The Everyday, Zoomed

As fascinating as it is to see normal, everyday objects magnified 1,000x plus, it’s even more enjoyable to distance yourself from their identification and appreciate their texture, palette, composition, and beauty as stand-alone pieces of art.

These photo serve to supplement my William Legoullon’s Microscopic Drinks post from June 2012, and Caren Albert’s Food Photos, from July 2011. The original article was shared with me by sarak8, and discovered on ViralNova. I’ve narrowed them down to my favorite selections which are, like the sharer of this link,  the most breath-taking. Unlike the original article, however, I’m choosing to hide the object of magnification to allow you the enjoyment of them detached from their object of origin. If you’re dying to know, hover over the image for tooltip or scroll to the bottom of the article for a list.

1. postage stamp, 2. banana slice, 3. blood clot, 4, human eyelash, 5. used dental floss, 6. football jersey, 7. guitar string, 8. needle and thread, 9. salt & pepper, 10. instant coffee crystal, 11. stitches on a dog’s skin, 12. toilet paper, 13. velcro, 14. analog audio groove on a vinyl record

Category: Pix

Free, Online

As we all know too well, free doesn’t always mean free. How often have you clicked on a link in emails or from search results only to be brought to a page that informs you that you must enter a credit card or complete a series of obstacles in order to get access to the elusive free product? Television offers for games, such as McDonald’s Monopoly game, always boast the “no purchase necessary” option to play. Gevalia touts a free percolator while also subscribing you to a coffee-o-the-month club for outrageously overpriced java. And dozens of pop-up “Free iPad” sites require you to enlist friends, sign-up for credit cards or buy magazine subscriptions in order to qualify for free products that you probably will never see. In fact, most spam blockers specifically look for the word “free” in the subjects or bodies of emails to elevate the email’s spam ranking simply because they know that free, online, isn’t always free. Free, online, means “free trial,” “free if you enter a credit card,” “free if you complete these tasks,” and “free*“. Read more

Synesthesia

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Terri Timely, director and creator of Synesthesia, brings us this Terry-Gilliamesque conflation of man and machinery in a chaotic world where music melds melodically with food, literature and even ourselves. Watch this short film for the beauty and color of each shot, and pull your own hypothesises from it. Or follow him on is photolog (plog?) here.