Have a lovely weekend.

My dad is visiting this weekend, and we're going sailing! Have a great weekend, dear readers. (Photo by Elijah Gowen)

Bird carafes

Now, dear readers, we've reached the end of falling/flying week. I leave you with the cute set of blown-glass carafes shaped like mother and baby birds (sent to me, fittingly, by my mother). It might be sweet to bring them out with red wine (mama) and white wine (baby). By Italian design company Dovetusai.

Model Cities

Don't these look like model cities? Amazingly, they're actually real. Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri shoots from helicopters, but to create the plastic-y look, he uses a tilt-shift lens, which allows him to control exactly what's in focus. "Like in a written page, we don’t read [it as an] image but one line at a time," Barbieri says here. We loved his work so much that we featured it in the first issue of baby Bene.

Splish Splash

Etsy seller Leumie has created six different prints, which combine playful, vintage-style illustration with photos of the Australian coast. What's the deal with this cool diving guy? I was going to email the designers to ask, but then figured that it's kind of nicer to imagine your own story.
(via ma vie en rose)

Flying Cuties

Whoot Whoot You're Cute ponytail holders by magpies nest, $3.50
Rebecca bird by Ann Wood, $44

25 floors and counting...

People with a fear of heights, look away! For brave readers, however, here's a vertigo-inducing shot from Chinese photographer Liwei, who could quite easily qualify as the weirdest photographer ever. (Seriously, how did he pull off this shot? That dude totally fell to his death.) Check out Liwei's nutty portfolio here.
(via I Heart Photograph)

Even the dishes are flying

Esther Derkx geniously added images of dancers and athletes to old-school cups and saucers. I love the movement of these images--especially the divers. They would be a bright inspiration on mornings when you're still half-asleep and groggy...
(via Happy Cavalier)

Project Runway

I fly alone a lot when I go to visit friends or family. These pictures immediately bring back that feeling of quietly looking out the window, a little sleepy, a little pensive, watching the planes move around, settling in for a few hours of flight. I'm not in love with all of Michael Neff's shots (some seem flat and almost technical), but these window views do a nice job conjuring up that feeling of calm. Also cool are Zoe Crosher's shots from hotel rooms around LAX here.

Bird's Eye View

New York Times photographer Vincent Laforet takes these amazing shots of New York City from helicopters--an exciting but tricky task. The helicopter's skids and rotors are unpredictable and can get in the way of good shots, he says: "Sometimes everything is moving so fast, you can't really see what you're shooting, and you just hope you get one good frame in there." And don't overestimate the helicopter's stability. Laforet's advice? "Never lean out in the wind."

Little Bird Vase

Doesn't this little bird vase make you smile?

Watch your step

I love the grey weather and banal Euro buildings in Denis Darzacq's shots of people falling. The understated settings make the photographs seem straightforward and engaging instead of gimmicky. Apparently, after the Parisian riots in the fall of 2005, Darzacq created this series to show how life is always hanging in a "precarious balance." Apart from their political statement, though, they are also just fun and awesome to look at.

Falling and Flying

I'm oddly fascinated by flying and falling. Maybe it's because flying and falling images have such awesome movement and energy. Maybe it's because flying brings up superpower fantasies. Maybe it's because Peter Pan was such a huge part of my childhood. Whatever it is, this week is all about flying and falling. Get psyched! (May seem like a random theme choice, but there's some cool stuff coming up!)

(Photo by Corey Arnold.)