Photographer Emma Arvida, like most women, has spent much of her lifetime dealing with a “monthly inconvenience.” Unlike most women, Arvida recently published a photo series of said inconvenience entitled “There Will Be Blood”. The (rather unsettling – you’ve been warned) photos show ]]>

Photographer Emma Arvida, like most women, has spent much of her lifetime dealing with a “monthly inconvenience.” Unlike most women, Arvida recently published a photo series of said inconvenience entitled “There Will Be Blood”. The (rather unsettling – you’ve been warned) photos show women doing mundane tasks, like reading or jogging, while also getting their periods in a pretty graphic manner in an attempt to challenge the current mindset that women should be ashamed of a natural occurrence like menstruation.

The comments on the site have been overwhelmingly positive, full of words like “beautiful” and “empowering.” Buzzfeed’s Donna D said that while she originally found the photos disgusting or silly, it eventually hit her that “there’s nothing wrong or gross” about them, and a lot of women are coming forward to agree with her. Except me.

That could be because I’m obviously not a feminist, but more likely it’s because I think unattended bodily fluids, regardless of their color and/or origin, are by definition wrong and gross. I mean, if these photos are “every day” activities that most women do while on the rag, then I guess I’m doing it wrong? But sitting in a coffee shop flipping through the latest Hunger Games installment with your legs spread eagle to a window while sporting a pair of granny panties that look like a scene from Carrie is hardly normal. And if the point here is that it should be then I’m really confused.

If I knew anything about photography I’d head out tomorrow and shoot some pictures of people with visible skid marks in their drawers walking their dogs and eating froyo to “make a statement” against society’s distaste for poop. Luckily for these feminists (and everyone else), I was out sick the day they covered that in art class. I think I had my period.

There Will Be Blood [VICE]

My loathing of Instagram, the program that lets you make your bad photos worse so people can’t tell you how bad they are after they get rammed in your face on the social network of your choice, is well known. But it’s successful, so even companies that should really know ]]>

My loathing of Instagram, the program that lets you make your bad photos worse so people can’t tell you how bad they are after they get rammed in your face on the social network of your choice, is well known. But it’s successful, so even companies that should really know better are chasing after that photo-altering gold.

The latest? Twitpic, the application that used to be an integral part of Twitter. It’s trying to redefine itself, so the new iOS app will look just a bit familiar.

Granted, Twitpic has problems, as a company. When the company you rely on for your revenue starts its own in-house version of your service, you’re in pretty serious trouble. But this revamp may not be what the doctor ordered.

That said, if you don’t want to use an app Facebook owns, Twitpic is a pretty good option. The filters and types of adjustments look good on your phone’s screen, and a few user-interface problems aside, it’s a solid app to use to edit your cell phone photos.

Just…think before you use it. Please?

Hands On With Twitpic [Gadget Lab]

What if 80s horror movie villains got old like the rest of us? Italian photographer Federico Chiesa answered that question like a boss. His portfolio of insanely detailed images is titled Horror Vacui. The results are pretty awesome, as he worked with an awesome makeup designer to show us the ]]>

What if 80s horror movie villains got old like the rest of us? Italian photographer Federico Chiesa answered that question like a boss. His portfolio of insanely detailed images is titled Horror Vacui. The results are pretty awesome, as he worked with an awesome makeup designer to show us the future of Darth Vader, Freddy Krueger, the creepy twins from The Shining and more. I’m already thinking of people I want to request for his next patch – the melted-face Nazis from Raiders Of The Lost Ark! Sloth from Goonies! Let us know what you’d want to see in the comments.

In the fast paced world if internet circle jerkery it seems that there is a new meme spreading like wildfire each and every day.  These days the best formulas for a meme have pretty much been established: funny picture + strategically misleading or apropos ]]>

In the fast paced world if internet circle jerkery it seems that there is a new meme spreading like wildfire each and every day.  These days the best formulas for a meme have pretty much been established: funny picture + strategically misleading or apropos caption = roflcopterz.  Thus we’re now finding ourselves in meme culture 2.0, where the formulas of previously hilarious memes are being repurposed with new pictures achieving the same success, ie. today’s hottest creation: Depressing Pet Photo which is derived from the same family of misleading captions as Guyism’s  favorite The Blind Date Murderer as well as Successful Black Man.  In order to make sure you remain the savviest readership on the internet we’re here to introduce you to Depressing Dog Photo.

OK, OK, nobody is really saying that, unless they happen to be international spies or assembling some sort of bizarre art project.

But 360 degree photography is actually fairly neat, and a good way to capture a whole event with one click. Or just make something really weird-looking. And ]]>

OK, OK, nobody is really saying that, unless they happen to be international spies or assembling some sort of bizarre art project.

But 360 degree photography is actually fairly neat, and a good way to capture a whole event with one click. Or just make something really weird-looking. And now, there’s a gadget that will do precisely that.

It’s called a Tomaggo, and the camera specs are actually fairly good: it’s got a 14 megapixel sensor, although no word on the pixel size, and a whole bunch of other goodies like WiFi, Bluetooth, and a flip-down tripod that automatically triggers a ten second timer.

As for what you’d actually use this for, we’ve got a few suggestions:

- Hide it in a table in the middle of a room, and set it to take a picture every ten seconds. Then throw a party. Instant blackmail.

- Use it to take family photos once, and you’ll never be asked to do it again.

- Stitch a bunch of them together in Photoshop and pretend you’re a struggling artist at the local gallery.

- Finally figure out what people are doing behind your back.

Tamaggo Snaps One-Click 360 Degree Photos [Gizmodo]

Photo editing used to be a specialty used by propaganda departments and professional newspapers. Now it’s something 15-year-olds do to make PG versions of porn photos to make their friends laugh. Yes, everybody can make their photos not suck, but it’s a question of having the proper tools.

Photo editing used to be a specialty used by propaganda departments and professional newspapers. Now it’s something 15-year-olds do to make PG versions of porn photos to make their friends laugh. Yes, everybody can make their photos not suck, but it’s a question of having the proper tools.

Corel, yep, the people who made that word processing software your mom used to make banners in the ’80s, have decided to jump into this market, and the results are pretty interesting.

Why should you care, if you’ve just got a cheap point-and-shoot? Because a good post software can make a photo you shoot, no matter how terrible, much better. Maybe not art, but at least you don’t look overexposed and your girlfriend doesn’t fade into the background.

Also, if you take a lot of photos, something like AfterShot, Lightroom, or Apeture offers what they call “library management”, which means “all of your photos in one place instead of stuffed into your ‘Photos’ folder with titles like IMAG12189128927887127.jpg.tiff.”

OK, so what does AfterShot offer? A full RAW workflow; metadata editing (i.e. stuff like date and time attached to the photo); non-destructive editing, so you can play with settings and not worry about wrecking your picture; and most importantly, it’s designed for multi-core and multi-CPU devices, meaning you won’t have a photo editor that slows down everything.

How much for this? $99, and even better, it’s for Mac, Windows, and Linux, so no matter what you use and what you shoot, you now have no excuse.

Corel Launches AfterShot Pro [TechCrunch]

Via Kayfabe comes this surrealist photography that aims to illustrate traumatic images from childhood. Think less like your uncle’s whisky breath and more like the Boogeyman, pretty perturbing yet cool.

I like this image mostly because I really relate to ]]>

Via Kayfabe comes this surrealist photography that aims to illustrate traumatic images from childhood. Think less like your uncle’s whisky breath and more like the Boogeyman, pretty perturbing yet cool.

I like this image mostly because I really relate to that one hand going straight for the big boobs. It’s like, hey, yeah I’m a disembodied hand coming from the floor, but whatever man, I need to get some action too. What, because I’m a little “different” you’re incapable of seeing that I’m a man? A man with needs? Well f you, Dressy. Because I will yank you down to some sort of abyss. Or your basement, whatever. With gusto.

Editor’s Note: Changed this to a link instead of a posted image because, I dunno, it’s a little too gross/kid-fy to me: LINK

Uh…are we doing surrealist photography or are we in Pete Townshend’s computer? I guess those things don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but still…a bit perturbing and kiddie-pornish, I say. But whatever, art is art, so..that’s cool.

View the photographer’s Web site here.