Siamese fighting fish are beautiful aren’t they? Digital artist Heru Suryoko from Jakarta, Indonesia captures the grace and splendour of these creatures in his series aptly titled Betta Splendens. Have a look at his vibrant images after the jump.
Category: Animal Kingdom
Nick Veasey isn’t a traditional photographer. In the same vein as microscopist Alan Jaras who uses a scanning electron microsope to create a story about exploration, Veasey also makes uses of medical equipment to produce some unconventional art.
Veasey left the world of standard photography behind when he was asked to X-ray a cola can for a television show. Since then he has created X-ray photographs of everyday objects from mp3 players, toys, and clothes to all manner of plant life and animals. His experimentation has led to view the innards of larger subjects like motor vehicles, an office building, and even to capture the anatomy of a Boeing 777!
Veasey uses industrial x-ray machines and in the case of the airplane, 500 individual films were processed and then joined together on the computer to create the composite shot. For his “human” subjects, he has the option of using skeletons in rubber suits or cadavers. He reportedly has eight hours in which to pose and photograph the cadaver before rigor mortis sets in. I don’t know about you, but I find that a little macabre. In any case, the results are amazing to see. This is what he has to say about his art:
My work is real. X-Ray is an honest process. It shows things for what they are, what they are made of. I love that. It balances all that glossy, superficial bollocks. I’m real and straightforward. And so is my work.
Have a look at some of this most fascinating x-ray photographs after the jump.
Well this is a touch bizarre. To make her art, Australian-born Lisa Black combines the medical practice of taxidermy with the aesthetics of steampunk. It’s a rather unusual combination and it’s really amazing to see these broken, taxidermied animals whose missing parts have been replaced with little gears and screws, like the innards of a vintage clock.
In her interview with YouBentMyWookie, Black explains her motivation behind her art pieces – she believes in transhumanism which is a movement that believes in the use of modern technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics. Black tries to applies those ideologies to her animal creations.
In situations like these, I think pictures do tell a thousand words. Have a look at some of her steampunk taxidermy after the jump.
It was my birthday yesterday and I had a great day, thanks for asking. I turned 25 for the 7th year in a row and it felt good. It’s Monday/Moanday/Glumday, I’m back in the office, and wishing I were somewhere else. After watching Patrick Boivin’s adorable short film about a playful AT-AT and a peek into its life as man’s best friend, I’d rather be at home playing with our puppies.
Check out AT-AT Day Afternoon below.
BONUS: You might also like Lunchbreath’s assortment of lesser-know underachieving AT-AT models. Take a look at those after the jump.
Categories
Use The Force, Chipmunk
Canadian illustrator Chris McVeigh spent four years trying to capture the chipmunks in his parents’ backyard in the perfect position. Using almonds to attract the wild, inquisitive creatures, he sometimes who waits for up to eight hours per day to photograph them interacting with the Star Wars scenes that he has set up in the garden. McVeigh mentions that some of the more social chipmunks would come to the yard when he whistled for them. It’s altogether quite cute. Have a look at his set of Crossover images after the jump.
I don’t know what you’ve been up to all week but I’ve been sitting at my new desk in a new office for a new job and been battling my way around InDesign. I’ve felt like a retard most of the time but it hasn’t gotten me down (for a change) because I’ve been able to drift off into lovely daydreams about last weekend.
And before any of you jump to conclusions about Prawn’s holey underpants (reference), here’s the real story…
We piled dogs and all into the car and drove through the green and rolling countryside to a self-catering cottage in the utterly charming seaside village of Arniston. The cottage was adequate with a fireplace that worked eventually, and a braai that worked brilliantly (how typical). The village was quiet and peaceful with the only real buzz going on at the hotel on Saturday afternoon when people gathered to watch some rugby thing on the telly.
The beaches right near the village were beautiful but a short walk into the national park revealed panoramic views from cliff top paths, a cave large enough to park a wagon and a span of oxen in, and one of the most spectacular and unspoiled beaches I’ve seen.
We took our dogs everywhere we went and they had an absolute ball. We strolled along sandy roads, peed behind bushes, splashed in the ice-blue ocean, and bought huge delicious oysters from a guy who had “Doctor Satan” tattooed across his forehead. On our drives down country roads we stopped every few hundred metres to have a closer look at fascinating things like birds, bokkies, windmills, and an old ox wagon. Against my better judgement we even climbed the rickety wooden ladders to the top of the lighthouse at Cape Agulhas – it really was worth it though because the view from the top was great.
All in all it was the most fantastic weekend and we’re dying to go back as soon as we can.
See some of our happy snaps after the jump.
A typical day in my life is hardly the stuff of legends, in fact I spend most of my time trying to look for things I had just a moment ago. Judging from our lives of our pets, I do think animals have a far more pleasurable time of it. The cats teeter between ignoring our existence and demanding food. The dogs are spend the majority of the time barking at absolutely nothing and trying to eat petrified cat faeces. It’d be disgusting if they didn’t look so sweet. But I digress.
Jeff Wysaski over at Pleated-Jeans likes pie charts, not only are they great visual aids they also makes one feel like they’re being productive. He has created pie-charts to illustrate how five wild animals spend their time on a typical day. They’re quite cute, have a look at them after the jump.
OMG, cute5000! This is Einstein, a pinto stallion born on April 22nd at a farm in New Hampshire, United States. The little horse weighs in at a pithy 2.7 kg and stands 35.5 cm tall.
According to the records, Thumbelina, the current world record holder is classed as a dwarf horse. Einstein by contrast, doesn’t suffer any form of dwarfism – he’s just a really really small version of an ordinary horse. Judy Smith, owner of the aptly-title Tiz A Miniature Horse Farm where Einstein was born has never seen anything this small in the 20 years she has been raising miniature horses. She also says he was so small when he was born that she thought he was dead.
“At first he didn’t move very much. We started rubbing him with a towel and he started to move around.”
Check out a video of Einstein below.
An application has been sent to the Guinness Book of World Records to see if Einstein could qualify as the world’s smallest horse. Read the full news article on the Examiner.
[via Urlesque]
Categories
Who Let The Dogs Out?
Aside from our screen printing escapade and attempt at baking, I know we haven’t posted any personal stuff on the blog but it’s a lazy Sunday evening and I’m sitting here in my favourite holey underpants so it’s a good a time as any.
We try to take our puppies, Mina (Big Min is her gangsta name) and Panya (Lil’ Pun) for walks as regularly as possible, but we’ve been a little bad this week. They like walking on the mountain and scampering around in Tokai forest, but they absolutely love the beach – there’s so much seaweed and crab shells to eat and throw up later, charming I know.
Earlier this morning we bundled the puppies into the car and headed off to Sunset Beach for a little walk. Two hours later, after chasing balls, meeting everyone on the beach (Panya is such an attention-seeker), and with bellies full of sand, the tired mutts were home. We took some happy snaps of the walkabout and thought we’d share them with you. Find them after the jump. Panya is the grey one.
I’m not that great at macro photography, but of the ones I have taken with my aging Canon G6, I’m very keen on this one – the gold beetle. Amateur photographer Mirosław Świętek is anything but amateur when it comes to snapping close-up shots.
Between the wee hours of 3am and 4am, Mirosław takes a trip to the forest near his village of Jaroszow, Poland, and photographs slumbering insects covered in the early morning dew. Whilst the insects are in a state of torpor, which is insect’s equivalent of sleep, he using a torch to seek them out and then sets up his camera and flash right next to them. The results are nothing less than spectacular. See a selection of our favourites after the jump.