Happy New Year 2010

Photograph by Toby Melville

Wishing you and your family the best for 2010!

Check out more celebrations from around the world on the The Big Picture.

We choose the moon

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has launched a new website to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing and President Kennedy’s grand vision that made that achievement possible. The goal of the site is to allow visitors to experience the Apollo 11 mission in real time, utilizing archival photographs, video, audio and "real time" transmissions.

The site is really well done and a wonderful way for children (and adults) to experience this moment in history.

The site is live now, with the launch of Apollo 11 scheduled for July 16 at 9:32 am (EST), exactly forty years after the first launch. There will real time updates throughout the mission, which you can even receive on the website or via Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

I (Heart) NY

Photograph by Todd Heisler

The New York Times has a beautiful series of photo essays about some of the characters that make New York great. Each profile is accompanied by audio from interviews with the featured New Yorker. It is a wonderful example of the storytelling power of black and white photography.

Livingston Park Grand Opening Pictures

After eighteen months of planning, fundraising, and construction, the newly renovated Livingston Park in Long Beach finally opened last week. Nearly 1000 people attended the grand opening, fitting for the project which was a real community effort (lead by the dedicated Tot Lot Committee). It was so fun to witness our neighborhood come together in support of children, family, play and community. We are thankful to be a part of this community.









I don't think it was planned to have the local flock of parakeets fly over just before the ribbon cutting, but it was so fitting - like releasing doves, but with a sound that foreshadowed the children at play.

1474 Megapixel Inauguration Picture

President Barack Obama's 2009 Inaugural Address
Photograph by David Bergman

Think of this picture as the Google Earth of the 2009 inauguration. Click the link above or the image, then zoom in, pan around, explore, be a fly on the "wall."

2008 in Pictures

Kartoula, 14, a refugee from Sudan's western Darfur region, enters a distribution centre to receive monthly food rations at Djabal camp near Gos Beida in eastern Chad, June 5, 2008
Photograph by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

The Big Picture is one of my favorite sites for viewing photojournalism online. Below are links to their look back at the past year in pictures. As Alan Taylor, the editor of The Big Picture, points out "it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. It's not the story of 2008, it's certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months."
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Caution: Some images are graphic in nature and are not appropriate for all ages.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, New York, 1941
Photographed by John Phillips

From the archives of LIFE magazine.

Google Life

Children at the Guignol puppet show, Parc de Montsouris, Paris, 1963
Photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt

No doubt, looking at the black and white photojournalism in Life magazine when I was a child inspired my future career and the style of my work. Google has a new feature that allows you to search through millions of images from the archives of LIFE magazine. One of my early favorite photographers was (and still is), Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Images from the 2008 Olympics

Copyright Streeter Lecka/Getty Images


Copyright Mike Hewitt/Getty Images


Copyright Adam Pretty/Getty Images

There are lots of places to see pictures from the Olympics, but what makes The Big Picture unique is the lack of advertising and other clutter, and the size of the images. They are BIG, which seems especially fitting when considering the scale of the event. Check out images from the Opening Ceremonies, women's fencing, highlights and the Closing Ceremonies


Finnish photographer, Kari Kuukka, created some interesting panoramas combined with ambient sounds of Beijing. Pan around the images using your mouse, to get a sense of what it was like to be there.