Photographer Iain Macmillan shot the iconic image of The Beatles crossing the street for the 1969 album cover, “Abbey Road”. At around 11:30 that morning, Mr. Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up the traffic. Mr. Macmillan’s other shots from that day in 1969 – the ones that didn’t make the cut – show just how tricky it can be in getting such a simple shot to look ‘just right’.

View live webcam of the actual crosswalk on Abbey Road HERE

Abbey Road
Side One
1. Come Together Lennon
2. “Something” Harrison
3. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” McCartney
4. “Oh!Darling!” McCartney
5. “Octopus’s Garden” Starr
6. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” Lennon

Side Two
1. “Here Comes The Sun” Harrison
2. “Because” Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison
3. “You Never Give Me Your Money” McCartney
4. “Sun King” Lennon, with McCartney and Harrison
5. “Mean Mr. Mustard” Lennon
6. “Polythene Pam” Lennon
7. “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” McCartney
8. “Golden Slumbers” McCartney
9. “Carry That Weight” McCartney with Lennon, Harrison, and Starr
10. “The End” McCartney
11. “Her Majesty” McCartney

Thin slab of Brazilian agate
(12x)

Inclusions of goethite and hematite in Brazilian agate
(30x)

Growth steps on the face of a quartz crystal
(40x)

Inclusions of pyrolusite and limonite in a polished slab of Brazilian agate
(14x)

See more of Mr. Koivula’s images HERE

Human Statue of Liberty, 1918 at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, IA
Arthur’s great nephew Joseph Mole, 70, says: “In the picture of the Statue of Liberty there are 18,000 men: 12,000 of them in the torch alone, but just 17 at the base. The men at the top of the picture are actually half a mile away from the men at the bottom.”

Living Portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, 1918
Formed of 21,000 officers and men at Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio

The Human U.S. Shield, 1918
Formed of 30,000 men at Camp Custer, Battle Creek, MI

See more of Mole & Thomas HERE

Photo by Joel Sternfeld
McLean, Virginia
December 1978

Look closely at Joel Sternfeld’s iconic American photo. What on earth is going on in this scene? One thing is for sure: this scene is not staged.

Some guesses that we’ve received:

1.  There is no hope for the house and the fireman is just biding time while the house burns to the ground.

2.  The fireman inhaled too much smoke and is taking a breather.

3.  The fire fighting crew lost a tool and the fireman is looking for a heavy object to break a hole in the roof to help fight the fire.

4.  The fireman is the chief and is letting his crew finish up the job.

5.  The fireman got distracted and went to snag some pumpkins for his family.

Scroll over the photo for the answer.

See more of Mr. Sternfeld’s photos HERE

See the full version HERE
See more of Mr. Mackley’s adventures (cyclones, mudslides and other disasters) HERE

“On Aug 24th 2012 we sent my son’s favorite train “Stanley” to space in a weather balloon with a HD camera and an old cell phone for GPS. He was recovered 27 miles away in a corn field. This video documents the journey from liftoff to landing.”

Mr. Fugelseth’s weather balloon reached a high point of 18 miles above the earth which is just short of one-third the distance to the Karman line (the “official” boundary of Earth and space).

Supply List:
-600gram weather balloon
-Motorola i290 Prepaid Cellphone (which stopped working for 4 hours in the air, not the best device, but it’s light)
-Video camera, Kodak zi6 (this did surprisingly well for being only 720p and cost $40)
-3 Foot parachute
-Foam core box I remade 3 times
-Home made radar reflector
-Micro beacon (alarm basically) for model rockets
-Hand warmers to keep the batteries from freezing

“..I called the FAA 15 minutes before launch (per their instructions) so they could make sure no planes fly into the flight path. I read and followed all their rules for weather balloon launches. It had a homemade radar reflector, and a 3 foot parachute.

Second, the box was only 2 pounds and made of foam core, with a wooden dowel to hold Stanley in front of the camera. I spent two months monitoring the winds with this website http://weather.uwyo.edu/polar/balloon_traj.html to pinpoint the general area that he would land. For safety, I launched him from a location that I knew would bring him down into farm land. The prediction website was only 5-10 miles off, so he landed safely in a corn field, far away from any towns.”

Find more updates on Mr. Fugelseth’s Facebook page

A dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus) at the Sunset Zoo.

National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore goes behind the scenes at zoos and rescue centers in order to capture portraits of endangered animals. He tells NPR: “I’m the only studio portrait photographer I know whose subjects routinely poop and pee on the background right in front of me.”

Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) at the Sunset Zoo.

Gray gibbons (Hylobates muelleri) at the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Illinois.

Venomous snakes at the Fort Worth Zoo.

The Miller Park Zoo’s bobcat (Lynx rufus).

Half of the world’s plant and animal species will soon be threatened with extinction and this keeps Mr. Sartore busy. With over 1,800 portraits already taken, Mr. Sartore has a goal to photograph 6,000 different animal species total, all of who are on the verge of becoming extinct. See the completed photos and support Mr. Sartore’s Biodiversity Project HERE.

“If you think about the stuff I’m photographing here, it’s mainly ghosts. It’s all ghosts. Just little remnants. Just little bitty pockets of wildlife. That’s all that’s left.” “..for most of my job, it’s just little remnants, little scraps of what used to be. I’m just photographing the last of everything. Whether it’s wolves or grizzly bears or rhinos, jaguars or parrots in South America. It’s the last of everything I’m photographing. It’s really kind of tragic.” [via]

As serious as this all is, there is also a comical side to working with the animals. Not everyone is interested in having their portrait taken, like this chimpanzee here:

Hazina the chimp stuck just her head and arms into the enclosure very slowly and cautiously.

With a single, swift wave of her arm, she ripped the 7-by-12-foot background right off the wall and floor like it was nothing.

She then pulled the entire backdrop through the tiny entrance doorway.

The only shots taken were of her destroying the set.

Moments later, Hazina poked her head back in to survey her handiwork.

Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg have put a sophisticated twist on the traditional animated GIF. They have coined and copyrighted the term “Cinemagraph” which is essentially a still photograph with moving elements. Their images are more than a photo, but not quite a video. Ms. Beck explains that “An animated GIF is usually a sequence of stills pulled from video, animated art, or other imagery that is repurposed into a GIF. What we do is different because it’s a traditional still photograph with a moment living within it.”

See more Cinemagraphs HERE

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Check out a short history of Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium from PBSarts:

A woman opens the door to her Mercedes on Sacramento Street while horses killed by falling rubble lie in the street.

A bicyclist rides towards the fallen Valencia St. Hotel and a huge sinkhole that has opened up in the street.

Cars travel down S. Van Ness, which has buckled after the quake.

Horse carriages and cars park in front of Lafayette Park while a destroyed city looms in the background.

See more of Mr. Clover’s photos HERE

See more of Mr. Charland’s photos HERE

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Next time life gives you lemons – make light! Here’s an infographic on making batteries with everday things from MAKE Magazine: