fototiller.com Blog

Ever wonder how to create a photo cluster? Even know what the heck a photo cluster is? (I didn’t!) The decorating divas at domino have some tips on getting your frames to look just right (with some links to buy beautiful frames).

photo from domino

More fun vinyl decal wall frame stickers, this time from French company acte-deco. You can choose from many different colors and several styles – stick ‘em on the wall and hang a photo in the center.

Still waiting to hear back from them to see if they ship to the US. (Check out their other cool wall decals, too!)

If your travels this summer include a trip to Berlin, then check out the Żak Gallery, which focuses on Eastern European photography (or see the online gallery). The gallery opens with it’s first exhibit, “Alien Sky,” on June 1st. The exhibit presents seven artists’ “version of the giant surface above us, the secrets that lay hidden behind – or what we expect from there to come. With different approaches, ranging from conceptual experiments to classic b/w photography, all displayed works play with the aesthetics and the attraction of the sky. How do aliens perceive Earth? What remains when a pin-hole camera observes the sky for over a month? Shouldn’t we all become sky watchers?”

A series of photos by Marcin Przybyłko depicts the subject’s perspective of the sliver of sky viewable from the shelter of buildings, highlighting just how “alien” the sky often seems to us. Another series titled “Waiting for the UFO,” plays on our fears of the unknown and alien in an almost whimsical fashion, with toylike objects appearing in the distant sky.

Top photos: Marcin Przybyłko| Untitled | Untitled | from the series: Windows
Bottom photos: Barbora Kuklíková | Untitled #1 | Untitled #2 | from the series: Waiting for the UFO

I love all the great finds at the Toronto-based Up to You. New to the store is an online shop and these self-adhesive vinyl wall decal frames (look for wall decals #3 in the online store). Create your own wall museum of photos with these frames from designer Inga Sempe. (Great for those of you who can’t put nails in your wall – frames can be removed from your wall so you don’t have to worry about wall damage, but can’t be reapplied.)

This glass ornament/magnet kit ($22 at wrapables) supplies all the materials you need to make three personalized venetian glass magnets or ornaments with your favorite photos, using a laser photocopy of your image to transfer onto each piece of glass. Kit includes Tilano Photo Paper; Foam Brush; Tilano Medium; Tilano Antiquing Paint; Three 2″ x 2″ Glass Ornaments; Tilano Wire; Three Magnets; and all the instructions you need.

Face cake, photo cupcakes, and now photo cookies. Who knew photography could be so yummy?

I’m a big fan of functional art displays, so this beechwood picture frame box is right up my alley. Designer Tim Parsons created this picture frame with a secret compartment for storing storing photographs or any other flat item. It’s also sized to fit print-outs of your digital pics (available in two sizes, A4 and A3). Available from thorsten van elten.

The Cabino Storage Cabinet from Umbra is a wood, glass and acrylic storage cabinet with floating photo display door where you can add in your own pics. Available at Fosters.

These 3-D frames are really cool; you can put in objects along with your pictures and the frame will conform to hold the object. Designed by Hiroshi Kajimoto, select colors are available (and on sale!) at Plum Party.

Here’s a cool gift for your favorite warhol fan – red books, a collection of 11 of warhol’s holson polaroid albums. Description from alphabets, where you can buy the set ($95):
“Red Books is a red wooden box containing 11 of Warhol’s Holson Polaroid albums. Each book contains a facsimile reproduction of Warhol’s sequence. The themes include a study of Paloma Picasso, a day trip to Montauk, Mick Jagger, the “Asshole” painting, and John and Yoko. In addition to the 11 red books, a black book is included which contains a text by François-Marie Banier explaining the significance of these albums within Warhol’s oeuvre and how they act as a visual diary of his work, offering unrivaled insight into his creative process. Essay by François Marie Banier.”

Woodsy and ropey, these frames would make a great home for your summer camping pics. Also good for a father’s day gift. Get them at Pier One.

New lavender suede album from Patina. Holds 104 4×6 photos ($14).

Bobabo creator Gabriela Cantu, another winner of Fred Flare’s next big thing, designed this very cute mini camera keychain. A camera that smiles right back at ya!

Personally, I think I am over silhouettes, but I thought I would still write about petite prints and their custom silhouette stationery and paper goods, as these would make great gifts for your relatives (I think my grandmothers’ would have loved them). You send in a profile photo and they turn it into a silhouette and print it on notecards or notepads.

Jessica wrote in about these beautiful albums from mirror mirror, handmade in England from nubuck leather.

More pinhole fun. You can download this pinhole camera template from linatree and then watch the animated guide to assemble. (via PhotographyBLOG)

Apartment therapy has some highlights from ICFF posted and I was happy to see the work of Duffy London featured. I’d seen the work of Chris Duffy over at the Hidden Art shop, but it’s always great to hear someone’s reaction after seeing it in person. Duffy does bespoke wallpaper from your digital images and his Glo range of canvases and tables with slim lights within can also be customized from your images.

FOUND magazine editor and creator Jason Bitner is one of fred flare’s next big thing winners. Check out his book of portraits from his biggest find, an archive of over 18,000 photos from a professional photographer in LaPorte, Indiana, found in a bunch of boxes in the back of a diner. Update: LaPorte, Indiana website with even more good stuff.

Cast-iron bamboo photo frames from west elm.

I just saw these beautiful, ethereal dishes in Met Home. Designed by Marina Chastenet with photographer Hélène Purcell, the designs are made from photograms (available at devinecorp.net).

Just saw these frame cards from rosebud design studio over at the always inspiring oh joy!. You can insert a photo into these die cut cards – way more fun than your typical plain vanilla photo cards.

From the pillow king, Thomas Paul, a happy little silk flower frame. Available online at doe ($14).

Obo photo frame available at amadon (a great site that I found from jessica at funky finds).

These shutter speed note cards from rock scissor paper are the coolest camera cards I’ve ever seen! Ok, they are the only camera cards I’ve seen, but still super cool. I love, love, love them. Great vintage camera designs (even a leica!). Available in mixed and single design sets (flick and flash, camera lens, film canister, and enlarger).

Simple design with a vintage look, this 3-ring binder book cloth photo album is handmade with a book cloth cover and a chrome label holder. Comes with pre-printed labels to create a title plate.

Feeling a little tired of megapixels, memory cards and battery chargers? Sometimes it’s nice to kick it old school and get back to the basics. Way back. Pinhole cameras are making a comeback with new, modern designs that you can make from kits out of cardstock. These cameras are a lot of fun to experiment with (and also great for introducing kids to photography). There is no lens in a pinhole camera, just a tiny pinhole through which light passes to expose regular 35mm film. Here are two pinhole cameras that are fun and have a great design. With the hole-on ex camera kit, you can make a modern pinhole camera (above) from the printed cardstock parts and metal pinhole aperture (assembly requires glue, ruler and pencil) for only $20. Also, check out the new p-sharan pinhole camera now available at ICP (below). This one is made of tough cardstock that assembles with no cutting or glue ($30). Of course, you can go really old school and make your own.

For all you crafty folks, take a look at these needlepoint photo album kits from AMHdesign’s etsy shop. The kits come in three very modern, simple designs (rio and rome, above and marrakech, below) and have everything you need to make your own photo album. The rio kit can be customized with an initial of your choosing.

PicPads are shopping lists and notepads with black and white images that are custom made from your photos. (via swiss miss)

Awesome camera shirt designs! Take a camera with you wherever you go.
From left to right: the unlearn camera shirt, range finder shirt, camera shirt,
100% super instamatic shirt, grinstamatic camera shirt, the quiet life’s camera dot shirt and finally the camera t-shirt from k adorable.

I love three by three designs. Their innovative use of magnets leads to products like these cool frames, the colornetic frame and the woodnetic frame. Photos can be displayed on both sides and are held up by small, powerful chromed magnets. Available at velocity art and design.

Was reminded of db clay’s camera series of very cool photo-transferred wallets while browsing design spotter. The designers have developed a new method for printing photographic images onto gaffer tape wallets. Current designs include mad deer, this sky, and parking lot. Also available online at elsewares.

So bummed that I couldn’t go to bklyn designs. Jill over at inhabitat has some highlights posted and I was especially interested in claire design, which merges photography and lighting design to create these unique pendant lights.

Spotted on design spotter, this is one strange camera. I’ll let the designers describe it. “As a response to the increased ease with which images can be transferred, this pencil case aims to create a form of unreproducable image. An onboard pinhole camera, possessing an almost infinte depth of field, is triggered every tax year by the camera itself and is uncontrollable by the user. The resultant image can only be viewed by peeking into the case’s SLR prism viewfinder, and onto the onboard LCD screen. Constructed from american black walnut, photo-etched steel, CCD and electronics.”

(images from design spotter)

This lightbox is a project I’ve been wanting to try since I saw a similar idea in readymade a while back. The one thing I was trying to figure out was how the heck to print a large transparency that wouldn’t fade with constant exposure to light. This project on apartment therapy shows how to do it using a duratrans print (still won’t last forever, but hopefully long enough to make it worth your while).

(photo from apartment therapy)

The cranky wind-up toy dances like crazy while holding your photo.

The polished pewter desktop paper clip from see jane work has a heavy base to prevent tipping, so load it up with your latest photos.

Cute posy desktop photo holder from umbra.

Retromodern has these three unique tabletop photo holders:

pinch holder – photos grow on trees with this forest of clothespin photo holders.
clipp holder – simple and sleek, this one piece steel clip holds your photo firmly in place (in small, medium and large).
miamor container/photo holder – a heart shaped container to store your small desktop items and display a single photo.(note: this piece is in the process of being discontinued and limited stock remains)

I’ve got a bunch of tabletop photo holders to post on today. This little sparrow holder with bendable brass coils from anthropologie can hold three pictures.

On the flickr blog yesterday – news of a new and improved flickr coming in the next week. New navigation, new search, new and improved organizr, a person menu for easier navigation to your buddy’s photos and more options for viewing photos (and seeing more photos). I’m especially excited to see the speedy, improved organizr. Keep an eye out for the new release!

I had to travel for business yesterday and my reward at the end of these trips is spending a frantic 90 minutes trying to take in the entire ikea store near the train station. (Yes, I have a serious ikea addiction!) I picked up some of these bright little glad dofs frame – less than $4 bucks a piece! Also saw some of the new magnetic frames in the finlir series, a great deal, too.

From left to right: The metall dutt picture holder, bubbla magnetic frame, and the finlir double and heart frames.

Finally, from the ikea PS collection, there is this foldout enkoping table with built-in picture frame. You can add your own photo or use one of the supplied pics.

Alessi’s playful designs appeal to the child within. This whimsical picture frame design adds a great splash of color to your photos. Available at unica home.

Sensing a theme today? I thought I’d post on some colorful, rainbow photo accessories in honor of pride week, up here in western mass. These are some very colorful photo storage boxes from the container store, at a great price.

From MoMA, the snap-it-up organizer is a simple holder for your desktop photos (and any other items you want to keep handy). Made of acrylic board with six colorful rubber bands.

Canvas photo album holds 60 4×6 photos that fan out for quick flipping ($37). Comes in pink, red, orange and green.

Spectrum album set ($36), available at wishing fish.
“This set of six rainbow-hued photo albums provides the perfect excuse to finally print out those great digital pics! Each colorful cloth-covered volume holds twenty of your cutest 4×6 snapshots — one image on each red, yellow, orange, green, or blue page. If you’re organized, you can designate one album per vacation, happy event, or month of your baby’s life. Or you can just throw 120 of your favorite-pictures-ever in to the books willy-nilly. Either way, the punchy little photo library looks neat and sleek in its stand-up black case. Plus, your pics will be easily accessible — and 100% safe from nasty computer viruses.”

Reflection frame from UK scandinavian shop, skandium.

Cute little felt photo albums from who else but Target! These are decorated with stitched borders and embroidered designs (flower, café and cocktail) and can hold 28 4×6 photos.

This photo mirror from chiasso let’s you add your favorite photos right in the mirror. Holds eight 4″ x 6″ images ($78).

From the DIM brush and broom project, comes this brush frame. Yes it is a little strange. But the idea behind the project is about finding new uses and designs for a product made in a traditional way. Automation of brush production was making the brushes made by skilled blind workers too expensive, so these new designs were created to expand the market for brushes made by these workers. Online at bytrico (a japanese shop, so not sure if you can actually order online).

Also from bytrico, this clever frame with a level built right in as part of the design. Hang your pics perfectly every time.

This ‘brilliantly simple’ frame from marti guixe is made from adhesive tape with golden frame pattern, enabling you to rapidly set up a personal museum. This was originally presented in the exhibit do + droog design = do. Doesn’t seem to be available any more online, but I am still checking on where to buy.

albums from environment337. ultrasuede covers with botanical photographic patterns and contrast stitching. Holds 4×6 photos with memo area.

Just read about UK shop plümo over at Oh Joy! They have some vintage looking card holders that would make great photo holders, especially for those sepia toned portraits of your ancestors.

Kolo is one of my favorite sources for high quality, archival photo albums and storage supplies. Their newest addition is the amélie album, above, which has covers wrapped in textured European upholstery fabric on the exterior and soft fine-wale bengaline on the interior. Like many albums in the Kolo collection, the amélie is a post-bound album that can accept clear pocket pages, cloth hinged scrapbook pages, and (my favorite) inkjet pages for printing digital pictures directly on the album pages.

I also love the havana storage boxes, with their clean and simple design and a single pocket for a photo to identify what is inside the boxes.

I love the sleek curve and shape of this white wooden frame ($21) from bo concept. The black frame is a good deal, too ($18). And check out the brown and black glass frames ($23).

Happy Friday! And thanks to decor8, oh joy!, shelterrific, love made visible and funky finds for mentioning and linking to fototiller! Check out all these great blogs.

If you live near Charlotte, NC, Boston or San Francisco, take your mom out for a portrait on mother’s day weekend. These fund-raising events provide the opportunity to have your portrait taken by some amazing local commercial and fine art photographers and support your local photography organizations.

The light factory’s shoot out portrait session($150) raises money to support their mission:

• Help a child learning English use photography to express herself when words are challenging
• Support the exhibition of innovative photography from around the country and the world
• Assist in building Charlotte’s burgeoning film community

Closer to home (for me) is Boston’s mother’s day portrait extravaganza sponsored by the photographic resource center. The PRC is a non-profit organization dedicated to photographic education and presentation and they are very supportive of emerging photographers in the northeast. Portrait sessions are $95 for groups less than three and $145 for larger groups.

Finally, we have SF Camerawork’s portrait party. This is a much pricier option (starts at $450!), but the portraits are taken (and signed) by a nationally recognized fine art photographer (see their site for the full list of photographers).

Know of some other mother’s day portrait events like these? Post ‘em here in the comments so everyone can have a look!

Another great mom’s day gift. Flexible plastic bracelet that holds a tiny photo (3cm x 2cm) and comes in aqua, black, cactus and pink. Available from urbane.

Update: you can purchase these online for shipping in the US here for $7.50.

awesome. unconventional. doesn’t want pink flowers or chocolates for mother’s day. here we go – your momma is…

… a total rocker

Smoy brooklyn photo cuff ($25) and plush home leather studded frame ($98). (Sadly, rocker mom’s will have to wait a while for the studded frame as it takes a while to ship, so print the pic and give it to her in the meantime).

… the coolest geek

Hard copy? Forget it. Digital locket holds a USB memory drive; load it up with pictures of her favorite offspring. And the digital keychain keeps pics close at hand ($40). (Note: still looking on where to purchase the digital locket, but it was too cool not to post.)

… a super hero

She can do anything. Get her the actionsampler camera ($30) to capture her action packed days. With one shot she’ll get a series of four images on one print. And she can put her super hero pics in the wonder woman album ($11 from chronicle books).

Lockets used to be cool. These days, it’s hard to find ones that stand out from the crowd. Here are some picks for mother’s day.

Clockwise from top left: anonymous heart and oval locket ($22), juicy couture queen of couture locket with two picture slots ($95), modern photo locket from iluren ($180).

From left to right:

orly baruch locket ($368), lois hill granulated locket ($356) and orly baruch double charm locket ($198), all at nordstrom. locket hook necklace (and 10% donation of sale to PETA, $50), silver and glass locket that holds two photos from uncommon goods ($42), catherine popesco locket from splendor boutique in chicago ($58).

Check out photojojo’s 5 great photo gifts for mom, written by Priya from love made visible. Some fun finds. And stay tuned to fototiller for more mother’s day gift madness today.

More camera bags that aren’t black! Or at least aren’t all black. I first read about the conico bags on shiny shiny. Conico makes all styles of camera bags to house your digital point-and-shoot. I especially like the re-ignite collection, (sampling shown here). There is a compatability chart so you can look up and see if you are lucky enough to own a camera that can wear one of these bags.

Colorful camera case from moma store. No more boring black camera bags!
“This attractive case is designed for carrying digital cameras, and roomy enough to hold keys and a card case. Two detachable straps—a wristlet and a cross-shoulder strap—make it easy to transport and leave hands free. The black and red cases are made of pebbled leather. The pink case is fashioned of a denser pebbled Italian leather. Flat magnetic closure.”

Suede albums made from photo transferred fabric patterns. In cream, above, and also green and blue.

Cool pivot frame from todd oldham for lazy boy. Rotating solid beech wood frame holds photos up to 9×9. And it’s square!

photo from todd oldham site

I first saw this great polaroid album on swiss miss. I hate how hard it is to find photo albums with precut mat openings to display your photos, so I love that you can just slide your pictures right into this album. And there is a new album for digital 4×6 prints, also with prematted sleeves. The polaroid kit is perfect for the upcoming wedding season and would make a great shower gift, too. If you already have a polaroid camera, you can also buy just the album.

Looking through foster’s site, I spotted some new umbra products now available. The alma photo album is covered in felt with exposed seam detail and looks like a cozy little home for you photos. The remix frames are from Umbra’s U+ studio line, designed by Michelle Ivanovic and Stuart Li. Silkscreened on birch plywood, and shocking pink, available in 4×6, 5×7, multi, and wall styles.

The bookend picture frame from Josh Owen in baked enamel on steel is a bargain at $12 a pair. Get it at foster’s.

Glam it up! Smoy chelsea cuffs now available in glitter.

This empress album from shanghai tang is pricey ($115), but I love the cover art. So warhol meets ming. And sometimes your photos are cyring out for some loud, colorful designs on their frames. Mix in the round enamelled frames and this enamelled cloud frame to punch up your photo displays.

Red camper bags, designed by Maura Gramzinski, are made from vintage, original slides from 1939-99. Seven styles to choose from, each with it’s own naked lady “are you paying attention” slide. Not only are slides recycled, the rubber handle is, too. Got a box of slides collecting dust? Get your own custom bag made. And if you just want to recycle your slides, you can email for info on sending them in for a new life as a bag. Available online at indie shopper, snazzy girl and etsy.

The wallter wall applications have been around for a while now, but it took me this long to figure out that the rectangular ones double as picture frames. These are a great idea for displaying photos – exchange the pictures whenever you want, they just pop right out, no glass to deal with. Got a hot date and don’t want aunt millie looking over your shoulder? Take your pictures out and you’re left with a mod wall decoration. Wallter can be painted any color and arranged in any design. Not so great for all you apartment dwellers, though, the frames stick to the wall with adhesive and may damage the surface if removed. Available at wallter and 2modern.

Thanks to Holly over at decor8 for posting about fototiller! Check out the jam-packed design blog for some great design finds and a super resource listing of design shops.

From the red hot shop, target’s photo cube radio. Holds four 3×3.5 pics and comes in white, orange, mint green or blue. Totally rocks. Literally.