This Woman Restored An Old Van To Make All Her Traveling Dreams Come True

Marina Piro wanted to travel the world with her rescue dog Odie, but she couldn’t find the right van to travel with. After a little bit of searching she decided that the best thing to do would be to build one herself.
More info: InstagramPamthevan
“The main reason why I chose to be travelling by van was that I wanted to have Odie with me. A van seemed the most viable option. Too many bus, train, plane companies do not accept dogs, not to mention the difficulties you might have to find a suitable accommodation. Despite being the most practical solution, van life with a dog can be difficult at times and you must consider various aspects of it before throwing yourself into it,” she said.
























MontageNewCities


A good city, like a good wine, needs time to develop. As any Civilization-playing geek knows, it takes decades or centuries to turn a cluster of villages into a living, breathing metropolis. It cannot happen overnight. Or can it? Here are 12 urban centres that offer a radical alternative to the traditional model of urban development – they are brand new, fully-working cities from the first day they open for business.



King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia


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(Image via: King Abdullah Economic City)

Saudi Arabia, as you may be aware, is not short on cash. It is therefore unsurprising that its king (Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud) can afford to put $80 billion on the table to finance a new city in his name that will hold an incredible 2 million people.


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(Image via: King Abdullah Economic City)

Eventually covering 150 square miles – core plus suburbs – on the edge of the Red Sea and just an hour away from Mecca, the spiritual centre of the Islamic world, King Abdullah Economic City appears to lack nothing but a sexy name. It will house one of the largest sea ports in the world, it will provide over a million jobs (desperately important for the future of a country where 40% of the population is currently under 15 years old) – and if construction sticks to schedule, it will be complete by 2020. Truly amazing.


Treasure Island, San Francisco Bay Area


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(Images via: Inhabitat)

Named after Robert Louis Stevenson’s swashbuckling adventure novel (arrrr, that it be!), Treasure Island is yielding a different type of gold these days. The island is an entirely artificial construction built during the 1930s, and its massive derelict aircraft hangers have proved a popular resource for film-makers. A lively history – but soon to be entirely eclipsed by its redevelopment as a sustainably designed eco-city, incorporating an organic farm, wind turbines and a wastewater treatment plant. Most ingenious of all, the streets will all be realigned to minimize their exposure to the brunt of the wind, keeping residential energy bills as low as possible.


Songdo, South Korea


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(Images via: Songdo IBD)

New Songdo City is much more than an agreement between designers and developers, accompanied by flashy computer models and artistic renditions…it’s rising higher every day. Perched atop 1,500 acres of reclaimed land, the city is designed with one overriding purpose in mind, as announced on its entrance gates: “Welcome: we will change the face of business“. With 80,000 apartments and 60 million square feet of office and retail space, it may be no idle boast. The $40 billion development will open in 2015 – and will probably only attract residents with deep pockets, as the average apartment will cost half a million dollars.


Waterfront City, Dubai


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(Image via: OMA)

It goes without saying that ultra-wealthy Dubai has a new city in the works. It is at the centre of a development made of artificial islands and canals called Waterfront, the design-work of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. With a population of 1.5 million, Waterfront will double Dubai’s population, boost its job market by one million and add 70km to its coastline.


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(Image via: OMA)

At its centre, Waterfront City – around 100,000 fulltime residents with a working capacity of three times that number, and arranged around a central island (pictured) comprised of a 5 x 5 grid of streets arrayed with high-rise buildings. (If you are wondering, the curious-looking silver sphere is a 44-storey skyscraper). However, the cultural focus of the development will be the second of Dubai’s Palm islands, appearing to sprout from one end of the Waterfront’s crescent.


Guangzhou, China


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(Image via: Joncrel)

A city steeped in history, Guangzhou – better known to European history as Canton – is in the process of getting a much-needed makeover from the ground upwards…in essence by building a new city and threading it through the best remnants of the existing one. At present, derelicts buildings and crumbling concrete blight significant stretches of the metropolitan area (total population, a shade under 10 million).


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(Images via: Inhabitat)

The new Guangzhou will be a place of green spaces, space-efficient housing, an expanded transportation system and a new waterfront. Designers Heller Manus Architects intend for the city to be arranged around networks of open courtyards, attempting to beautify the shabby, impractical areas of the city with greenery and planned gardens. The Southern axis of the city is currently under scrutiny, and when it is developed it will be linked with its already renewed Northern counterpart (also the work of Heller Manus) and the city’s transformation will be complete.


Malabo II, Equatorial Guinea


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(Images via: skyscrapercity)

The capital of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, is eager to leave its past behind – not just a troubled post-colonial history, but an urban infrastructure that can’t keep up with a booming population. The answer is Malabo II: an attempt to relocate the heart of the city on its outskirts and rebuild outwards from there. Many of Malabo’s principal governmental buildings will be resituated at the new site, surrounded by good-quality paved roads and cutting edge infrastructural technology. The money for all this is coming from huge oil and gas reserves found off the coast in the 1990s – and the eventual aim is to absorb the old capital into Malabo II, replacing the city from within.


Rawabi, West Bank


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(Image via: Rawabi)

If ever a place was desperate for new cities, it’s the Middle East’s West Bank. For the last 50 years, Israelis and Palestinians have struggled to find common ground in every sense imagineable – and the fallout has blighted the Palistianian economy and the region’s standards of living. The new city of Rawabi intends to change all that.


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(Images via: Rawabi)

As well as offering a place for Palistinian professionals to set up home in beautiful, airy, well-kept surroundings, the city is also designed to anchor the region’s economy and provide a place for long-term investment, research and learning. It is a place built to endure in a land in flux for decades – and more than that, it is an unambiguous political statement for the Palistinian people: We Are Here To Stay.


Masdar City, Abu Dhabi


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(Image via: Masdar City)

With a projected population of 50,000 people, the planned 6-million-square-metre city of Masdar may seem thoroughly overshadowed by all the cities we’ve already outlined – but when it comes to green living, this is the winner on the grounds of sheer ambition.


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(Images via: Masdar City)

Designed by Brit architects Fosters + Partners and being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Masdar wants to show the world how a city can go green from the get-go. Automobiles will be banned within the city walls. The city’s energy needs will be entirely met with renewable sources including solar, wind and geothermal sources, and even the world’s largest hydrogen power plant. Up to 80% of the city’s water supply will be recycled, and waste will be reduced to as close to zero as possible. (No news on accomodation prices for those lucky 50,000, but we suspect this green utopia comes at a hefty cost).


Destiny, Florida


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(Images via: Destiny Folrida)

The environment is top of the list of priorities for Florida’s new urban wonder, Destiny City. Planted on 40,000 acres of Osceola County land, the city is an attempt to make “the Silicon Valley of green technology, in the words of its developer Anthony Pugliese. Once completed it will house a quarter of a million people, with a large proportion of them working in newly-created green collar jobs in the area. Recycling facilities, electric car filling stations, gray water irrigation, a possible biomass power plant producing super-cheap energy – the list goes on. It sounds too good to be true…and since ground hasn’t been broken yet (that’s scheduled for 2011), it’s very early days. In every sense – watch this space.


Ziggurat Project, Dubai


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(Image via: )

Moving further into the realm of what-if, we have the return of the ziggurat – the colossal terraced pyramids of antiquity, typified by the famous monumental temple at Ur in what is now modern-day Iraq. Ziggurats are back – except on a scale we’ve never seen before.


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(Image via: Business Intelligence Middle East)

The Ziggurat Project is a proposal for a self-containing sustainable community of one million people. Renewable energy would power this enormous multi-tiered machine, while its occupants would get around using the integrated transport system (removing the need for personal vehicles).


Crystal Island, Moscow


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(Images via: Foster and Partners)

A new city proposal with similar designs on the sky is the dazzling Crystal Island. Covering 27 million square feet and nearly half a kilometre high, this structure would house 30,000 people (making it more of a new town than a new city) and its terraced gardens and dynamic frame would moderate the inner environment depending on the season – allowing cool air in and reflecting unwanted sunshine in the summer, insulating and illuminating during the winter. 3,000 hotel rooms, 900 apartments and a thriving business sector complete the picture of the world’s first inhabited steel volcano.


X-Seed 4000, Japan


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(Images via: Inhabitat)

Of course, you can go too far. Take the X-Seed 4000, a building so absurdly ambitious that the designers later admitted it was never meant to be built (they were trying to impress the industry – or put another way, showing off). With a 6-kilometer-square footprint, it would reach 800 floors into the Japanese sky and cost anything up to $900 billion to build. The shape is inspired by Mount Fuji, except (you may want to sit down for this part) the X-Seed 400 would actually be taller than Fuji by 200 metres. Madness? Here and now, perhaps…but since the design is perfect for lower-gravity environments, is this the first draft of humanity’s first offworld city from scratch?



Bricks and Scones: British House Built Entirely of Legos

Have you ever wished you could build a Lego house big enough to walk into? UK TV presenter James May and a team of volunteers and builders are doing just that.


fashionphotomontage


Success for models, celebrities, advertising campaigns, and entertainment all depend upon being well-liked by the masses. Their rise to popularity can influence society and change cultural tastes, but it is often the fashion photographer who moves behind the scenes to make it happen. Fashion photography is much more than headshots, but fashion, clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, anything photographed to advertise and to sell. These photographers emphasize staging the shots, elaborate poses, and exotic backdrops to peak the public’s interest, increase sex appeal and sell their final product in magazines, TV, movies and even the Internet. Their art of eye-catching has transformed fashion photography into an outstanding art form. Here are 16 model and advertising fashion photographers.



Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Mert & Marcus


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(image credits: pixcetera ,All About Madonna ,ilikeiwishiheart ,bloomacious)

Legendary Richard Avedon was one of the fathers of modern-day fashion photography. He captured model Twiggy in the upper left photo. Steven Meisel is one of the most iconic fashion photographers of all time and models aspire to be photographed by him. Meisel has photographed every cover of Vogue Italia since 1988. In the upper right, Meisel shot Madonna for the 2008 Vanity Fair cover and won for image of the year. Mario Testino is best known for his highly polished and exquisitely styled photographs that manage to carry a deceptive air of nonchalance. Testino captured many images of the late Diana, including the Princess of Wales’ famous Vanity Fair cover in 1997. In the bottom right picture, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott show off their vivid image with deeply saturated color and textural depth. Mert and Marcus are not only famed fashion photographers but also masters of digital manipulation.


Annie Leibovitz


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(image credits: fashion bride)

Annie Leibovitz is a formidable force in fashion photography. She is known for capturing a piece of personality in each shot. The above photograph was taken by Leibovitz for Vogue, starring Drew Barrymore in Beauty and the Beast. It is indeed as the magazine states, A feast for the eyes.


Peter Lindbergh, David LaChapelle


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(image credits: David LaChapelle ,LaChapelle Studio,Peter Lindbergh ,ecorazzi)

David LaChapelle as an artist, a fashion photographer, seems to like to keep people talking even if the comments are not always complimentary. He is a dynamic force in his field. The top left advertising photo was taken for Lavazza. The top right, of Michael Jackson as an archangel, showcases LaChapelle’s digital skills as he had never even photographed Jackson, but still managed this picture as a tribute. The bottom two images were shot by German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh. Linnea for Little Nikki is on the left, while the photo on the right was shot as an advertising campaign for Kate Hudson in Africa.


Sante D’Orazio, Sophie Delaporte, Patrick Demarchelier


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(image credits: Sante D’Orazio ,Sante D’Orazio ,Sophie Delaporte,Patrick Demarchelier)

One of the most important image-makers working in the area of fashion photography today is Sante D’Orazio. D’Orazio’s signature style is a unique blend of advertising and art. His sexy campaigns includes works for clients such Victoria’s Secret. The top two left pictures were taken by D’Orazio. Although the upper right photo is more mellow than most of her pictures, Sophie Delaporte has a painter’s eye. Her keen sense of color, sometimes vivid yet sometimes muted, can display a scene from her camera in a different way than most people would see it with their eyes. The bottom photo was taken by famous French fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier. He has shot covers for nearly every major fashion magazine, since he is a master photographer who uses light, lines and forms of the human body. Demarchelier said, “Beauty is everywhere”, he says, “you only have to open your eyes.”


Max Cardelli


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(image credits: Max Cardelli)

As a fashion photographer, Max Cardelli has photographed many to showcase his sense of style and his range of talent. However, his ability truly was showing for Etros Fall Winter 2008-2009 season shoot. Cardelli and Etros went green, literally. The show venue was the most unique stage of the season. Besides the green set, bundles of greenery, and a garden full of vegetables, Cardelli snapped shots while the models walked on dirt to really get a feel and a feeling of loving our planet.


Bruce Weber, Roman Salicki


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(image credits: Bruce Weber ,Roman Salicki)

Bruce Weber got his first big shoot with GQ magazine. His style is as unique as his first label line, “eat, swim, sex, sleep.” The photographs on top are from Heartbreaker’s Club, Weber’s take on the best and brightest of young Hollywood. Roman Salicki has done many shoots of sets, food, and jewelry. His variety of assignments have taken him to over 100 countries, from capturing images of celebrities in their fabulous homes to commercial shoots. The photo on the bottom emphasizes a closeup of cosmetic and jewelry fashion.


Way Out There Fashion Photography


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(image credits: carioca ,carioca ,troyt coburn ,Daily Mail)

Fashion photography can focus less on the models and more on the products. Some are done with a degree of fun mixed with graphic programs to enhance the images. Carioca Studios presents the top two photographs, one of high heel cleats and the other of black boots set in a magically tweaked background. The bottom left picture was taken by Troyt Coburn. He shoots very enticing pictures, from portrait, editorial, to advertising with some untouched and some graphic alterations done to the images. Lastly, fashion photography can be anything but serious. Julian Wolkenstein made supermodels of horses to show off fancy hairstyles. Each horse took four hours to add the hair extensions and then took a full day to shoot.



Professional Photography: 18 Cool Commercial Photographers

We focus on wildlife conservation and the far out and freaky. Here are 18 cool commercial photographers and 45 of their famous works of professional photography.


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