There’s a great new photography exhibit going on downtown these days.
Located on the plaza of North Riverside… just west of the Lyric Opera House.
“Butterflies & Buffalo: Tales of American Culture”

The first thing that strikes you is the HUGE camera sitting there on the plaza. Turns out, it is indeed the largest camera ever! So big that it actually rolls into & travels in a full semi-truck! Created by photographer Dennis Manarchy to capture cultures all across the country. This traveling photo exhibit is actually a truly functioning camera, using 4.5′ x 6′ film, which will be crossing the country to capture images & cultures from a truly personal vantage point. Up close & personal. Oversized prints from oversized negatives to capture every detail of every culture. The photography project is being timed to coordinate with the 200th anniversary of the invention of the camera. At the end of the traveling tour, the camera & images will be donated to the Smithsonian Institute in 2014.

From the website of Dennis Manarchy:
Unknown legacies lie among us.  Rich cultural heritage and folklore quietly resonate within our landscapes. The United States is the most ethnically diverse nation in the world, yet we have struggled to find commonality in our differences, and in our rapid daily quest to achieve the ‘American Dream’, we have lost touch with our roots. Now is a pivotal time.

Symbolic of our fragile surviving cultures and the enduring strength of the American spirit, “Butterflies & Buffalo” will forever preserve our nation’s dynamic cultural history through the largest film camera in the world and a 20,000-mile nationwide documentary journey. The magnificence of over 50 cultures will be captured and shared with the public to commemorate extraordinary people from all walks of life. Join us on this amazing journey. 

Click here to see more about this incredible photography project.

Have you EVER seen a larger camera lens?!

Here’s the centerpiece of the exhibit. A large portrait emblazoned on the side of the wall overlooking the plaza, the Chicago River and the back side of the Chicago Lyric Opera House.

More of the photos by Dennis Manarchy posted on the side of the building…

Here are a few of the stunning examples that are traveling along with the camera. Huge enlargements with incredible details. Each photo capturing the true personality & essence of the subject.

And my personal favorite… don’t you just want to be her friend?! She’s gotta be fun!!!

Don’t forget to click here for a video about this fantastic photography project!!!

So I was shopping at Home Depot this evening for stain, varnish & brushes so I could make some quick ClayQuilts for this weekend. I happened to find myself checking out the “clearance” plants… picking up a few perennials to add to my garden for cheap. When all of a sudden I saw some flitting about in my peripheral vision. I assumed it was a bug… but no, it was a hummingbird. We don’t see many of them in the city. It was pretty cool. Luckily, I managed to grab my iPhone quickly to snap a couple pictures. Some were blurrier than others… but this one wasn’t too bad for a quick iPhone snapshot. A teeny tiny hummingbird flitting about.

I’m getting ready to head out to Dover, Delaware for the Firefly Music Festival.
I’m the Creative Director for the special events company hired to do all of the fun stuff around the festival – the thematic venues, the decor, the landscaping, the lighting, and so much more. So I found it somewhat ironic that I found this post today online. Perfect timing before my trip to Firefly. And so cool… I need to figure out how “re-create” this effect somehow for next year’s music festival. And maybe even get Yume Cyan to join us there?! Click here for more about the Firefly Music Festival.

Found online at www.thisiscolossal.com…
Photographer Yume Cyan has been shooting some magical long exposure photographs of fireflies in a forested area around Nagoya City, Japan. By keeping the camera’s shutter open at a low aperture Cyan captures every bioluminescent flash of each insect resulting in dotted light trails that criss-cross the frame.

Who knew there could be so much natural beauty out in the ‘burbs???

Sure, I may be in Dover for a “glitter gig” planning meeting, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take a little time to enjoy a bit of nature while I’m here, right? I always love seeing how the natural surroundings change when you travel. Just a short airplane ride and everything can change!

Okay, so I can find a little “pretty” outside my hotel window too… here’s the view of the Dover Downs Speedway. It’s used for both horse harness racing & auto NASCAR racing. The outer loop is for cars, the inner loop is for horses! And in about a month, we’ll be working around the speedway grounds to set up the Firefly Music Festival. For more information, click here.

You know I loves me a good sunrise… and a beautiful sunset ain’t too shabby either.
So I was kind of excited when I saw these “manipulated” photographs online today.
Apparently, there’s some sort of time-lapse, exposure, layering & stacking going on?!

As seen on Colossal.com…
Living on the shore of Lake Ontario, just east of Toronto, photographer Matt Molloy has daily encounters with brilliant sunsets and cloudscapes that he’s been photographing for over three years. One day he began experimenting with time-lapse sequences by taking hundreds of images as the sun set and the clouds moved through the sky. Molloy then digitally stacked the numerous photos to reveal shifts in color and shape reminiscent of painterly brush strokes that smeared the sky. You can learn more about his “timestack” technique over at Digital Photo Magazine.

As quoted from Matt Molloy himself: “Made from 500 photos, this is the first sunset time-lapse I tried the stacking method with. I was surprised with the outcome, but even more so with the feedback. It wasn’t long before it went viral. I was getting lots of emails, some asking questions about the technique and others hoping to share it on their website or blog. Milky Way Scientists shared it on their Facebook page, and it got 12,000 likes and 4,000 shares on the first day it was up. I was blown away!”

Click here for more images by Matt Molloy.
Click here for a “tutorial” on the process from Digital Photo Magazine.

As seen on Colossal.com…
Exploded Flowers is a series of photos by artist Fong Qi Wei that shows a variety of flowers dissected into individual components. Reminiscent of exploding fireworks, it’s fascinating to see the radial footprints each flower makes relative to the size of its actual bloom. The series placed second in the 2012 International Photography Awards. You can see more from the series on Wei’s website.