilliant, simple, minimalist, and of great taste in colour spectrum choices. His paintings are also very very beautiful in person. The majesty and depth of them does not accurately broadcast in online photos.
Mr. Newman discussing “Onement 1”
I really enjoyed these 2 time lapsed videos done by Mindrelic. The fact that he actually chose interesting music makes it even better. Beautiful! I never get tired of NYC.
I ordered this book a while ago on pre-order, and it arrived this week. $22 from Amazon. An amazing and beautiful book for a very low price. Hardcover, by Alessandro Pasi (2012). Highly recommended beautiful short history of Leica with full page spread profiles of every significant camera produced in their illustrious history. This book does not read like a publicity book—-instead it is full of beautiful and iconic photography throughout their history. This is the 3rd edition of this book, revised to include the digital range through the recent M-Monochrom.
Yes I am a Leica fanboy these days and it is driven by my love of creating fotos. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me!
Being inspired to create is so much nicer than obsessing to appreciate.
my week in photos through my eyes.
all photos by Syed IEDEI using a Leica M8.1
Take old letters from neon signs, swap them for LEDs and place in nice, dark, mysterious locations. That’s what Aleksi Hautamäki has done with this Character series.
I am obsessed with fonts…and in another world, in another time, I would have devoted my life to finding the perfect font. However, in this one I am relegated to simple appreciation.
if you follow the link at the bottom, you can buy one of these light filled giant letters starting at 200 euros.
more info: character.fi
i’m really loving grinding my creative teeth on my M8. “Hip shooting” is my latest interest….pre-focusing the lens, with delayed shutter reload…..and then creating the distance i need. There’s nothing quite as interesting as walking around seeing the wicked charms of New York City….with a camera in hand. I used to think nothing was better than driving around NYC, but now i’ve found something even more interesting.
I usually shoot in B&W, but the colours in this photo were too beautiful so I had switched to colour for it.
New York City, Leica M8.1 with Voigtlander 35mm f1.4
I always have time and space for minimalism….especially when it is as beautiful as these photos are.
see more here
it does sort of feel like this sometimes doesn’t it?
lovely series of photos by Romain Laurent
see a short video on Behance
I am struck by the beauty of this video. A beautiful country with a deep, rich, and beautiful culture which has been stranded in a state of perpetual, drowning, overwhelming conflict and war for many, many years. Will it ever end? For the sake of the young and of the hopeful—I would like to imagine there a solution that doesn’t involve more bombs, tanks, landmines, and guns.
Since really cutting back on my intake of automobile-related news and interests (more about the details of that at a later time) as of a few months ago, they have been replaced by a burning love for photography and cameras. After recently buying my Leica M8.1, i have been turned on to the magical world of rangefinder cameras. New and old. Eventually I would like to buy a nice Leica M5 and fool around with film photography; however my primary love of cameras is around digital photography. Part of this may be due to the fact that I am impulsive and need to see my photos within 24 hours, but mainly due to the fact that I really don’t have the time to dedicate to film photography. Digital photography, while saturated in this day of iPhone-photographers, can still be beautiful.
Today at Photokina in Cologne, Germany; Leica revealed the new lineup of Leica M cameras. The much anticipated ‘next step’ in the Leica M range is actually going to NOT be called the Leica M10; but instead called simply Leica M.
Bigger screen, video recording (in a Leica??), focus assist (in a Leica??), optional electronic viewfinder, 24mp CMOS full-frame sensor, and a familiar body with likely beautiful construction and materials as all Leicas generally have. The M will cost $6950 in the US.
then there’s the Leica M-E; essentially the same camera as the outgoing Leica M9P, however recoloured in a beautiful anthracite and debadged to be a bit more stealthy! Same exact specs as the prior M9P. Oh and the price has been slashed to $5450.
will these make you a ‘great photographer”? NO. Will this help inspire you to be more creative and understand the fundamentals of photography? probably YES. Well, at least the M8 has done that for me…..now, time to save up for a Leica M-Monochrome (announced as still in production).
Leica M-Monochrome (Leica MM):
src: L-Camera
the past week through my eyes…
tools: Leica M8.1 and Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 (except for “doorway”, taken by a Leica D-Lux3)
Digital photography and videography have completely changed the landscape of imaging in all realms of life; creative to scientific to archiving. “Side By Side” is a documentary investigating what changes have occurred in the modern film industry to utilize the new technological developments brought forward to digital video technology and where that leaves the original reel film mechanism. Reel film seems so bulky, inflexible, and archaic compared to what we can now do with digital film.
The ‘big time’ hollywood aspect of this documentary is a bit naff….especially with overblown and overdone filmmakers like George Lucas (rubbish)….however the topic is interesting.
In the end, the quality of the film is not determined by what kind of mechanism it was made on—-but the mind of the filmmakers/writers and the strength of their ideas.
A 3000+ page book displaying the entire spectrum of colours? Useful? uhhhh……wicked cool? YES. This 8 x 8 x 8 inch cube shaped atlas would be available in different colour axis configurations. Would make for a lovely psychedelic coffee table book.
videos (by axis):
src: colourlovers
(09/06/2012, Bowery Ballroom, photo by Syed IEDEI)
Breton are the sound of right now. We saw them last night at the Bowery Ballroom NYC and they were just mint in every way. They are the sound of the completely new….futuristic…original….and groovetastic. Been listening to this non-stop for the past week, and will surely listen even more after last night’s show!
This song is from their EP “Sharing Notes”:
The album is called “Other Peoples Problems” on Fatcat Records. Go and buy it.
More info at Bretonlabs.com
…by my favourite photographer i’ve been recently introduced to the works of: Ray K. Metzker. Thanks to Drew (MCB) for introducing me to his style and work! It is very inspiring. This photo is currently my desktop background.
My Leica M8 is now fully capable, up and running with a Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 lens. This is my first time ever owning and using a fully manual camera, and my first time owning and using a Rangefinder. What a machine—-really find it a fascinating piece of equipment. I just put it all together last night, and am still playing around with the settings. Less than 24 hours with it, and these are my favourite photos thus far. Lots more to come in the future, hopefully!
I have no idea what this Chinese cough syrup is made of…but it sure should looks hardcore:
This is a beautiful installation done by rANDOM international.
An interesting video. Occasionally borders on cliche, however covers a topic which I often think about. The subtlety by which influencers pass on information to their environment and the people around them is fascinating. This video often deals a bit too much about goods and services, however I feel some of the same principles would apply to philosophical, ideological, and even political ideas.
I’m still really excited about my Leica M8.1, however I always wondered how these cameras are made. Leica always states these are hand assembled, and this fantastic video shows the M8 successor, the M9 in its assembling phases. Very cool attention to detail, and this is part of the reason why their products cost so much. The factory (laboratory?) is also very very german….which is a good thing!
Unfortunately the embedding function does not work on this video (not sure why)…but click through this link to watch: http://vimeo.com/6551861
IEDEI 