Photography
Fri 20 Jun 2008
I recently created a new summertime banner for the blog:
I’m very pleased with the results … hot and hazy like a Minnesota summer day.
I concocted the image from two different photographs, both by John Symchych. Used by permission — thanks, John!
JES Photography @ Flickr: Link.
Fri 13 Jun 2008
Baltimore Oriole Eating Seed (May 2008)
Copyright 2008 by John Symchych. Used by permission.
Among his many other talents, my friend and collaborator John Symchych is an excellent photographer, and I’m pleased to share his work here. He writes:
Here’s a picture of a Baltimore Oriole eating seed from our bird feeder. They normally eat insects and fruit (can be attracted with grape jelly), and are not know to eat seed. I will be going out to The Wild Bird store today to purchase some more already shelled seed to help them out. We are seeing other species that are also feeding on seed as well.”
It’s a hungry year for songbirds: late spring snowstorms, delayed plant growth, not enough food for the early migrators. Minnesota DNR has received reports of dead or dying swallows, bluebirds, and other birds from around the state. Some years this happens: the DNR expect the bird populations to recover.
Link to article @ MPR.
For more of John’s photos, see JES Photography @ Flickr: Link.
Sat 26 Apr 2008
Small Is beautiful.
Wired.com recently published some beautiful nanophotography — finalists in the Materials Research Society’s semi-annual collection of images as art:
… This image shows the magnetic domains of a thin iron film sitting atop a crystal made from magnesium and gallium arsenate. Souliman el Moussaoui, a researcher at the ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory in Italy, used X-ray magnetic circular dichroism with photoelectron-emission microscopy to create the striking picture …. el Moussaoui shot the sample with two oppositely polarized beams of powerful X-rays — and then subtracted the data points in one file from the other.
- Aaron Rowe @ Wired.com: 04.25.08: Link.
Via Slashdot: Link.
ELETTRA
ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory is a national synchrotron laboratory located in Basovizza on the outskirts of Trieste, Italy.
The facility, available for use by the Italian and international scientific communities, houses several ultrabright light sources, which use the sychrotron and free electron laser (FEL) sources to produce light ranging from ultraviolet to X-rays.
The centre also houses the European Storage Ring FEL Project (EUFELE).
- Wikipedia: Link.
Sat 2 Feb 2008
I recently discovered — and am getting a big kick out of — Reprographics by Chris Yates: short stories/essays in photocomic format.
Yates has a giddy enthusiasm for topics both silly and serious. In the former category, here’s an excerpt from Borrowing from the Future:
His serious side largely concerns art, notably sculpture. See, for example, The Power of Richard Serra:
Via Boing Boing.
Tue 2 Oct 2007
“I am … a sculptor, but I have only a 5000th of a second to build my sculpture.”
- Martin Klimas
Photographer Martin Klimas drops porcelain figures and captures high-speed images of the figures shattering:
“The aspect of destroying is not the most important one in my work. Let’s say it is a catalyst to unleash and study this transformation. The hardest part of my work is to smash so many figurines until I find one that truly is showing me something new. I am in that sense a sculptor, but I have only a 5000th of a second to build my sculpture.”
- Martin Klimas, interview @ The Morning News: link.
Via Boing Boing.
Tue 21 Aug 2007
“Global Cities looks at the changing faces of ten dynamic international cities: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.”
Saõ Paulo: an apartment building for the wealthy overlooks a favela, ironically called Paraisópolis (Paradise city). Photo: Luiz Arthur Leirão Vieira
Exploring each city through five thematic lenses – speed, size, density, diversity and form – the exhibition draws on data originally assembled for the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2006 Venice Biennale. This unique show presents existing films, videos and photographs by more than 20 artists and architects to offer subjective and intimate interpretations of urban conditions in all ten cities.
[Tate Modern: Link]
Wed 25 Jul 2007
Via Boing Boing: “Chris Jordan renders American consumer statistics as art. For instance: above, 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day. At left, an idea of what the 60 x 100″ piece looks like from a distance; at right, detail view.”
How do you negotiate the concepts and ideas behind your photographs, and any attempt to create or find beauty through your work?
That’s a very interesting question. At the very beginning of my Intolerable Beauty series, I had this idea that the images had to be beautiful in order for people to be interested in them. I thought that if I made an ugly image, no one would want to see it. If I can make a beautiful image of a difficult subject then the beauty will draw the viewer in and they’ll spend some time with the beauty part and the message will sort of seep in. I went with that notion for the longest time, but part of what got me started on Running the Numbers is that when I would show my work, especially the Intolerable Beauty series, all people would talk about was how beautiful it was. I found that the beauty was actually getting in the way of the message I was trying to convey.
ked to that image and they were talking about how beautiful it was.[Link]
Personally, I find it beautiful, in the manner of schooling fish.
Wed 13 Jun 2007
Mark Hurst reports on morgueFile: public image reference archive
… If you aren’t the copyright holder of a particular image you want to use in you blog, you need to get permission from the copyright holder first.However, you are free to download and use photos from Morguefile.com, a large searchable archive of beautiful, high-resolution photos (like the one shown here). You can even use them for commercial purposes.
[Mark Hurst: Rule the Web]
See Also:
How To Find Great Free Photos for Your Blog by Andrew Ferguson
