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After a long gap, I present you with another Fresh Finds and this time I have been browsing with an interest in recreating the look and style of old photos and other vintage visuals.

• Bert Stern recreates Marilyn Monroe’s last photo shoot [CONTAINS NUDITY - If you are alergic, you have been warned]
  If you’ve been anywhere online that’s pop culture or entertainment-centric in the past week or so, you’ve probably come across the fact that Lindsay Lohan has posed for some Monroe-a-like nude photographs. Going beyond the tabloid facts, this is actually a great study for the challenge of recreating old photos, because in this case you have a photographer trying to recreate his own work from 46 years ago, for New York magazine. That has to be a unique situation, the results of which are worth a look.

  While Lohan is no Monroe, the photos themselves are interesting, though I get the feeling the shot selection to decide what goes into the magazine might have been a bit rushed. The set includes some beautiful shots and some mediocre ones, where it seems to be a split-second before or a split-second after what would have been a better composition. Also of interest to photography buffs will be the unfortunately sparse collage of shots behind the scenes of the shoot. Really nice dramatic stuff, on par, if not better than, the final presented pictures.

• Kate Boswort does Vogue retro shoot
  It would seem Kate Bosworth has also been upto retro photo shenanigans for the US edition of Vogue. Only in this case the inspiration is more indirect and what they came up with is more regular fashion photography with a retro twist. Some interesting images, with a bit of behind the scenes stuff to also keep you busy.
• Achieving the vintage look
  If you’re interested in the mechanics and technicalities of producing images with that old-world flair using in-camera and studio techniques, this discussion should be of interest. While there is no step-by-step instruction for anything, there are many valuable tricks you can pick up along the way — everything from setting the right depth-of-field, to choosing the right lens.
• Bokeh
  Bokeh is as much a specific phenomena as it is the lack of something, and that thing is sharpness. Bokeh is that particular smooth fuzzy look you only get when a camera lens is pointed at something that is out of focus. Ken Rockwell explains how this effect is formed and how it is actually being made difficult to achive due to the increasing quality of camera lenses. Sometimes progress comes at a price. If you want to achive those soft portrait photographs of old, you must understand bokeh.
• Coco Chanel in action
  If you want to recreate old photographs you muct study plenty of good examples. A wide variety of ’study material’ is best. Take these crisp shots of Coco Chanel in her element, for example. They’re excellent examples of the photographic conventions of an era, but they are also simply great photos that any photographer can learn from. As the lady said, “Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”
• Vintage Valentines Day Photos
  Vintage Japanese Photos
  For more inspiration, look no further than this embarrasingly large collection of old Valentines Day themed photographs, and this blog that is dedicated to posting old Japanese photos. Some of these images are not as staid and static as you might think. A lot of the composition and framing is as dramatic and challenging as any you would see today.
• Alexia Death’s LOMO and Vintage Effects for GIMP
  GIMP Old Photo Tutorial
  If you’re more of a digital photographer, or would just like to recreate the vintage look with some of your existing images, software comes to your rescue. Here are some interesting automated scripts you can apply in the GIMP. For the more hands-on amongst you, there is also a detailed tutorial on how to create the typical sepia faded vintage look. There is plenty of room for your own personal adjustments in the described techniques.

And that brings us to the end of another round of Fresh Finds. Hope you enjoyed this little stroll down the photographic memory lane, and I hope you have got a few new ideas for recreating some old photo tricks. Enjoy.

Samir

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When we throw things away, where exactly is “away”?
That was the question put to me by one of my intrepid readers, Pasha, in the context of one of my environmental articles. So enthusiastic was I to give my answer, that the thoughts poured and poured without end. What resulted was an unnatural beast that would never be accepted by the other comments in the tribe, and so it was promoted to being the post that scrolls before you now.

Assuming this question is speaking in terms of physical eventualities rather than abstract philosophies, let us plot the course of human detritus when it leaves our homes. Let us suppose we are talking of a specific item, a plastic toy of some sort, maybe a little yellow “rubber” duck. So, we’re talking of a soft plastic toy which has outgrown its welcome.
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I really need to learn to take my own advice about getting things done. Wait! Hold the presses, I see a new post in this: “How to Take Your Own Advice in 13 Easy Steps”. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. I dazzle myself sometimes.

I’ve been back in Dubai from my trip to Bombay for a good many days now. Every since then I have been planning on my grand comeback post. I’m guessing you have gotten to the realisation that I haven’t written it yet. The task of writing that perfect and (in my mind) ever growing post finally seemed so improbable that I decided to just get it over with and write the afterword of sorts that I had planned for that post.

In short, I wanted to inform all you wonderful people out there that I’m back. As some of you have mentioned, I do plan on writing much more about my trip and various things about India. It’s quite an inspirational place really, and it always fills me with a million good ideas. Unfortunately my trips there rarely give me time for relaxed writing stints, and once I’m back here and do have the time, the buzz of India isn’t there to spur me on anymore. Purely an excuse, I know, but true none the less. What life in Dubai is sorely in need of, is life.

But write we must, because what else is there? So, once I mange to kick myself out of my hibernating huddle I plan, nay, I promise to write a whole bunch of articles about the trip and the many days I was silent. My story of a bus ride still remains to be continued and completed. Besides that one, I will also be writing these:

• The Perils and Promise of the Great Indian Binge
• Manifesto of a Social Malcontent
• What You Can Learn By Staking Out a Small Bank
• Memories Incorporated
… and perhaps even others that I haven’t named or planned yet. Hopefully, I can do more than just recap throughout the coming weeks and also slot in some fresh content. Stay tuned!

It’s strange how much fun writing can be (as it is now while I type this), and also how completely (but secretly) scared you can be to start, to commit, to write the first sentence. But write we must, because what else is there?

Samir

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Yesterday I got on to a bus with nine members of a brass band. It all started with my favourite pastime in Mumbai, taking a bus towards the south of the city, the older more historical section of this sprawling metropolis. A red BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) bus on route #85 is my staple ride. The old-style printed roll of fabric that acts as a changeable destination placard usually reads Hutatma Chowk, the post-independence revisionist title of the busy square in the centre of the old quarter that most people still simply refer to as Fountain.

Mumbai’s busses are one of the most efficiently organised mass transport systems you’re likely to come across anywhere in the world, and to maintain that efficiency the BEST company has set up depots and minor confluence points throughout the city where drivers and bus-conductors can be replaced, routes started, and other planning and routing tasks done. Part of this system involves getting busses that are somewhere across the city to a specific midpoint to keep with the plan. These are those rare occasions when some busses might not go where you expect them to.

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