Browse through our top categories or click here to see some from around the globe
Browse through our top locations or click here to see some from around the globe
As people list more and more cool things to do all over the world on Ooh.com, we’re fascinated by the cities they’re happening in. So we’ve teamed up with bloggers everywhere to get inside guides to the cities they love. Today’s post is by Kate Turner who tells us about her perfect day in sunny Madrid.
Over to Kate…
> read more
Retain your title in the cool stakes this summer with tres chic outdoor games.
Our friends at French Kiss Vintage give us the low down on their top 5 vintage games.
1. Pétanque – best for fashionistas
Back in May, one of our favourite fashion bloggers Garance Doré reported from the frontline of Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel cruise showcase on a pavement cafe lined street of St Tropez. But aside from the spectacle of Georgia May Jagger rocking up on a motorbike with Sebastien Jondeau to close the show, the pictures that got everyone talking were the ones taken later in the evening, depicting Chanel muse Vanessa Paradis and Diane Kruger partaking in that quintessentially Gallic of pastimes: Pétanque
If you happen to see an Airsteam trailer arrive on Parsons Green in West London this weekend, don’t be mistaken, this is not the re-location of protesters from Parliament Sq – this is in fact a picnic party with a difference.
As you know, if you run classes, courses, workshops or events you can list them for free on Ooh.com. But now we’ve gone one step further.
We’ve developed a widget or button that means that you can sell from your own website – saving you the time and cost needed to implement your own booking system.
This is amazing – mostly because it makes you feel like you have an innate talent for super-cool photography when all you’ve done is point and shoot on your phone.
(O.K. so lets keep this just between us, shall we?)
Setting up a blog or improving an existing one can be tricky. But with the help of blogosphere champion Lynne, whose blog Tea for Joy has over 3000 subscribers, you might become the next Tavi.
During this one day blogging for beginners class, you’ll learn blog etiquette (bad online manners are frowned upon, you see), how to attract readers, tracking readership and giving your blog an identity and purpose.
Most of the teaching will be off-line and there’s also room for brainstorming with fellow blog aspirants. Get started on your social media networking right away! Refreshments are also provided (to prevent hard disk meltdown).
For only £45 you’ll have a blogging pro at your service for 3 hours, which we think is a serious bargain considering you might embark on a profitable blogging career. The Sartorialist, Dorie Greenspan, Wee Birdy, and all you other phenomenal bloggeratis, you better watch out.
To find out more and check availability, click here.
Don’t forget, if you offer classes you can list them for free on Ooh.com. Just register here and start creating your listing!
You seldom meet someone who doesn’t enjoy taking photos, and the Ooh team is no exception. Whether it’s @OohFood’s collection of foodie snaps or @OohAdventure’s latest snow-bound adventure, we all take photos and love looking over them to see how they’ve turned out.
That said, it can all get quite overwhelming when you talk ISOs and apertures, shutter speeds and frame rates. So we decided to tip you off about some of the best photography blogs and sites around the web, whether you want knowledge, advice, or just great photos to gawp at.
LONDON
London’s slow organic growth has blessed the city with unusual architecture and areas with distinctive characters. It’s an ideal place for learning to take good photos, with subject matter abounding.
The Earth Photograpgy Blog is a great place to seek inspiration for London’s diversity of subjects.
For those interested in the professional and competitive circuits, another great London site for the radar is the London Photo Association site. The LPA hosts profile pages for members, so it’s a great place to research photographers whose style appeals to you.
NEW YORK
New York city is romantic, exhilarating and glamorous, but with enough grit and grime to challenge the worst of the rest. It’s a great place to find photographic inspiration, not just from the icons on its tourist circuit, but from the people who live and work there.
Check out the New York Daily Photo Blog for a fantastic insider’s take on city life.
WORLDWIDE
You’ll rarely find better collections of photos than on the Boston.com Big Picture. This is one of our all-time favourites, bringing together selections of photos taken by the world best photojournalists and press agencies and grouping them together into themes.
Recent themes have ranged from the Winter Olympics, to the War in Afghanistan and from the act of kissing to the current headline “Signs of Spring”.]
TWITTER
There are tons of great photography folks to follow on twitter, but here is a handful of our favourites.
Kevin Wong, a noted travel and landscape photographer runs these half day photo expeditions to photograph the Spring Wildflowers of the Mojave Desert in California; the perfect way to warm up your shutter finger for the spring.
For something more adventurous, head to Morocco. Kevin Gilbert is an award-winning photojournalist, teacher and entrepreneur based in Annapolis, Maryland. His 8 day photographic adventure will have you shooting landscapes from the Sahara Desert to the High Atlas Mountains.
If you’re looking to brush up on specific photography skills, like using your camera flash to create more dramatic shots, this 3 day course in New York may be perfect. Tom Bol is an editorial and commercial photographer who specializes in adventure sports, portraits and travel photography, so you’ll take the lead from an experienced pro!
Don’t forget, if you run courses, classes, workshops and events, you can list them on Ooh.com for free. Just register and start uploading your listing. It’s that easy!
A couple of posts ago, we featured Art Mortvedt, a survival expert and trainer based in Alaska. Art has worked as a National Park Ranger and while teaching Eskimo students in the village of Shungnak, north of the Arctic Circle, he learned subsistence, survival and dog mushing techniques from local native elders.
We asked Art for his TOP SURVIVAL TIPS, and this is what he said:
1. Mother Nature is in supreme control.
2. NEVER roll up in a frozen moose hide for warmth. It will freeze solid; and there will be no way to get out. It will be your tomb.
3. The only constant is change; i.e. always adapt with circumstances and conditions, which are never the same.
4. Always keep the glass half full; i.e. always look on the positive side of any situation, no matter how dire.
5. Advice from an Eskimo elder many years ago – in bear country – “keep your rifle with you all the time”. Over the years I’ve had several bears charge me; and the elders advice was very true, and has saved my life.
6. The predictable thing about bears is their unpredictability. There are “nice bears” and “bad bears” – just like people; and one must always be ready for the bad bears. If a person is suddenly attacked – with no chance to defend himself by shooting the bear or using pepper spray – one must, as best as is possible, roll up in a ball and protect the abdomen and neck area. A grizzly grabbed a friend of mine by the head, and shook him around; but he survived. Of course his facial bones were crushed – and he had some dramatic scars – but he’s back to normal, only wearing a beard now to cover the scars.
7. Hypothermia is indeed the “silent killer”. Always have spare dry clothes and/or a place or method to dry off and warm up.
8. Birch bark is the ultimate fire starter – even in the rain.
9. Make every survival situation into a “camping trip” – realizing a bit of discomfort at the moment, but also realizing that with the positive attitude things will get better and that survival is then imminent.
10. When you’re chilled – e.g. tingly toes and fingers – don’t wait to warm them. Do so immediately. Waiting too long puts you over the edge; and there’s no going back.
11. Don’t go anywhere in winter without snowshoes, axe, knife, and matches.
12. Moose nose, grizzly bear foot, and boiled porcupine are quite tasty delicacies; and a human being can be quite happy eating nearly anything when truly hungry.
13. In a survival situation, depend on no one but yourself. Do not depend on rescue; because conditions, such as bad weather, may not allow it.
14. Drink lots – especially warm decaffeinated drinks; and do not become dehydrated.
15. In a survival situation, let your imagination soar – “imagine what you can’t imagine” – i.e. there may be tools right in front of you, or ways to make them, that you otherwise would not have noticed. “Necessity is the Mother of invention”.
16. Plan ahead. Always be thinking of what you WOULD DO, IF YOU HAD TO.
17. Panic kills.
So now we know.
For more on survival courses with Art Mortvedt, or to stay at the lodge he runs with his wife Damaris, visit www.alaskawilderness.net.
Introducing Art Mortvedt….
Rumour has it that grizzly bears are frightened of Art Mortvedt. But if there’s the odd one that isn’t, Art will have it covered. A survival expert and trainer based in Alaska, Art has worked as a National Park Ranger and while teaching Eskimo students in the village of Shungnak, north of the Arctic Circle, he learned subsistence, survival and dog mushing techniques from local native elders.
With six expeditions to the central Arctic Ocean – based out of northern Greenland – a solo Cessna flight through the Canadian High Arctic, expeditions to Spitzbergen and Siberia, and more than twenty expeditions to Antarctica, Art now consults on a variety of polar logistical issues. He is an Alaska Registered Guide and a highly experienced bush pilot – and after landing a single engine Cessna 185 at the South Pole, is now planning a solo Cessna flight to the North Pole.
Art lives at 67N155W, in the western Brooks Range, with his wife Damaris, and owns the Peace of Selby Wilderness Lodge – a name that perfectly reflects the ethos of the place and leaves guests pledging to return time and time again.
Access to Selby Wilderness Lodge in the Alaskan Bush is by float-plane only, which naturally Art flies. Guests can spend a couple of weeks at the lodge, flying to fishing spots, learning bush skills, camping, building river floats, fishing, snow-shoeing, ice fishing, hunting, tracking the caribou migration, learning about subsistence living….or just enjoying the peace. Art and his wife Damaris will tailor-make your stay according to your needs.
Art’s survival skills really caught our imagination at Ooh and so I caught up with him during preparations for that North Pole solo flight in his Cessna 185. My interview with Art will follow shortly on the blog, and I’ll share Art’s advice on what do with a grizzly bear foot, and what NOT to do with a moose hide…..More soon.
In the meantime, visit www.alaskawilderness.net to find out more about one of the most peaceful places on earth.
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