One of my favorite things to do is to poke around the photo site Flickr. There are so many amazing old photographs there — down the rabbit hole I go. A wonderful new addition to the community is the UK’s National Archive. They are just getting started and only have about 200+ photos uploaded so far, but there is already some really great stuff in there. I pulled out a selection of favorites for your enjoyment and posted them below. If you are seeking nostalgia and inspiration, click on over. [National Archives UK on Flickr]

11 Comments

My obsession for Flickr took a serious back seat to the thousands of great images that emerged through the massive Life archive. Over the Memorial Day weekend I spent a fair amount of time mining the Flickr, working my way through a good swath of the Smithsonian’s image collection. One of my favorite images is “the first day of airmail” which is pictured below. This photo sparked a full-on Postal Service set and the Flickr Find is back!

7 Comments

While I’m generally very turned off by HDR images, I have been obsessed as of late with tilt-shift miniature faking. The effect makes normal images look like perfectly composed models. Some beautiful examples below.

25 Comments

Aluminum trees, tinsel, wrapping paper, overflowing stockings and boxes everywhere. A peek into Christmas past in full Kodachrome color. Merry Christmas to all of you out there. Hope you got everything you wanted. —ACL

7 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

If you look around, there are buildings with old painted signs all over the place. New York’s former warehousing district of TriBeCa is loaded with them. Although most of the buildings have been converted into luxury apartments now. Smart developers leave the signs intact to give the buildings a nice historic look. You can also see a lot of this sort of painted sign advertising on “Main Street” brick buildings throughout the middle west and south. Some favorite painted signs are below. Enjoy!

13 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

The Oyster Bar in Grand Central is one of my all time favorite things about New York. The restaurant has been serving seafood — there under the train station — since Woodrow Wilson was in office. Having a solo lunch (including one or two bottles of Brooklyn Lager) at the midtown spot is one of my most treasured and sacred rituals.

12 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

The Faroe Islands are a group of picturesque islands in Northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. The small collection of Nordic lands could be the most beautiful place on earth. Add this to my list of places to visit.

8 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

From Wikipedia:

A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanised iron having a semicircular cross section. The design was based on the Nissen hut developed by the British during World War I. In 1941 the United States Navy needed an all-purpose, lightweight building that could be shipped anywhere and assembled without skilled labor. The George A. Fuller construction company was selected to manufacture them. The first was produced within 60 days of contract award. Between 150,000-170,000 Quonset huts were manufactured during World War II. After the war, the U.S. military sold the surplus Quonset huts to the public for $1,000 each.

3 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

Aaron Draplin, the designer and lover of all things Americana, picked up a great looking boaters guide at a swap meet in Portland for a quarter. Score! If you are not familiar with Mr. Draplin, he is one of the coolest guys out there — makes me proud to be an American. I always find interesting things on his blog or on his Flickr. Well done sir, well done.

The entire set of images can be seen here.

2 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

Is America going to hell in a handbasket? Credit crisis, financial disaster, risky derivatives, bail out, Wall Street sticking it to Main Street? Take solace in good old pre-1962 America in color. Back when George Bailey was saving Bedford Falls and the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association. The entire photo pool can be seen here, which should keep you from checking your 401K balance.

12 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

While browsing the Coudal website this morning I came across this beautiful set of images of typewriter ribbon tins. The packaging and sheer variety make the tins fun to look at, plus the the little metal containers would be the perfect object to start a collection of. Keep that in mind for your next trip to the flea market. The complete set of images can be seen here.

5 Comments

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

Love it or hate it the Full English breakfast is, in a word, badass. I stumbled across this set of full English images by the Brighton, England based photographer Kevin Meredith, and had to post them. New Yorkers can get a full English at The Red Lion or The London Bar. Once you’ve had your brekie, you can get an angioplasty here.

The complete set of images.

12 Comments