OK, this has got to be the creepiest story I’ve read in a long, long time:

Ruth Palmer, whose married name is Graves, is a 25-year-old account manager for a multinational firm. Originally from Brighton, she now lives in Dubai with her husband. She’s pretty, happy, and has a tight-knit group of friends. She has the sort of life many people would want for themselves. As it turns out, someone did.

Between the start of 2012 and January 2015, “Leah Palmer” stole more than 900 pictures from Ruth’s private Instagram account, and uploaded them as if they were her own. Leah had a Facebook page, several Twitter accounts, and even a Tinder account – all in Leah’s name, all using Ruth’s pictures. She would switch from one Twitter account to another without warning; the accounts would switch from public to private, apparently at random.

Ruth knew nothing until a university friend told her one night in January: “Have you seen this picture of you on Instagram? The picture belongs to you but this is a person called Leah.”

Online identity theft is very real and, in some cases, can go very far. This whole affair is a bit terrifying, to be honest.

Via The Newsprint.

Great piece by Vashi Nedomansky on the use of clever storytelling techniques to create Mad Max: Fury Road:

One of the many reasons MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is so successful as an action film is the editing style. By using “Eye Trace” and “Crosshair Framing” techniques during the shooting, the editor could keep the important visual information vital in one spot… the Center of the Frame. Because almost every shot was center framed, comprehending the action requires no hunting of each new shot for the point of interest. The viewer doesn’t need 3 or 4 frames to figure out where to look. It’s like watching an old hand-drawn flip book whiz by. The focus is always in the same spot!

I can’t tell you how much I hate movies that try to appear cool by editing action sequences by piecing together a million half-second vague, unclear shots. Unless they’re extremely well done, which is rare, those scenes tend to be a mess. All Bourne movies except for the very first one were ruined for me because of this, so I’m happy to see the new Mad Max movie is going in another direction.

Jenn Stanley, writing for Next City:

Unlike other cities that currently have or are building protected bike lanes, this is the first time a city in the U.S. is building a fully protected intersection.

The city hopes that in addition to aiding cyclists, the new lane will increase local commerce. The area will also feature murals by local artists.

Sounds like a very smart move. Check this video detailing the intersection:

Good advice by Julius Motal at The Phoblographer:

Belligerence towards an unwilling subject in street photography is at the very least unwarranted and deeply disrespectful. It signifies a disconnect, a lack of empathy, which ultimately affects the image and the photographer. Frustration is a very real and natural thing to feel, but when a photograph goes untaken, it’s gone. Nothing can really be done about it, and when someone signals that they want no part of it, it’s best to let it go.

Good photography is predicated on respect for your craft, for your peers, and most importantly for your subject. How you carry yourself and your camera on the street ultimately affects each image you try to make. If you’re aggressive with your camera, people will be inclined to defend themselves. Aggressiveness doesn’t necessarily mean exaggerated actions. It can be subtle. How you react to someone who objects will determine how the rest of the interaction goes.

I never feel anger towards my subjects, but I’m no stranger to feeling frustrated with myself. In my case, it’s often due to me hesitating a split second too long before pressing the shutter release. By the time I muster up the courage to take the picture, the moment is usually gone. The feeling of knowing you could have taken a great image but you were too indecisive to go for it is very real and can frustrate the hell out of many budding photographers. I suppose I’ll get better at judging these situations and going for more shots as I spend more and more time shooting in the streets but for now, when in doubt, I still prefer to err on the side of caution.

Another great piece by Ben. The Brooks family is on fire lately:

How is that not retirement?

If Ive is a driven man — meaning he is not content to sit on a beach everyday — and I have every reason to believe that he is certainly not that person, then is that not retirement to be able to design anything you want at the world’s biggest company?

Is it not retirement for him to step away from his duties, travel when, and for as long as, he wants, and still come back to design whatever he wants? If he so feels the need, or urge, to make a phone he still can. If he wants to make that chair, or mug, he now can.

It hadn’t occurred to me to look at the announcement this way, but it makes perfect sense. Ive is dictating his own terms now, and it will be incredibly interesting to see where this newfound freedom takes him.

Interesting observation by Dan Moren, writing at Six Colors:

But more to the point, not a single person on my trip commented on the Apple Watch. Despite my generally wearing short-sleeved shirts, which left the Watch clearly visible, I’ve concluded that most people’s brains simply register something worn on the wrist as a watch, and don’t bother giving it much further attention. (I’d also guess that as the Apple Watch isn’t on sale in Portugal—a country which doesn’t have any Apple Stores—there just isn’t much awareness of it as a product.)

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the Apple Watch wasn’t really any more of an opportunity theft than your average nice wristwatch. In fact, it’s arguably less attractive in many cases, given that mine is not made from gold, and is far less valuable—and, to be honest, once parted with me, less usable—than an expensive luxury watch.

One of the worst parts of being an early adopter of Apple devices is that you can get a lot of unwanted attention in the first few months and judging by what other reviewers have said, the Apple Watch appeared to be no different in that regard. I’m happy to see that this is not the case for everyone, or perhaps not the case everywhere.

However, there’s one caveat to this: the Apple Watch hasn’t been released in Portugal yet, so there’s no reason for people to be on the lookout for it. The real question is whether this apparent lack of interest will still be the norm after the watch hits Portuguese stores.

Third and final chapter of Josh Ginter’s May Long Weekend trip to Vancouver. Lots of cool stuff in this one, too.

Great piece by Alok Jha for The Guardian:

Water breaks all the rules. Since the 19th century, chemists have developed a robust framework to describe what liquids are and what they can do. Those ideas are almost useless at explaining the weird behaviour of water. Its strangeness underlies what happens every time you drop an ice cube into a drink. Think about it for a moment: in front of you is a solid, floating on its liquid. Solid wax doesn’t float on melted wax; solid butter doesn’t float on melted butter in a hot saucepan; rocks don’t float on lava when it spews out of a volcano.

Via Tools & Toys.

Beautiful post by Erin Brooks:

Having a 1 and a 3 year old at home means we aren’t doing as much travel as we’d like these days, although we do try to get out for quick local trips in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. A couple of weekends ago, we took our girls and went on a day trip to the Olympic National Park, and spent some time hiking Hurricane Ridge.

I love Erin’s eye for photography. The way she captures the natural beauty of the landscape — and her family — is amazing.

Google has released more details about the upcoming Google Photos on their official blog:

Google Photos gives you a single, private place to keep a lifetime of memories, and access them from any device. They’re automatically backed up and synced, so you can have peace of mind that your photos are safe, available across all your devices.

And when we say a lifetime of memories, we really mean it. With Google Photos, you can now backup and store unlimited, high-quality photos and videos, for free. We maintain the original resolution up to 16MP for photos, and 1080p high-definition for videos, and store compressed versions of the photos and videos in beautiful, print-quality resolution. For all the storage details, visit our help center.

And also:

If you want to give Google Photos a whirl, it will be available later today across Android, iOS and the web. With this launch we’ve made a lot of progress towards eliminating many of the frustrations involved in storing, editing and sharing your memories. But we have a lot more in store—so as you keep snapping photos and capturing videos, we’ll keep working on making them even easier to store, share and bring to life.