procrastinating.

I have two papers I need to finish in the next seven hours, and I am, for whatever reason, utterly incapable of getting them done (I've written maybe a combined 600 words for both of them. Ack.). So, instead, here's an entry of awesome things:

+ National Geographic Photo of the Day. Once a day photos tend to be a little hit or miss for me, but sometimes I'll come across something so breathtaking that my entire day is changed. A few months back, I came across this image of Chicago, taken in 1978, and for a week after, I felt this sharp pang of almost homesickness. To possibly understate a bit, National Geographic does good work.


+ The Big Picture.

The Big Picture is a photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com, entries are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com's Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm's MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.

I've never really followed the Big Picture, but enough people over the years have linked me to it that I maintain this low level awareness that somewhere out there, gorgeous photography is being showcased. To ground this entry in the herenow, here is a recent Big Picture about the Inaugural preparations (there's also one, naturally, about the Inauguration itself, but I think the preparation is a little bit more interesting. Glimpses of things that we just wouldn't notice otherwise.) And, just because it caught my eye as I browsed again, The Year 2008 In Photographs (Part 1 of 3). That first photo always makes me pause, just to look at it again and remind myself that it's real.



+ The Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth. Speaking of real...

Imagine waking up on the Socotra Island and taking a good look around you (let's say your buddies pulled a prank on you and delivered you there, and lets also assume that you don't have any hangover from abuse of any substances). After a yelp of disbelief, you'd be inclined to think you were transported to another planet - or traveled to another era of Earth's history.

The second would be closer to the truth for this island, which is part of a group of 4 islands, has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, this island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic, i.e. found nowhere else on Earth.

Nnnnnrg.


+ ImageQuest Marine.

From the dark abyss to the sunlit surface waters, Image Quest 3-D's picture library, PELAGICA, proactively documents and illustrates the inhabitants of the marine realm, with particular emphasis upon the intriguing planktonic communities of the open oceans and the bizarre inhabitants of the great ocean depths.

Images are captured in both 2-D and 3-D, stills and movie format, from Imax to mini DV, with marine biologists and notable photographers contributing worldwide material and story-telling expertise. The product of over fifty marine expeditions is available. Spectacular aquatic and fluid effects are also part of our speciality.

Okay, I'm not going to lie, I was originally just planning to link to what is possibly my favorite pair of pictures ever, the adult and larval form of the angler fish (!!!), but then I realized that there was an entire database of deep sea creatures that I haven't been able to browse and had to link that instead. But! Let's talk about the angler fish for a bit. Look at how cheerful that baby angler fish looks! It looks like its wearing a monocle! It's made up of eety beety nebulae! And then one day it undergoes metamorphosis and becomes a soul sucking creature of the dark. Fantastic. Oh, and if you ever want to be the life of a party, read up on their reproductive cycle. It's good times. (And I apologize to anyone who has heard me give this speech before. I can't help it! They are so cool.)


And finally, a link that probably should have been included in my last entry:

+ Veer. Veer "provides visual elements for use in professional creative work, such as graphic design, motion design, advertising and filmmaking." Or so the the website says. All I know is that every time I visit the site, no matter my intentions, I am drawn inexorably towards the merch. I know that it'll have that Helvetica scarf and the wristcuff that makes me wish I were the type of person to wear wristcuffs. It has t-shirts whose description includes the phrase "lovingly displayed on Adobe Jenson." I just can't stop clicking through them. Oh man. Things with letters!