As I see it one of the main reasons to blog about photography is to help other people stumble across amazing photography and inspirational photographers. That’s why one of the categories on this site is Inspirational Photography – it’s the place to bookmark if you want to see what we’ve discovered recently.
Today I’ve stumbled across this TEDtalk by photographer Frans Lanting:
Mr Lanting narrates over a slide-show of his photographs of stromatolites (click play on the video to see these structures and their interesting patterns) and the landscapes that surround them. (Please note that TEDtalks videos are released under Creative Commons.)
Sources of Inspiration
For those of us who spend out days photographing beautiful young things (and not so beautiful, not so young things!), to see the work of photographers whose days are so totally different to ours is not only interesting but helps broaden our experience. It’s astounding where we can gain inspiration and I’ve found that taking every opportunity to view photography of all genres only helps with the generation of ideas and inspiration.
As an example of how you can pick up ideas from just about anywhere, watch the video and tell me that you haven’t thought of an idea for a new background for your portraits or a Photoshop texture!
How Stromatolites are Formed
Looking at the Wikipedia article on stromatolites it appears that they are structures that are formed when the gooey substances secreted by bacteria trap and glue together grains of mud and sand to form structures which grow upward out of the land around them. These structures can vary in size and shape. The fossil record indicates that in ancient times stromatolites were more abundant than they are today.
The wikipedia article shows photographs of stromatolites in various locations around the world. Here is one example:
If you’re interested in the technical stuff about the bacteria and the types of stromatolites, and to see more photographs: check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite