Linen Closets, Traverse City State Hospital, Michigan

Patient Toothbrushes, Hudson River State Hospital, New York

Bathtub, Fairfield State Hospital, Connecticut

Autopsy Theater, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, DC

I just spent way too much time on Christopher Payne’s site, staring at photos of abandoned asylums and hospitals. Fascinating.

(Thank you Sarah)

If you are a photo buff then you most probably know about the mothership of all photo stores, B&H, here in NYC. The most fascinating part of B&H has always been their conveyor system. Let’s say you decided to buy a new lens, you’re on the third floor, they’ll put that lens into a basket that then is being transported down to the register at the exit, silently ‘floating’ through the store.

The Lense folks secretly put a camera into one of the baskets to see how it works from the inside. Again, this might be only fascinating if you have actually been to B&H.

(via Coudal)

Polaboys are enlarged Polaroids to a scale of 10:1 (to 88x107cm) and backlit. They are 20 mm thick and use energy-saving LED area lights. The frame is wooden and they are made in Germany. Also good to know: The photographs can be changed at any time and you can even send your custom image.

Polaboy: Art by day, Light by Night.

#completelytotallywishlisted

(via bblinks)

Vintage Camera Pillows? Yes, lovely.

I don’t think I have ever come across a more surprising and in some strange way fascinating imagery than this. Men with quilt-beards? It was created by Julian Wolkenstein and Paul Sharp.

I still don’t fully understand it, but consider me intrigued.

While browsing the new *fantastic* Flipboard iPhone App I stumbled upon a photo essay on on Appenzell Innerrhoden, the place I grew up in Switzerland. (well, I grew up 20minutes from there, but I consider it my home) It’s one of the most charming, greenest places on earth. If you’re into hiking, this is your place.

Appenzell Innerrhoden is the smallest canton of Switzerland by population and the second smallest by area, Basel-City having less area. Wherever you look you see dairy farms which produce the amazing Appenzeller cheese. Next time you go to a cheese shop, ask them for Appenzeller. It’s a super-yumme hard cheese and comes in all kinds of ‘stinkiness levels’, at least in Switzerland. Here in the US I usually am only able to get one kind.

The images are by Jean-Yves Roure.

Love these Fake iPhone Polaroids by NYC based photographer Stefan Falke. Tempted to buy a print.

View them all: Fake Polaroid Gallery 1 and Gallery 2.

Whoa! Check out this timelapse of Paul Octavious’ Bookbow Print. So cool! (You can buy the print here)

Grandmother Tips by Chacho Puebla. Made me chuckle.

(thanks Bekka / @matiascorea)

The stunning Bookbow Print by much admired Paul Octavious is one of the first products I am selling in my brand new swissmiss shop.

The idea behind my store is do only offer a hand-full of tightly curated, limited edition custom products by designers I love and admire. Paul Octavious is one of them. Paul knows about my love for rainbows and his book stacks, so he combined the two and Bookbow was born. I will most certainly hang one of these in my son’s room.

Bookbow, by Paul Octavious, available in 11″x14″ and in 16″x20″.

We kicked off the day with a CreativeMornings talk with Jessi Arrington which ended with a Rainbow Parade. Pretty magical, if you ask me. You can see some photos of the parade here and here.

The lovely Sharon Montrose just came out with a new animal photograhy book called Menagerie. You can buy her photos as prints. (I keep picturing a GIANT print of the cow or the white goose one in our living room.)

Shoebox’s edge detection and perspective correction make sure that the paper photographs you scan turn out beautifully. After scanning, you can quickly crop, straighten, rotate your photo, as well as record the stories behind the photographs by adding captions, dates, and tags.

The quality of camera phones has increased so much that your handy iPhone is now as good as the clunky piece of hardware you have next to your computer, and with none of the wires or drivers. The new iPhone 4S offers a 8 megapixel camera that takes images at 2448×3264 resolution. Using Shoebox to scan a typical 4″x6″ photo produces a DPI of 550 – the same high quality recommended by scanning experts like ScanCafe.

Your photos are saved on your iPhone and on 1000memories where they can be shared for free with friends and family. You can also share via Facebook and Twitter. All photos on 1000memories are backed up and preserved forever through our partnership with the Internet Archive.

Download the Shoebox App. It’s free.

(via @LBM)

Hand-painted, molded glass ornament in the form of the classic German twin lens Rolleiflex camera. Yes, please.

(Yes, I realize, the world doesn’t need this product and no, I won’t buy it, but it makes me happy to look at it.)

The Memento Works’ mission is to photograph and celebrate objects each of us have collected over time. Be it your father’s watch, your child’s favorite toy, your grandmother’s passport, the toy car you loved as a kid. The folks behind Memento Works photograph your treasures and return them to you along with a stunning framed or mounted print (or just a print should you want to present it another way yourself). If you don’t have any mementos you are ready to have photographed, you can buy prints from their image library.

Memento Works is a fantastic idea!

Thanks to my studiomate Raul I discovered this Collection of Peculiar Vintage Snapshots over on Flickr. Made my day!

These bold, colorful photographs by Andrew B. Myers stopped me in my tracks.

(via ignant)

Plywerk perfected an easy, elegant, and eco-conscious way to exhibit artwork and photos without the clunky and expensive frame, glass and mat. They print, mount and ship the Plywerk right to your door. How? 1) upload your image 2) select finishing options 3) wait for your handmade Plywerk to be delivered into your loving arms.

Cool? Y-E-S!

#wishlisted

(thank you Garrett)

I have always wanted to take time-lapse videos and always find a reason not to do it. No more excuses! Meet the Time-Lapse Camera: here to solve all of my time-controlling, video-making, weather-fearing troubles!

It’s designed to create time-lapse videos at the push of a button, doing all of the work for you. Say goodbye to intervalometers, settings menus and complicated gear setups.

Can you believe it’s weather resistant? Totally #wishlisted!

In april of 2010 I asked my readers about camera bag recommendations. That post sure showed I have photo enthusiastic readers; there are currently 113 comments on that post. Just to confuse things even more, PhotoJojo just added the Camera Day Pack to their store. Looks nice, now, can I have that in felt or leather, please?

Yes, with this cow, I wish you all a happy weekend. It’s a long one here in the US. See you tuesday!

(that cow is available over at Sharon Montrose’s Animal Print Shop)

Here’s a fantastic book photography enthusiasts: Pinhole Cameras: A DIY Guide, by Chris Keeney. Definitely a cool gift idea for parents that want to pass on the love for photography. What better idea than to build pinhole cameras with your little ones?

In this 99% Conference talk, photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman shares the lessons learned from his iconic WISDOM project, in which he interviewed “elders” around the world, including Chuck Close, Bill Withers, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Massimo Vignelli, and many more. Zuckerman talks about the anxiety we feel as we start a new project, how fear can help us get things done, and the importance of honesty and good, old-fashioned hard work.

The Genetic Portraits project by photographer Ulric Colette has me mesmerized. It looks at the resemblance between family members. Instead of showing the images side by side, he masterfully fused them into one. Hat tip!

(via RonOrp. Thank you Sis)

Every now and then I come across a service/product that just instantly makes me happy and want to sign up. Here’s one of them:

Picplum is an automatic photo printing service and here’s how it works: You email or upload photos to their website and they then, every month, automatically print and mail them to your friends and family. This is *brilliant*! My family will be so excited to finally get photos of my kids!

I can’t even tell you how many times I abandoned the shopping cart on Flickr. Numerous times. My intentions are there, the time and distraction-free-environment is not.

So, now, that I signed up with Picplum, I added myself to the list of recipients, that way I finally get some printed version of my photos in my own hands. Hoooray! And I think it will feel like a little gift/surprise every month.

Picplum, I can’t wait to get my first shipment!

(thank you Ian)

Discovered this Double Rainbow photo over on Catharina Bruns Twitter Stream. Happy Monday morning everyone!

These Pipe Puffing Puppies are available as a print over at PrintCollection. Made me chuckle.

Also fantastic: Three Brothers, Old Head-Men of the Kak-Von-Tons of the Chilkat Tribe or The Beach Goers, Atlantic City, N.J.

PrintCollection is a fantastic source for historic museum quality prints.

How adorable is this Red Polaroid Plush Camera? Made me smile.

The Shopping Totem print by David Welch made me smile. Currently available over at 20×200.

These new Paul Octavious prints just took my breath way. Absolutely stunning!

(Thank you Rusty)

Observing people while they’re driving is, passing them on the highway, is one of my favorite things to do. It comes to now surprise then, that I am in love with photos of everyday people cruising the freeways of Los Angeles. You can buy the book here: Drive.

(via Brain Pickings)

(via ignant)

Lytro is a camera that lets you focus on shooting and not worry about focusing. You can do that later. It sounds too good to be true, if you ask me, but seriously fascinating. Try it on their site by clicking anywhere in the sample photos to focus on that element of the picture. I can not wait to see this in action.

(Thanks Rusty)

The Twig Pod is a collapsible outdoor tripod. Actually, it’s more of a monopod that stakes into the ground. When you’re done with it, you can fold it up neatly into a tiny canvas pouch — it’s like a tent rod tripod!

Capture is a camera clip system for cameras of all sizes – including DSLRs. Wowwweee!

Quick Release Button Strength Test from Peter Dering on Vimeo.

(via unplggd)

Want to play around with SLR Camera settings and see how it affects your photo, but without actually using an SLR? Well, you can do just that with the Online SLR Camera Simulator. This simple application allows you to choose the lighting, ISO, shutter speed and aperture. A great tool to teach someone the basics of photography.

(Thank you Jamie)

A nice little tribute to the good old film roll: USB Film Rolls. Go PhotoJoJo!

This Red Leather Camera Strap made me gasp! Yes, please!