Since time immemorial, family portraits have been constructed thus:

Everybody put your nice clothes on and pose in front of this decorative interior/ body of water/ big rock. Now smile.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But if you already have that picture and want something new, here are some ideas.

1) Work with contrasts: John Olson did a brilliant series for LIFE in 1970 of rock stars with their parents, including David Crosby, Frank Zappa, and Eric Clapton. The whole set’s on Google now that LIFE has put their archives online.

How you can do it: Olson contrasted scruffy rock stars with their clean-cut families. Try posing your goth cousin with Grandma in her Sunday best and you’ll get the same effect.

2) Use downtime: Katrina D’Autremont takes advantage of quiet moments like watching TV or resting on the comfy chair. Some of her best family photos don’t even have people in them, just the space they occupy.

How you can do it: D’Autremont uses stillness as her ally. Take photos of your family when they’re not posing, just being themselves. And remember to document the rooms and things that mean home to you.

3) Be a complete spaz: Akihiro Furuta takes hilarious (and definitely memorable) family pictures using silly outfits, odd situations, and matching costumes.

How you can do it: Furuta dresses his family in goofy costumes and has a lot of fun. If you must have matching outfits, go for ponchos and bunny-ears instead of white shirts and khakis.

70s Rock Stars with Their Parents
Keep clicking “more” to see the whole set.
via FFFFOUND!

Katrina D’Autremont’s Family Portraits
via Conscientious

Akihiro Furuta’s Goofy Family
via Swiss Miss

Photo credits: Akihiro Furuta and © Katrina D’Autremont

Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the US of A.

It’s our favorite holiday because it involves:

1. Hanging out with people you like,
2. eating yourself stupid, and
3. falling asleep on the couch in the middle of the afternoon.

Some friends of ours host Thanksgiving for all their pals who aren’t going home for the holiday. When they sit down to eat, instead of saying grace, everyone at the table says one thing they’re thankful for.

Now that’s a tradition we can get behind. We don’t usually think about the things we’re grateful for, but today’s a good day to start.

This week, take some pictures of the things that make you thankful, whether it’s the big stuff:

• your friends
• your spark of creativity
• being able to see well enough take photos

or the little stuff:

• warm socks on a cold night
• the first cup of coffee in the morning
• that album that always makes you feel better when you’re in a bad mood

The next time somebody tells you to count your blessings, just whip out your photos and say, “I’m way ahead of you, buddy.”

What Are You Grateful For?
Post your photos of the things that make you glad.

The 52 Blessings Project
Take a photo each week of something you’re grateful for.

Photo credit: Angela Martini

How?

How in the name of the Jolly Green Giant did Meg Wachter get anybody to pose for these portraits?

Was it bribery? Hypnosis? Did she promise them a guest spot on “You Can’t Do That On Television”?

Probably all of the above.

Tell ya what we’d do if we wanted to get pictures like these, though:

We’d host a big end-of-summer BBQ/pool party, with lots of soupy side-dishes, and we’d wait ’til everybody all had their bathing suits on, and then we’d break out the camera for the hugest, sloppiest, food-fight photo extravaganza there ever was! Yeah!

We’re not saying you have to spend this coming weekend that way, it’s just, you know, it is the end of summer. And they would be really awesome pictures. We’re just saying.

Meg Wachter’s “Dumped” Portraits

p.s. Congratulations to the winners of our Lomography + Photojojo Photo Tip Contest! First prize goes to lauramary, followed closely by shanegoguen, tom_ashor_bhaan, halfawakehaiku, and ginnymae.
Thanks to everyone who entered- you’re all brilliant!

In these last, dreamy days of summer, there’s nothing we’d rather do than lie around in the park and stare at the clouds.

And take pictures, of course!

Horst (hb19 on Flickr) has been doing just that, and it looks like he’s redefined the science of cloud manipulation*.

He finds the perfect sky or set of clouds and gives them their object counterpart. The cloud shooting out from a bottle’s top. The sun’s perfect, shiny orb behind his ET-like finger. The fluffy ice-cream cloud on top of its cone. hb19 gives new meaning to the art of cloud watching.

Summery skies abound. Take our advice and point your lens skyward before the winter chill descends.

hb19’s sky play photo set

via Crystal Ginn (You, too, can send us tips via twitter. Just start your tweet with @photojojo)

* Speaking of which, did you know China fired 1,104 rain dispersal rockets to prevent rain during the Olympics’ opening ceremonies? We live in the future!

p.s. Peep these pics from our lightpainting events in NYC and San Francisco last week!

It’s August, folks. Yup, that means: end of summer. And Olympics.

Instead of boo-hooing our puny, non-Olympic abilities, the waning light, and the impending return to work and school, we’ve taken a cue from the astonishing Olympic bodies we’ve been watching all month.

We present to you: the jaw-dropping, body-photography roundup. It’ll make you celebrate all that our human bodies can do: we can flip and balance (some on a 4″ beam), squish, hide, shrink, stack. We can imagine and we can take pictures.

So, go ahead, check out these awe-inspiring projects.

We promise they’ll make you want to get off your butt.

Photojojo’s End-of-Summer Body Photography Roundup

Our desks are teeming with tchotchkes: here a London snow globe, there a Mickey Mouse key fob and Sally, the Statuette of Liberty. It’s cluttered.

If you’re like us, we suggest taking those trinkets back where they came from. Not to return ‘em, but to make your vacation photos just a tad… unusual.

Michael Hughes’ “Souvenirs” set began when he realized he was at the exact location of a postcard in his pocket. He held the postcard in front of his camera, lined it up, and presto!

Three years later, he’s photographed dozens of souvenirs in front of their real-world counterparts.

Next time you skip town (or stay in town–every place has a touristy destination), bring your tour booklets, ceramic postcards, blow-up double-decker buses, and Leaning Tower of Pisa lollipop to add a dose of flair to the well-trodden tourist photo. Sally could use a vacation.

Michael Hughes’ Souvenirs

P.S. We’re working with our pals at JPG on a photo challenge! Take a pic of a small part of something (maybe one of your souvenirs), and leave us guessing. Confuse us. Make us say “oh yea, duh” upon your big reveal. Just enter before Wednesday!

Tim Kirsch is braver than us.

He lugs his DSLR and hefty tripod over fences, through pigeon poo, across teetering floorboards, and through the dark.

What’s this guy doing, you ask? He’s photographing the heart of the planet’s eeriest abandoned buildings. All in the name of art.

The results are stunning: a million shades of rust, ghostly-lit interiors, broken sinks, mirrors, typewriters, rotting pillows, a red barber’s chair that looks as new as the walls around it look old. Piles of tiles and wallpaper rot next to the room of broken wheelchairs. Birds nesting in a breaker room. Al Capone’s prison cell, just as he left it. (That’s it to the right.)

With so much new (and improved!) around us everyday, seeing the old and forgotten can really give one pause.

We’re inspired to bring our camera next time we’re rooting around that creepy cemetery on the hill. In fact, we’re searching out deserted buildings on our walk home.

Tim Kirsch’s Opacity, Museum of Abandoned Buildings.

p.s. Tomorrow’s the last day for the WeSay.com’s election-related photo contest! All photos get on the homepage of their national website. Best photo wins $100 at Calumet Photo. Submit your entry on WeSay.com or email politicspics@wesay.com

You can tell a lot about a person yourself by looking at their your feet.

Taking a picture of your feet — as natural as:
… looking both ways before crossing the street
… forgetting someone’s name right after you meet
… skipping over cracks in the asphalt/concrete
… finding yourself outnumbered, and beating a hasty retreat

It’s something almost everyone does. So why not find a use for those toe shots?

Here’s an idea: start photographing your travels, whether exotic or everyday, by photographing all your fancy footwear and the ground it covers.

It’s a new twist on vacation photos or everyday photos. We think you’ll be surprised by how much you can tell by what’s on a person’s feet, and what’s under ‘em

For inspiration, see out hrrrthrrr’s great feet photo movie.

Hrrthrrr’s Fancy Feet Photos Video

p.s. Try our stop motion tutorial for ideas on stringing your photos into video.

p.p.s. Inkjet printing questions? Andrew Darlow is here to help. The 10 best questions win his new book, 301 Inkjet Tips & Techniques. Ask your question in the next 48 hours!

p.p.p.s. Thanks to everybody who entered the Cutest Baby Ever contest! Check out the winners here!

Remember when you grew yourself a new head in a petri dish, and it all went horribly wrong, and they called in the National Guard? No? Hmmm… must’ve been someone else.

The point is, there’s a much easier way to get a new look:

Get a picture of yourself, fold a dollar bill in half, and put it over half of your face. Positively presidential.

Too punk rock to be co-opted by the almighty dollar? Hold a record sleeve up in front of your face and have somebody take a picture. Wow, Iggy looks really good on you.

It’s the noggin-swappin’ phenomenon that’s sweeping the globe, and Photojojo’s here to show you how it’s done.

Get a New Face In Seconds Flat

It’s winter. Plus it’s February, so it’s the worst bit of winter. The sky is cloudy and the leaves are gone and the only colors left are lead-gray and dog-doo-brown.

On top of that, since we loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly San Francisco, we miss our friends back on the wrong coast.

We were having ourselves a good sulk, but then we ran across 3191: A Year of Evenings.

Stephanie and Mav are friends that live 3191 miles apart. Each takes a photo every evening and they post them side-by-side on their photoblog.

It captures the feeling of each person’s day, like going to your best friend’s house whenever you want. So what if it’s still Frigiduary? 3191 is our mug of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night.

And if Stephanie and Mav can break down the Continental Divide, so can you.

3191: A Year of Evenings
See also: 3191: A Year of Mornings — Last year’s project, soon to be a book!

p.s. Thrillist wants your goofiest, most ridiculous photos for their Stupid Photo Contest! 3 winners get their photos published on Thrillist, plus some fine spirits. Thrillist finds the best food, drink and fun to be had in cities across America. Sign up and upload.

p.p.s. We’re writing a Photojojo book (zomg) and we want you in it! Send us your projects by February 29, and win fame and fortune. Learn more.