bikes and things

Fascinating set of images and story which accompany them over at It’s nice that on the legacy of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

All images © Jamie McGregor Smith

Via Angus.

We finally got round to choosing our print to have from from Marc Wilson and his “The Last Stand” project. The project was a crowdfunded project along the lines of Kickstarter (which wasn’t in the UK at the time). I funded the project in Jan and am now looking forward to receiving a 10×8″ print of the shot below to get up on the wall.

You can see the full set of images over at his portfolio site. I also liked the the below collection of iPhone shots from the various trips which I thought was worth posting too.

All images © Marc Wilson.

The eyewitness photography series on the Guardian is always good for a bit of lunchtime viewing but this one’s a real corker. Click through to see the larger version on the Guardian.

Orlando Duque of Colombia dives 29 metres from a rock monolith during the first round of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series at Islet Vila Franca do Campo

© Dean Treml / AFP / Getty Images

I’m catching up on a few things from the Instapaper feed and thought I’d post this one. A nice little clip shot from an aerial camera and a Canon 5D. Shame it’s just the one jump and not more trails, but still worth watching.

The slightly more impressive thing (to me) is the rig they used to shoot it with. A carbon fibre frame with four rotors attached. Slightly evil looking too.

Some lovely work here from “polarisandy” who I originally found via the Singletrack forum and a long running thread entitled “Photos you’ve taken in the last month that you’re proud of“… I’ve since given up posting in that thread due to the quality of his work. A small selection of which is below.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Manufactured Landscapes film by Ed Burtynsky at the Tate Modern this week with Daniel. I hadn’t seen it before so it was great to see it properly on a decent screen. The opening shot is just so infinite and sets the scale for what is about to be shown in the rest of the film. The work is incredibly well shot and edited and the commentary is just about right. Plenty of silence to think about your thoughts between sections. It’s kind of harrowing but also beautiful at the same time which is confusing as hell. The way some of the prints are represented by a sharp detail on an individual which then pans out to reveal the sheer scale of the image really does sell the intensity of the work.

Whilst I enjoyed all of the work this image jumped out at me. The small 500px version below doesn’t really do it justice. Really looking forward to seeing the prints up close at the Photographers Gallery.

Image © Ed Burtynysky – Rock of Ages # 7, Active Section, E.L. Smith Quarry, Barre, Vermont, 1991.

The Q&A with him after was incredibly revealing. He talked about the way he had become an environmental campaigner rather than a photographer. There were also some great questions about the issue of making a difficult subject intensely beautiful and whether it detracted from the intended impact of the image. The other question was to do with the potential limited audience of his work through essentially discussing these issues with those who already are aware of them and how he intended to gain a wider audience. His answers were in depth and to the point but also well elaborated. Seems like a super intelligent chap.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Image © Ed Burtynysky – Manufacturing #10A and 10B, Cankun Factory, Xiamen City, 2005.

Impressive sense of scale from this view from Rotherhithe.

Image © Rob Telford

Trying to use a camera a bit more for leisure rather than just using Instagram. A few efforts from the weekend. A whole new set sure to arrive of Gina our houseguest but these are all non-dog related for now.

And another version. Not sure which I prefer.

A terrible story of a man who has his beloved Fujifilm X100 soaked in sea water which of course is the ultimate enemy of anything electronic. Completely heartbreaking if you’ve ever used this camera, more so if you own one. The only sensible thing to do is take it apart piece by piece and post pictures online.

Just some of the amazing engineering that goes into this camera.

All the parts laid out.

All images © James Maher.