The Amazing Stuff

Taking photos at sunset is nothing new. After all, with all the gorgeous colors and textures in the sky, it’s the perfect backdrop for any picture. The only thing you have to worry about getting lost in the back light.

But if you’re John Marshall, back light is your best friend. Marshall, a TV producer and author, was living alone on an island in Maine for 30 days. He decided to use his free time to start a project, and to do so, all he needed was some cardboard and a few beautiful Maine sunsets.

Mars House of Pizza

“When Mars House of Pizza says ‘WE DELIVER ANYWHERE,’ they mean it.”

Marshall made three rules for himself when he started this undertaking:

1. He couldn’t have help, and had only the 10 seconds of the camera’s self-timer to compose the shot.


2. He could only make props from materials found in his cabin.


3. He could only use tools available in the cabin to do so.

So nothing fancy ever came anywhere near this project. He found reference material on the Internet, and then he simply cut out some shapes and headed to the beach. We’ve included Marshall’s own captions under each photo, because he’s funnier than we are.

The Chameleon

“While I was watching the sunset tonight, I couldn’t stop blinking. ‘Hey. Do I have something in my eye?’ I asked Keith, my chameleon friend. ‘Yeah,’ Keith said. ‘It’s a bug.’ ‘Can you get it out?’ I asked.”

The Flamingo

“‘In the yoga world, we call this the Standing Tree Pose,’ I said. ‘Oh, in the flamingo world, we call this standing,’ the flamingo replied.”

The Frog Date

“I was about to tell the waiter about the big fly in my soup when my date cleared her throat. ‘Are you gonna eat that?’ she asked.”

The Gorilla

“Today, I was enjoying a sunset banana down by the lake when the most amazing thing happened. All of a sudden, this warm breeze started blowing across my neck, and it smelled just like bananas, too.”

The Grizzly Bear

“When the grizzly bear said he had a frog in his throat, I didn’t know I’d need to reach in and rescue it.”

The Kayak Horse

“For anyone who has ever wondered if their horse would make a good kayak partner…I wouldn’t count on it. Mine didn’t pick up his paddle once.”

The Mermaid

“When I finally got up the nerve to approach the beautiful mermaid down on the beach, a friend suggested I bring her a bouquet of roses. But I had a better idea.”

The Ring Toss

“I can’t think of a better way to wind down at the end of the day than with a little Rhino Ring Toss. For anyone interested, all you need is a rhinoceros and a ring, and you’re good to go.”

The Shark

“Enough with the begging. This is why you do not feed pets at the table.”

Troll Haircut

“The problem with Troll Haircut Day is the brutal monotony of it all. ‘Tapered to a point?’ I asked for the 74th time.”

And here’s the reverse angle!

Not as epic, but totally adorable.

(via BoredPanda)

You can see many more of Marshall’s images on his website, along with some of his other creative endeavors.They’re also on Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr.

But Marshall does more than take hilarious shadow pictures. He’s also the author of a new book, Wide-Open World, which tells of his family’s adventures as they travel the world volunteering. You can purchase it on his website, too.

Two years ago, at the age of 19, photographer Edward Honaker was diagnosed with depression. The news came after a frightening and disorienting experience of losing who he used to be. “All I knew is that I became bad at the things I used to be good at, and I didn’t know why,” he explained in an interview with the Huffington Post.

Everyone deals with depression, clinical or otherwise, in a different way, and no two experiences are the same. So when faced with his diagnosis, Honaker did what he loved most: he picked up his camera.

He developed a series of surreal self portraits that attempt to capture his feelings while going through depression.

The images are unsettling in their dreamlike atmosphere. We can relate to his feeling of loss, unease, and worry, because we’ve probably all felt this way at some point.

In many of the images, Honaker’s face is obscured or distorted, reflecting the loss of self he felt while depressed.

“Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary,” he says.

The images are uncomfortable, but there’s also a solace in knowing that someone else may be having the same feelings.

Honaker hopes that these images, even though they deal with a dark subject, will help people be more able and willing to talk about mental illness and to be more empathetic and accepting towards those struggling with it.

Honaker even says that through creating this series, he’s become more empathetic himself.

“I’ve still got quite a ways to go, but the whole experience made me a lot more patient and empathetic towards others,” he says.

He also hopes that for those dealing with their own illness, the photos can be a way of letting them know they’re not alone.

“It’s kind of hard to feel any kind of emotion when you’re depressed, and I think good art can definitely move people,” Honaker says.

(via Bored Panda)

Honaker’s focus on depression is also important for men, in particular, as they’re statistically less likely to speak up about or seek help for mental illness issues or suicidal thoughts. Remember, if you or someone you love is struggling, please seek help!

You can see more of Honaker’s work, including some cheerier subjects, on his website, Tumblr, and Instagram.

The hustle and bustle of urban (and suburban) life can get to you after a while. You start to feel crowded, hemmed in by the people, the noise, the traffic, and the buildings. Sometimes you just need to get away from it all. But that’s not always a realistic option.

So we’re here to present a vicarious alternative: the work of Tiina Törmänen, a Finnish photographer who captures the vast, icy beauty of the Arctic tundra. There, human contact is rare and the sky looms huge and distant.

Her shots capture the wild, but fragile, beauty of the region, but also the immense sense of solitude the place brings.

While the shots of the landscape alone are enough to conjure the feeling of solitude, Törmänen goes the extra step by incorporating lone human figures into her photos.

These are self-portraits, taken with a timer, revealing that when shooting, Törmänen herself is all alone in this gorgeous but unforgiving land.

But the sense of being alone isn’t frightening or unpleasant.

Instead, it’s meditative and awe-inspiring, and reminds us that while humans are a massive force, we’re still very small compared to our planet.

The photos were taken in Sapmi, also known as Lapland, a region in the northernmost areas of Scandinavia and western Russia.

Because this region is relatively unpopulated, pollution is minimal, allowing millions of stars to be visible.

Even during the day, though, the landscape is still majestic.

(via Twisted Sifter)

You can see much more of Törmänen’s beautiful photography on her website, as well as on her Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Behance pages.

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When you think of a young woman creating self portraits, maybe you immediately start picturing selfies snapped with a phone. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the self portraits of Hungarian artist Noell Oszvald are a little bit different. Instead of simply capturing what’s on the outside, these images capture an interior landscape using stark black-and-white and stylized geometry.

The results are strikingly surreal images that immediately evoke complex moods.

They’re at once classic and modern.

Oszvald incorporates the surrounding geometry of her setting with her own body, creating strange blends of human and architectural forms.

In the images, Oszvald’s body becomes less a human form and more a series of abstract shapes.

Although they look it, these images are not actually single photographs.

Rather, they are composites of several photos, which Oszvald assembles “like a jigsaw puzzle.” Because of this, she doesn’t consider herself a photographer, and says that she simply uses photographs as the basis for her compiled pieces.

The images are all created in post-processing, and are rarely, if ever, planned out beforehand. Most of them are created spontaneously.

Though they’re created on the fly, they still managed to have a staid, contemplative feeling.

Unlike many self-portraits, few of the images actually show Oszvald’s face.

Instead, she captures her interior self through subtle poses, gestures, and the setting.

(via Colossal)

You can see more of Oszvald’s work on her website, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr.

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