Above: The best picture of all time. 1908. Found on Shorpy (again)

We decided that it was time to move on to our very own grown up URL.. So we’ve packed our stuff and are movin’ on folks. You can now find us here (Or; Click the link below).  We hope you all continue to follow us on this journey. Thanks a bunch! (Oh and by the way, yes, that picture above is going to be my next tattoo.)
Jedidiah.

www.ironandwater.com

Stop American Censorship

Please Excuse the lack of posts as of late. Iron & Water is undergoing some changes (hooray!) and will be “In The Shop” for another day or two. And when we come back, I hope that you all will continue the rad support! In the meantime, please enjoy this amazing photo by Jack Delano from 1942. And of course, this was found on the best website of all time… Shorpy. Be back soon, and better than ever.

Another great piece that happens to be pretty old is a story (accolades are from 2010..) is on slate. It’s the story of obsession and detail. And dedication to a dying art.. These days you don’t have to go far to find a map, every phone has one for the most part, and seems like everyone has some sort of GPS device for their car. And most of us are never lucky enough to be so far from a computer that we can’t look up google maps. But there are still a few people who are rad enough to have the passion to do things the old fashioned way. Cartographers are some of those people. But from what it seems, a lot of the maps now adays are made by corporate giants and outsourced to find mistakes. But then there is a person like David Imus from Eugene, Oregon. David Imus has been creating maps since the 80′s and has won pretty much every award there is for making maps. And in 2010 he won the “Best in show award” from the Cartography and Geographic Information Society for his map called “The Essential Geography of the United States of America”. Usually this award is won by companies like National Geographic, and the CIA who can dedicate tons of people to one map. But Mr. Imus did his virtually alone and it took him two years to do it (nearly 6,000 work hrs). And what separates his map from all the others was its emphasis on design. According to the website:

“this map brings into focus the principal elements of the USA, letting you see our nation more clearly than ever before.”

He tried to make it simple to read and give the viewer a ton of information about population of cities and the density of forests by using simple colors… Anyhow, the map looks pretty amazing. I’m buying one for sure. Probably just to hang on the wall in a frame. It’s that pretty. Here is a link to his site.

This is old… But somehow I have missed it until looking at Gear Patrol’s list of “11 Incredible Adventure Films” this morning (Doug Walker’s “Lost and Found” is also on this list)… I think I’m the only person who hadn’t seen this, at least it seems that way, everyone I’ve talked to is like “really, you haven’t seen this before? It’s amazing.”… But its worth talking about still.. Mickey Smith is the focus of this short documentary, and he lays down some insightful voice over. And although this is only 6min long, this is one of those pieces that you see that really just gets you excited to be alive.. It makes me just want to run out and create something, regardless of what it is. I really dig the way this guy looks at life in general.. The piece has some really beautiful photography and the break in it is pretty heavy. Anyhow, check it out. Head over to vimeo to watch this awsome piece. In my opinion, if his photography career doesn’t work out (he’s super talented so I don’t see that happening), he has one as writer. See a few more grabs from the short below..

NOTE: ALL SHOTS TAKEN FROM THE FILM.

Lets start the new year off right (Happy New Year by the way.)… There is a cool little story over on “The Shapers Tree” about my dad. My dad has been glassing some of the best surf boards around since the early 60′s. He is a true “master” of what he does, to the point where it has become art (his color work is the best there is). Check it out here. You can also see an earlier post of mine here.

Sunset in Santa Cruz.

Santa’s movement is seen in Kazakhstan at 9:29am on December 24th, 2011.

Every year (well, the last 2 years) I have tried to get my little girl to sit down and track Santa through one of the coolest site on the internet, The Norad Santa Tracker. If you have kids, or even if you don’t, this is a great way to inject some excitement into Christmas Eve. Comes complete with pictures from all over the world, but also little news stories from different locations throughout.