Take a woman and her housekeeper, capture them removed from any recognizable context, and leave people wondering which is which. The linked PDF begins with an explanation (en Español) of the project, photos begin on page 23. Contexts.org provides some details for those of us better at English than Spanish.

(via Bobulate)

This isn’t done often enough. Foreign Policy got a batch photos taken by Kabul teens which shows the day-to-day life of the people. While this may be antithetical to the traditional notion of news photography, regularly undertaking this practice would be an invaluable compliment to that.

(via Reddit)

I only link to the Big Picture when I’m wowed at least three times while viewing the sequence. This passed.

I’d never spent much time thinking about it, but I really enjoyed Mike Johnston’s thoughts on the distinct lack of (monetary) value inherent in most middle-aged objects.

(via @ironicsans)

If you’ve not watched this video (in HD) yet, you should. Also interesting: the making of.

You’ve probably seen this by now, but if you haven’t, now you have.

The Ideas Blog brings up a topic I’ve never considered: who deserves credit for a photo of graffiti (or other street art), the photographer or the creater of the object being photographed?

Though I don’t know how much scientific utiliy this has, it’s cool to see this schlieren photo of a person coughing. Also worthwhile: the story explaining the technique and a slideshow of more such photos.

Another stunner from Mr. Javanrouh.

There’s nothing too complex to it, but I’d never actually heard the story before.

When you took the picture, the camera flash sent a lot of light into the eye in a very short time, the light reflected off the back of the eye and out through the pupil and, because the camera lens is close to the flash and able to capture images very quickly, it caught the light reflecting back out.

So why is that light red? Because the fundus, the interior surface of the eye that includes the retina, is loaded with melanin, a pigment that gives it a brownish-reddish color.

One problem with digital photography is that you’ll never get the awesome (and accidental) exposure of two photos on a single square of flim.

(via Dean Allen)

We live in a beautiful world.

Though I find the effect less interesting than in stills, Keith Loutit’s tilt-shift time-lapse videos from around Sydney are pretty awesome.

• Bathtub III
• Bathtub II
• Beached (via Waxy; has by far the most people)

There’s nothing too remarkable in Gizmodo’s interview with Alton Brown. They breifly discuss his new show — Feasting on Waves — and talk at length about the technology he used while filming it. So, I guess the point is that I’m mostly just linking to this because Alton Brown is cool.

Sam Javanrouh captured a few moments of a great one.

This picture is very cool. That is all.

(via kottke)

I’m pretty sure this is at least the third time this week, but I can’t help myself. The Big Picture’s series on Jupiter is quite awesome.

An intelligent-sounding explanation of Lia Holleran’s Dark Skate photographs:

The works blur the boundaries of photography and become self-portraits and drawings as well as records of performances. Light is used to form the drawing line while HALLORAN skateboards at night through different venues. The resulting images are each a trajectory of the artist’s movements over time. The photographs pair urban environments with lines of light which behave as physical objects or break apart into flurries of abstraction.

A less intelligent-sounding explanation: awesome.

(via The Daily Dish)