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Zena Holloway is best known for her dreamy underwater photographs of celebs, supermodels and athletes. Her images are highly sought after by magazines, ad campaigns and editorials. She recently completed a 2 year project of “The Water Babies,” a book inspired by  Charles Kingsley’s 1863 classic tale. Holloway’s photographs were beautifully overlaid with illustrations by Heidi Taylor. I’ve included a handful of captivating images. You can order the book and look at more here.

Holloway got her start not as a photographer, but as a scuba instructor. During her travels, she experimented with underwater photography and soon developed a niche with in the highly competitive Fashion industry. All images © Zena Holloway.

Some of  Zena’s commercial work includes

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Have you been thinking about your wish list all year? If you haven’t finished all your Christmas shopping last week and need a pressie for the geek in your family…take a look at this list of geek-a-holic toys.  We have gathered our Bitrebels Author’s top items on their wish lists. From super geek and tech to luxurious and elaborate, take your pick, then post this list on your facebook wall so mom, dad and your girlfriend get the clue.

If you are a geek at heart, share your top wish list item in the comments below. We love to know what our readers are holding their breathe for. Dream a little.

Diana Adams

ATN 4th Generation Night Vision Goggle System $9,995.00

I’ve wanted a pair of night vision goggles like this for a decade.  I love nature and I’ve always thought it would be so much fun to sit very still outside at night and see all the wildlife clearly.  It would be like having another sense.

Misty Belardo

Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Canceling Headphones
Music is important to me, people close to me knows that.  Helps me relax and think.  Helps me zone in on my work and zone out the unnecessary distractions when I need to get a lot of things done.  Some people frown on this wish of mine, but I always believe that good equipment makes for a great experience.  Gotta save up for this one at $ 499

Richard Darrell

Wacom Tablet, best kind. (INTUOS4 L) $469,90 …Santa I honestly need for all the writers of Bit Rebels to get exactly what the wish for. Even if it means I am not getting my Wacom.

Christian Collard

Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Racing Wheel $350
Im a big fan of sports cars. Heck, a big fan of anything that moves fast. This racing wheel is built just like that of the porsche 911. Hook it up to your PC and you are ready to roll!

Andrea La Valleur

Nikon 300S $ 1699 (body)

Growing up as a photographer’s daughter, I have always loved taking pictures. Nikon’s are my fav cameras and I wish I could have all the lenses they offered…however I don’t so I will just have to add to my collection each year. That said, this year I would like to add the newly released Nikon 300S which allows you to take HD video. It also has a more ergonomical body shape, dual SD slots, Live view and is weather resistant. If you love photography and making short films, this is the camera for you.

Clément Young

My day dreams are filled with the Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV . Since I’m a young man, I think the reasons for me wanting such a “gadget” are quite clear. This car is simply a demon on the road and, for myself, nothing out there at the moment can rival the sexiness of this machine. Its only £270,000 /$402,000 from H.R. Owen Manchester. (OBVIOUSLY I’ll be getting it converted to a green emissions vehicle) On a lighter note, I wouldn’t mind a Bandai Tuttukibako I always worried about how digital noses were cleaned when they were runny. This will help me focus during the day, knowing that all digital runny noses are wiped clean – by me. Add it to your wish list  for a whopping €39.45

Fernando Fonseca

I love music. Music of (almost) all genres, from classic to the most experimental are part of my daily life. I have to listen to a lot of music because of my work and I listen to a lot of music when I am not working (those 2h a week). Sound quality is something that is not subjective as some may think. There is a clear difference between  a vinyl record  to a CD, between  a CD and a MP3, from a MP3 to mobile ring tone. The better sound equipment you have, the better it will sound if you are using a good vinyl record player or a good CD player. If you get your iPOD playing on a good audio system it will only show you how bad the quality is. One of the best audio systems in the world is the Burmester Reference Line. Starting by the Burmester 808 MK5 Pre Amplifier (pictured) the audio system  is any audiophile’s dream: Attention to detail, handmade construction and the latest in analogue/digital technology make it what a Ferrari the Ferrari for audiophiles. I mean, we are talking the only  home audio system whose CD player (in conjunction with the amplifier) can compete with the sound of a vinyl player and this is a lot to say.

The complete system will cost you around $185,500, so if you have 185,000 followers on Twitter ask $1 to each one of them and go buy it but take into consideration that you will have to wait for quite some time to finally have it. Maybe I will try to convince my 2,700 followers to give me  $68 each so I can also have it

Arnt Eriksen

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin $599

this all-in-one hi-fi solution for all your audio needs, the Zeppelin offers a sleek, iconic body housing five speakers that produce only the clearest sound from your iPhone, iPod,computer, television or any other sound source. I have a friend of mine that has this one, and after I’ve listened to it – I’m amazed of the sound that comes out of this slick system. The design is totally awesome – and would fit perfectly in my studio apartment

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In my last post about iphone gadgets we showed you some of the hot iphone accessories for Autumn. Now that we are close to Christmas, I want to show you some fun and practical accessories you can still add to your christmas wish list.

Take a look at the über handy multi USB extension iphone charger, Callpod Chargepod. Even thought it is not solely dedicated to only iphones, it usability is fantastic for a multi gadget household.  A bit spendy at $36, buy it here.

Want a new look for your iphone? Change out the case. For less than $30 you can get a whole new look. I love the utlra sexy ‘Cameleon’ case by Ultra-case.com. Its a hard-shell case with beautiful texture, available in 11 colors. Plus its an open face case, so it protects the edges but still allows you to quickly access your screen with out fumbling to open a case. $23.99 here

Gotta love this new iphone car charger by Sirius – The XM SkyDock. It mounts to your cigarette lighter, comes with a built in fm turner, controlled by a app found at your trusty app store. The app itself has several cool features, including artist tags, stock and sports ticker, game alerts and more. GPS navigation just got that much simpler. Rotate your phone to landscape mode for easy viewing. Prices vary from  $80-120 found it here for $79

@arnteriksen this one is for you and your Ducati. Bike lover g33ks love this ibike case that mounts to your wrist. It comes with an optional headset/microphone that attaches to your helmet, although some countries have laws about talking on the phone while driving on the bike. Waterproof and easy to view the screen, pick it up for $57+ here.

A big thank you to @fjfonseca for recommending one of the best speaker docks out there ‘On Stage’, made by the reliable people at JBL. This particular cutie is lightweight and portable enough to easily move it from your office desk to your bedroom nightstand. Not only will it charge as you listen to your fantastic Santana collection, it will also let you experience ‘speaker phone’ like never before. Several models are available, ranging from  $149-$250. Browse here.

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Leave it to Google to teach us how to rethink for the future. The way we use our computers is changing quickly and frequently. Now imagine your computer that runs a totally different operating system, one that utilizes ‘cloud computing,’ drawing resources, applications and data from web services vs internal software. Wa..wa..what you say? Exactly, Google Chrome OS is a linux-based open source OS revolving around the Chrome browser. All of your applications will run via the Chrome browser utilizing flash memory and web bases storage for saving your data. No more hard drive crashes, lost documents and computer viruses. Concerned about online security? So is Google, they will keep a close watch over their code, to prevent any compromises to their web apps.

Speed and functionality are the key ingredients in this new OS, available during the second half of 2010. Chrome OS will not be available as a download, however we will have to purchase a preloaded notebook. Hopefully they will have a mac version available

TechCrunch writer MG Siegler blogged “Google is inventing an operating system that users almost won’t notice. It will boot quickly, then get out of the way. ”What Google is doing is not recreating a new kind of OS, they’re creating the best way to not need one at all.” While I commend Google to be forward thinking and delivering all kinds of goodies for our personal and commercial use, I wonder if this attempt to take a bite out of the Microsoft cake will have as large of an impact as some speculate. Many of the Google Products, including the Chrome browser, are popular in a niche market. The Windows OS has been apart of most families for many years. It will take a global shift of how we use our computers and the internet to embrace the cloud computing way of thinking. I am excited to see Google step out onto the battle field and raise its sword to Microsoft. {flash back to Frank Miller’s movie ’300′, minus the ending.}

This vid gives you a visual and practical understand how this will work, the Google way.

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So we’ve played around in wave a few weeks, while its fun and crazy at the same time when all your contacts are online at the same time. So until we all get a wave account, what else can we do?

Have you had a look at Wave Extensions? A Wave extension is a robot or a gadget. The robots are applications that interact with wave participants (based on their capabilities), as well as automating tasks, like publishing a wave post to a blog. Gadgets is a small application that runs with in a wave, like sudoku. It only responds to what each user does with the gadget. It can’t add users etc like a robot can.

Lets take a look at the current extensions list. To view the full list, you will need to be signed in with your google account, you do not have to have wave to see it.

While there are several useful robots/gadgets already available for example under the integration tool, you can add twitbot, to integrate your twitter account into wave, or the rssybot to bring in your RSS threads. Then we have the amazonbot that allows you to shop via wave, the bloggy and posterous bots that will post to your blog and taggy that recognizes hashtags.

To use a robot, just add the address to your contacts and add the bot to your wave. When you are in a wave, start a new blip, click on the green puzzle icon and enter the url, this will post the gadget into your wave.

Looking through the list, which I’m sure will be updated daily, you will find many funny, smart  and useless bots and gadgets.  As with any online platform, wave can easily become a central integrated ‘station’ to do all things web, especially communication. While it is still in the infant stage, I have no doubt it will soon be used across households everywhere, significantly changing they way we communicate.

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Have you been schlepping around your loyalty cards in your wallet? Switched purses and forgot to bring all your cards? Alas, there is a solution. I am loving the “CardStar” phone app, which allows you to manage all of your membership and rewards numbers in one place. There are over 19 categories with vendors and stores from the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK. You can add your company’s membership information, if it is not available from the preselected list. Once you have entered your membership number, the app will generate a barcode that you present to your checkout/counter person, they scan your iphone  (about 5-7 inches from the scanner) and off you go.

I can’t believe it took this long to generate a single place for all your membership/rewards numbers. Too bad I didn’t think about inventing the app : ). Kudos to surface2 who developed CardStar earlier in 2009. The app will be available for Android and Blackberry phones soon. Now I need to finish adding all my rewards numbers…..

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I had to laugh when I received a email this week titled “Confessions of a Creative Mind.”  Filter, one of the national agencies located in Seattle, is calling all creatives to confess their  secrets, white lies and fibs on their website.. “We all have ‘em, and we’ve all told ‘em.  Maybe you have a tattoo no one knows about, or you rigged last year’s Secret Santa. No matter how dark, dusty or obscure, we want to hear your secrets! Go to filtertalent.com/confessions and fess up. (And sure, you can confess as many times as you want. Who are we to stand in the way of absolution?)”

So if something has being waying heavy on your heart, or you just haven’t had the guts to tell someone in person, go ahead, fess up and post your confession in the collection. AND if you are bold enough, post your confession in a comment below so we can share a giggle. If you want to stay semi-anonymous…change the names of people in your story, authors do it all the time.

PS. We all do stupid things at some point in time. Don’t let it define who you are. When you confess it to someone (or here anonymously) it will free you up, allowing you live without condemnation.

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Sometimes we are so consumed with the ‘brilliant idea’ factor, that are eyes and minds don’t think of the obvious, the user experience or the common good of the products and services we design. Even though most of us are graphic and web designers, I find this (older) TED video by Paul Bennett, Creative Director at Ideo, is very much still alive and forward thinking and applicable to our mediums. Bennett reviews several client project, addressing the thought process and end-user experience when designing. Its a matter of shifting our thought process vs our ability to create beautiful graphics, websites and products.

Tim Brown, CEO at Ideo, speaks about “Design Thinking Inspires Innovation” He looks at the roots of design, why we design and that is not all about aesthetic. Its starts with human need. IDEO approaches design thinking like this: “Our focus lies at the intersection of insight and inspiration, and is informed by business, technology, and culture.”

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The new release of the much anticipated 27″ imac has all of us mac lovers drooling. I spent the other morning perusing apple.com, reviewing the sleek design of the all-in-one imac. The 27″ display dominates all the way to the edge. No distractions, no mimics. Everything you see is intentional, not a mm of waste. This large work surface allows you to be ‘in’ your work. Earlier this year I upgraded to a 28″ (external) monitor with my MBP. I absolutely love it. It features the LED backlighting, which allows for a bright and vibrant workspace, as well as IPS technology (in-plane switching), which make for some awesome color and display performance at any angle.

The all-in-one seamless design includes the new multi-touch mouse (wireless) and sleek wireless keyboard, which is now standard. Compared to past versions, the new imac is more powerful, has more ram, better processors and exceeds Energy star ratings and was manufactured with fewer toxic substances. Apple is offering 21.5″ and 27″ displays (16×9 HD). They say its more than a redesign, its the best piece they have designed. The cool thing about Apple, compared to some of the other brands out there, is they design and manufacture the hardware and the software. This allows their creative teams to think and include all aspects of the process. Of course the imac comes will all things mac, Snow Leopard, iLife ’09, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (or more), 4GB of Ram, 1TB 7200-rpm ATA hard drive (27″), HD 4850 graphics processor, built in iSight Camera, AirPort and 4 usb ports, two 17 Watt amplifiers..ok i’ll stop drooling.

Will you upgrade?

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In just a few days the Olympic torch will be lit and the countdown to the games will begin. Vancouver has been preparing for this grand event for years, building new facilities, hotels, streets and making surrounding cities a beautiful experience for the thousands of people traveling to Canada. I am very excited to watch the opening ceremony on February 12th. If you want to keep up with everything Olympics, check here.

Canadian artists Corrine Hunt and Omer Arbel were the creative minds behind designing the Olympic medals. Although they clearly state that the entire process was collaborative, the original artwork was created by Corrine. I encourage you to watch the video of the making of the Olympic Medals here. You will notice they took pieces of the artwork to create unique and individual medals, no one being the same. The designs were laser etched into the metal surface, while the metal itself was formed from reclaimed electronic parts. This in and of itself is not only fascinating but also encouraging to see that all aspects of the creative and manufacturing process were considered.

The shape of the medals is also non traditional, it reflects the Northwestern landscape, rolling mountains and water.