View allAll Photos Tagged Inherently
Photographs record lost moments, lost objects, lost people. They are inherently nostalgic, offering a tangible trace of what was and that which remains.
Anne Zahalka, 2018
This look-up of Wolfgang Buttress' "The Hive" was captured beneath the open-air structure which recently opened inside Kew Gardens. The abstract installation is 17 metres tall and weighs close to 40 tonnes, with its 170,000-piece aluminium latticework originally forming the centrepiece of the UK Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo, where it won the gold-medal for best pavilion.
At a distance the structure resembles a giant swarm of bees, but standing inside it is an immersive and strangely serene experience, with 1,000 LED luminaries and a low meditative humming both controlled by the activity of bees inside an actual hive located nearby. The installation is also intended to highlight the worrying decline in bee population in the UK, and to provide a visual symbol of their role in feeding the planet given that they pollinate 70 of the most important crops we eat.
Between my visits to the location, the installation was heavily advertised across London's underground stations and saw a significant influx of visitors during the school holidays, effectively removing the opportunity to photograph the structure when it's empty. Kew Gardens was already the 15th most-visited attraction in the UK last year, and given the installation's upper-tier glass floor and its educational elements, it's easy to see the family-friendly appeal. During my first visit, however, I was able to capture the image I wanted, narrowly missing several entertaining opportunities to incorporate children into my photo, many of whom had discovered they could crawl across the upper glass floor, peer down at the person holding a camera beneath them and wave enthusiastically. As challenging as it was to capture this shot, it was also a lot of fun.
The image was taken by resting my camera flat on the ground and triggering the shots with a shutter remote. I captured multiple exposures in order to later blend them using luminosity masks in Photoshop, which was invaluable as the mid-morning sun was already high by the time Kew Gardens opened and the darker exposures allowed me to tone down the highlights, while the brighter exposures allowed me to recover the detail in the metal latticework. Once this phase of the workflow was complete, I shifted the balance of the image towards a muted blue tone using a combination of Colour Balance, Selective Colour and Colour Lookup adjustments. After this, I applied a Solid Colour adjustment set to Soft Light, with a layer mask created using Apply Image to target the highlights. Using this, I added a pale yellow tone back into the centre of the image, where sunlight was casting a gentle glow against the aluminium. I then gradually blended in brighter exposures at the centre of the image using a radial Gradient Mask, as well as darker exposures with an inverted version of this Gradient Mask to create a natural vignette. This was important to me as I felt it was what gave the overall image its shape and depth, and the softer and slightly warmer tones at the tip of the structure are what draw the viewer's eye to the centre of the frame.
The final touches were made in Colour Efex Pro, with a sparing amount of the Detail Extractor filter applied to bring out some of the texture in the metalwork, as well as Pro Contrast to intensify the sunlight overhead and give the pattern in the latticework a little more definition. For me, this final stage of editing was when the latticework gained its impact and when it became possible to see how perfectly the structure reflects the natural organisation and arrangement of a bee hive. Despite the industrial and inherently man-made aspects of the metalwork, there's something elegant, organic and fundamentally beautiful about the structure's interlocking pieces and overarching geometry, which perhaps reflects the harmony within nature and underscores the thought that went into this installation's design.
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© Copyright John C. House, Everyday Miracles Photography.
www.everydaymiraclesphotography.com
All Rights Reserved. Please do not use in any way without my express consent.
One of the things I like about mushrooms is how often they are inherently abstract, leaving the mind to explore possibilities. The undersides mostly fascinate me because they look like coral or some undersea scene. This time, I’m reminded of a storm cloud, the way they sometimes blow up out of the horizon. Black and white makes it easier to focus only on form, so for this one I removed the color. What do you see?
A picture of a picture. I was mesmerised by the contrast. There's something inherently fun for me enjoying the seasons first snowfall. The young lady seems to be doing pretty well defending herself against her two opponents. I believe it was my aunt dishing out the snowballs.
Now many will think that his bird is performing nest building activities. The reality is this: I'm inherently lazy and do not like to leave the Ram to look for or set up perches. This year - you want to be photographed? bring your own perch...
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Despite being inherently photogenic I've tried without success to photograph the Thomas Heatherwick Paternoster Vents several times. I think this shot taken back in February is getting close to the result I think is possible.
Click here to see more of my 'alternative' London photos : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157647920607519
From 'Learning to look at sculpture' by Mary Acton, "At the end of a narrow pedestrian alleyway off Paternoster Square near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London are a pair of stainless-steel “angel’s wings” 11 meters high. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the sculpture actually serves a practical purpose: It provides ventilation for an electrical substation below ground. Cool air is sucked in through grids on the ground, and hot air is conducted through the sculpture and released high overhead.
“The commissioner had been exploring options that involved creating a single structure that housed both inlet vents and outlet vents,” Heatherwick wrote. “It made a large bulky object that dominated the public square around it, reducing it to little more than a corridor. As this was a sensitive location near St. Paul’s, we decided to make it our priority to shrink the visible mass of the vent structure to a minimum.”"
© D.Godliman
I guess one thing about being "positive" is that you've got to stay away from people for a while. Luckily, I'm feeling well and have a hobby that inherently lends itself to "social distancing". After scooping the driveway once this morning, a small band of flurries came through as Amtrak was on approach. I decided I'd go try a different view of a familiar location so that I could get some "ICE" with the snow.
De KMSKA Collectie - Het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
Zeven eeuwen kunst: van Vlaamse primitieven tot expressionisten. Wereldberoemde meesters.
KWAAD
De strijd tussen goed en kwaad. Dat is de plot van het christelijke verhaal sinds Adam en Eva. Duivelachtige figuren zijn de personificatie van het kwaad. Ze zijn de vijanden van het geloof en verleiden ons tot het nemen van slechte beslissingen.
De vele Bijbelse verhalen over goed en kwaad bieden kunstenaars volop inspiratie. (…) Engelen vallen, net als mensen, en veranderen in monsterlijke duivels.
De strijd tussen goed en kwaad is nog steeds actueel in de kunst. Maar wie of wat is het kwaad? Komt het kwaad van buitenaf, of zijn wij van nature slecht?
Tobias Verhaecht (1561-1631)
Jan Brueghel I (1568-1625)
Toren van Babel
Bron : info panelen in het museum en naast het kunstwerk
‘De 10’ is een avontuurlijke ontdekkingsreis door het museum voor kinderen en hun familie.
Waarom staan al die bevreemdende beelden in het museum? Kunstenaar en operaregisseur Christophe Coppens creëerde tien verrassende installaties en sculpturen, geïnspireerd door opmerkelijke details uit schilderijen. Ze staan doorheen het hele museum, gewoon tussen de collectie. Vind jij het bijbehorende detail in het schilderij? Laat je verbeelding helemaal de vrije loop.
Bron: kmska.be/nl/de-10
--------------------
The Collection of KMSKA - Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
Seven centuries of art: from Flemish Primitives to Expressionists. World-renowned masters.
EVIL
The battle between good and evil. That has been the plot of the Christian story since Adam and Eve. Devil-like figures are the personification of evil. They are the enemies of faith, seducing us into making bad decisions.
The Bible’s many stories about good and evil provide inspiration in abundance for artists. (…) Angels fall as well as people and turn into monstrous devils.
The struggle between good and evil is still topical in art. But who or what is evil? Does evil come from outside, or are we inherently evil?
Tobias Verhaecht (1561-1631)
Jan Brueghel I (1568-1625)
Tower of Babel
Source: information panels in the museum and next to the artwork
‘The 10’ is an adventurous journey of discovery through the museum for children and their families.
Why are all these strange sculptures in the museum? Artist and opera director Christophe Coppens has created ten surprising installations and sculptures, inspired by remarkable details from paintings. They are placed throughout the museum, just amongst the collection. Can you find the corresponding detail in the painting? Let your imagination run wild.
Source: kmska.be/en/event/10
Enlarger lenses are curious creatures. They are made to be as sharp and to have as neutral colours as possible. No coating either. At the end you do not want that your enlarger spoil that photo made with your very special lens or change its character.
Does that make them boring. Well, yes and no. Typically, they are made to perform at its peak on certain distance from the photographic paper. Not at infinity range. So ween used at that peak distance they produce very sharp and clean images. Not overly contrast. Enlarger lenses are also usually slow or very slow. That makes them not a good candidate for bokeh photos or portrait lenses. In fact, they are often see not good for anything other than macro photography. And yes, you may get yourself an excellent macro for a fraction of dedicated macro lens. But, with a lot of patience and try and error those lenses may surprise at all situations.
This Tominon 75mm f4.5 is no exception. There is nothing inherently flashy in it. But it may be gentle with the background and pop the edges if we come to a right distance.
Taken with a Tamron Adaptall II 500mm f8 lens with an orange filter...the lens comes with 4 rear fitting filters (one neutral density, one yellow, one orange and one red), largely, I think, for use with B&W film to increase contrast while the ND filter could be used to reduce shutter speed. The lens has inherently low contrast, a fixed aperture of f8 and older cameras with mechanical shutters didn't always have super fast shutters...my oldest, an Olympus OM1n went to 1/1000.
Anyway, I used to use one of these lenses 30 plus years ago and found it was great for silhouettes and additional fun was to be had using the filters: as here. This is a moorhen on a rock in a pond...you had to be there...
[DSC_4207b]
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A monochrome version of my previous upload, I've enhanced the textures too using a Topaz Adjust plug-in. It's 'too close to call' for me which I prefer so I'd be interested to see what other people think ?
Despite being inherently photogenic I've tried without success to photograph the Thomas Heatherwick Paternoster Vents several times. I think this shot taken back in February is getting close to the result I think is possible.
Click here to see more of my 'alternative' London photos : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157647920607519
From 'Learning to look at sculpture' by Mary Acton, "At the end of a narrow pedestrian alleyway off Paternoster Square near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London are a pair of stainless-steel “angel’s wings” 11 meters high. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the sculpture actually serves a practical purpose: It provides ventilation for an electrical substation below ground. Cool air is sucked in through grids on the ground, and hot air is conducted through the sculpture and released high overhead.
“The commissioner had been exploring options that involved creating a single structure that housed both inlet vents and outlet vents,” Heatherwick wrote. “It made a large bulky object that dominated the public square around it, reducing it to little more than a corridor. As this was a sensitive location near St. Paul’s, we decided to make it our priority to shrink the visible mass of the vent structure to a minimum.”"
© D.Godliman
"We often block our own blessings because we don’t feel inherently good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, or worthy enough. But you’re worthy because you are born and because you are here. Your being alive makes worthiness your birthright. You alone are enough.” - Oprah Winfrey
Slow synch flash with shutter at 3 seconds. Used tripod with panning of stationary Matchbox VW which measures 1 5/8 inches in length. Required a number of attempts playing with Exposure Triangle variables to achieve the desired effect of the car being more or less in focus while simultaneously giving the illusion of it being in motion. Alternate image of 5 x 5 x 25 mm multi-colored blocks is technically good but cars are inherently associated with motion and wooden blocks not so much: www.flickr.com/gp/blackjackstone/Aa5473
It's funny looking back this now, but all this superhero costuming stuff started off as a practical joke. Back in 2004, City of Heroes held their first Halloween "dress as your character in real-life" costume contest, and I was playing on-line quite a bit with my real-life friends up in Michigan. So for a bit of fun, I decided to enter the contest without telling them and then wait to hear their reactions when they saw me on the web site! (Figuring they might not recognize me, but they'd recognize one of my characters.)
The problem was, I didn't know if they'd post all the entries or just the winners, so I figured I needed to try for at least runner-up in one of the categories or they might never see the pictures. So, "game on." I'd never really made my own costume like this before so I knew I wouldn't be skilled enough to win Best Overall or Best Male. "Best Female" I was disqualified for, obviously. (Though that might prove to be *less* obvious later, haha!) So the only categories left were Most Humorous or Most Daring. Looking at my characters, none of them were inherently humorous, so I looked for possible "daring" entries, figuring that my utter lack of shame would serve me well. Enter Avonlea.
Apart from the gender swap (which definitely qualified for "daring"!), the costume wasn't too complicated, which was good. And a few years earlier I'd dressed as a Hooters Girl for Halloween at work, so the cross-dressing didn't freak me out overmuch. Once I realized that the Jefferson Memorial would be a good stand-in for Paragon City Hall, I figured I had a pretty good shot at Most Daring, assuming I had the guts to go down in DC dressed like that!
And it worked! I actually won Most Daring overall! In fact, I think I overshot the mark a little...afterwards I heard that a couple of the judges who didn't know I was a man at the time had voted for me for "Best Female" or "Best Female Runner-Up.") :-)
I scored some cool prizes like an iPod and digital camera, but the most fun (and yes, the most geeky) prizes were a custom in-game title for my character ("Costume Bohemeian 2004"), and--my favorite--an appearance in the City of Heroes comic book! Avonlea had a pretty big part in issue 11 (and a tiny tiny cameo in issue 12) with some of the other costume contest winners. Sweetness!
Oh, and my friends' reactions were PRICELESS. :-)
Here's the side-by-side shot I submitted for the contest, with the Jefferson Memorial playing the role of Paragaon City Hall.
"All Souls College, The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, was established by Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, with King Henry V1 as its formal co-founder. The Archbishop was making preparations for this, his second Oxford foundation, as early as 1436, but its foundation stone was not laid until St Scholastica's Day (10 February) 1437/8.
Chichele restricted the number of members to a Warden and forty Fellows, all of whom were to have studied for three years in the University and to be between eighteen and twenty-five years of age on election. Chichele's twofold aim was that his college should produce a learned clerical 'militia' to serve Church and State, and that it should also be a chantry where the Fellows should pray for the souls of the faithful departed and of those killed in the French wars - in particular for members of the House of Lancaster, with which Chichele had close political connections.
Chichele was able to acquire an enviable site for his college on the corner of High Street and Catte Street, and close to the church of St. Mary the Virgin, where much University business was then conducted. The college buildings, like its statutes, were modelled to a considerable degree on those of New College.
The quadrangle seen here is by Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661 - 1736). All Souls is among the best known and most successful of Hawksmoor’s works. The North Quadrangle is by no means a piece of traditional Gothic architecture. The windows of the Hall and the Library contain no tracery, and the pinnacled buttresses serve no obvious structural purpose. The whole lacks, moreover, the inherently organic quality that is the principal characteristic of the Gothic. His work is in fact unequivocally classical in conception, if not in appearance. As late as 1714, Hawksmoor was providing designs for the North Quadrangle ‘after ye Grecian Manner’, complete with pedimented Palladian towers and two-tiered Venetian windows. However, it seems inconceivable that he would have followed such a design. He was a strict classicist, intellectually incapable of flouting the fundamental principles underlying the classical system of architecture, particularly its insistence on symmetry and harmony. The desire for conformity had compelled Christopher Wren to choose the Gothic for Tom Tower at Christ Church, although he would have preferred to build in what he described as ‘a better form of Architecture’. A similar compulsion informed the architectural choice at All Souls. Although the Chapel had been built in a manner antithetical to the tenets of classicism, that self-same classicism required that the buildings of the North Quadrangle should correspond both in form and in style to it. This meant that the vocabulary of the building would be Gothic. Its grammar, however, would remain strictly classical."
- Extract from www.all-souls.ox.ac.uk/about/architecture.php
© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved
Candid street photography from Glasgow, Scotland.
A bit of 'Fun for Friday' with this shot. While I wish the legs may have lined up a little better there is something just inherently humorous about the fact that they don't. Enjoy and I wish you all a wonderful and creative weekend ahead!
I knew I would get along with Heather when she told me she was a fan of legendary guitarist Phil Keaggy. I've been a Keaggy fan since about 1974. Yes - I'm that old. Keaggy converted to Christianity as a young man and had made an album (I mean vinyl - before CD's) called "What a Day." He had written all the songs, played all the instruments, sang all the vocals. In short it was amazing work, but the clincher was that it was okay with God. Back then, there were few Christian artists playing in the rock venue because the genre was thought to be inherently evil. So I thought it was especially kind of God to have snagged Phil so that I could still listen to music that I actually liked.
Okay, that was a long time ago. I don't listen to much of the music of that period in my life now, but I still love Phil. And I love Heather's laugh. I don't remember what I said, or maybe it's because my fly was open, but she does look like she's having fun.
The Northern Lights have always fascinated me, and I feel so privileged that I had a second opportunity to photograph them on this trip. The aurora was blasting across the night sky on many occasions, sometimes obscured by cloud cover... but on clear nights the dancing sky was beautiful to watch. This is one frame that I've edited out of a time-lapse sequence.
This was shot with a fisheye lens, and the horizon line was corrected using various tools in Photoshop (mostly Warp and Liquify). I enjoy playing with the colours and details in photographs like this, bringing out the blues in the night sky without affecting the greens, all the while trying to bring out the subtle purple tones mixed in between.
These displays can be somewhat surreal to people who don't live in this region, or ordinary occurrences that are taken for granted by those that see them frequently. Even to those people who see these dancing lights as commonplace, these photos can still capture a certain "magic" that the human eye doesn't perceive.
Part of that has to do with perspective, and a 180 degree view from a fisheye lens is helpful. In my case, I had to work carefully with my lens as it was misbehaving and the aperture blades would get stuck. It's in for repairs now, but I had to find a solution in the field - shooting wide open at F/2.8 solved the problem, which in turn allows me to shoot at a faster frame-rate and freeze the dancing lights in place. F/2.8 is usually not a common aperture for landscape photographers, but fisheye lenses have an inherently greater depth of field at any given aperture.
I've only just begun digging though images that I've photographed in the past month, but I can already tell you that my travels were well worth it. :)
The Patundas trek in Pakistan involves a glacier crossing, specifically the Passu Glacier, which is considered a technical but not overly difficult part of the trek. Expert guides are typically available to assist trekkers, ensuring a safe crossing . While the crossing itself isn't inherently extremely challenging, the glacier's dynamic nature means conditions can vary, potentially requiring extra caution .The trek is most enjoyable during the short but beautiful summer season, with wildflowers and lush green pastures. A big thank you to everyone who took time to comment and take a look at my photo. Much appreciated!
What I'll do is, I'll go back and look at the other shots I've posted from this shoot with McKenzie, see what I've already talked about, see if it I've left an aspect of the shoot unremarked upon, or if I want to say more about her, or the day, or the way I was feeling.
What happened this time, I also noticed the old comments left on one of the pictures, I was talking about how folks approach learning photography in the internet age, and boy did that result in a long discussion, back and forth and back and forth.
I think I put one guy off commenting on my photos Permanently.
A little more digging, found a comment thread where a guy decided to offer some unsolicited criticism, tore into him for that one.
All of that is to say this: wow, I really used to get into it with people online! The guy who took this picture also had some Very Strong Opinions that he would spend hours debating and defending.
Because the internet, to me, was more lively, back then. I felt it was worth mixing it up with people if they were being rude, or missing the point.
Folks would always marvel at the time I spent...but I had (and still do have) loads fo free time. Always felt to me like mental exercise, going in on a guy because he decided today was the day he'd give me some advice about a subject he (based on his own work) knew very little about.
Or arguing with someone about how the way they learned photography (just looking at photos online) was inherently flawed.
Even talking about it now, I could type forever! But from this vantage point...I could've been kinder. Could've been more Kurt Vonnegut about it all.
Nowadays, someone throws a comment my way that irks me, I give it time. I let it settle. I talk it over with friends, find some perspective, imagine where the person might be coming from.
There are more effective ways, I've found, to both have a disagreement...and to put someone in their place.
I am wiser, sure, but also more cunning.
I was born with the wrong sign
In the wrong house
With the wrong ascendancy
I took the wrong road
That led to the wrong tendencies
I was in the wrong place at the wrong time
For the wrong reason and the wrong rhyme
On the wrong day of the wrong week
I used the wrong method with the wrong technique
Wrong... Wrong...
There's something wrong with me chemically
Something wrong with me inherently
The wrong mix in the wrong genes
I reached the wrong ends by the wrong means
It was the wrong plan
In the wrong hands
The wrong theory for the wrong man
The wrong eyes on the wrong prize
The wrong questions with the wrong replies
Wrong... Wrong...
I was marching to the wrong drum
With the wrong scum
Pissing out the wrong energy
Using all the wrong lines
And the wrong signs
With the wrong intensity
I was on the wrong page of the wrong book
With the wrong rendition of the wrong look
With the wrong moon, every wrong night
With the wrong tune playing till it sounded right yeah
Wrong... Wrong (Too long)... Wrong (Too long)...
I was born with the wrong sign
In the wrong house
With the wrong ascendancy
I took the wrong road
That led to the wrong tendencies
I was in the wrong place at the wrong time
For the wrong reason and the wrong rhyme
On the wrong day of the wrong week
I used the wrong method with the wrong technique
Wrong!!!
© Todos los pinches derechos reservados.
When we go through the process of dealing with raging emotions, it can feel as if we are closed off from the world. The deeper truth that we are inherently connected to everything around slips through our fingers... but it only takes a moment of grounding to realize that often, blinded by pain, we are the creators of our very own isolation 🌊 (and what you create, you can change)
That's what I see in this, however, feel free to come up with your very own interpretation 💙
You can see the behind the scenes on my instagram:
I'm finding less and less separation these days between the parts of my brain that handle image capture and the ones devoted to image processing. These brain parts were once very distinct and didn't mix well. But I've come to conclude that thinking is inherently self limiting. The creativity need not end the moment the shutter is pressed. Sometimes the image is 85 or 90 percent there in that 125th of a second the shutter might be open. Other times the percentage is way less. Quite often I come home with parts of good image spread across several hundred frames. I'll scroll through and think, wow, I love that part of this photo, but not that. More often I'll discover things I didn't notice at the time and decide to play them up in processing. Or sometimes I'll just feel completely different about an image than I did when the scene was unfolding before me. Such was the case here, a brilliant autumn day, resplendent with richly saturated color. That really all I could see at the time. It's funny how sometimes color totally props up a marginal photo; other times it actually interferes. This one fell into the latter column. I was taken with the tonal values and the illumination effect of autumn leaves reflecting bright sunlight. Gives a sort of infrared quality that I love. It's ethereal, otherworldly, and ties in wonderfully with a feeling that often have in old cemeteries. The sky tones and textured effect of the clouds ties it all together in a way that was lost in full color. People sometimes see me out with the camera on a day like this and ask if I'm getting any 'pretty' pictures. Always makes me smile. The answer is always yes, but the prettiness is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
As long as you see life superior to other forms in which you exist, none of my views will make much sense to you.
The more I think about it, the more does it seem like some kind of multiplayer game where the soul logs in, to learn a few lessons it specified before. You know the jokes people sometimes tell when someone died, saying "they logged out of the server", or got kicked, or rage-quitted, whatever the circumstances in each case may be? Maybe those are not all that far from the truth, actually.
Except, this game is not inherently supposed to be fun. It can be if you know how to play it, but really, entertainment is secondary. It's a form of stamina boost, to keep you fueled to follow the quests you took on. Main quests, side quests, the so-called random encounters that, in reality, are entirely scripted and premeditated by the programmers.
Some philosophers have summarized it, the point of life is to suffer. Which is an over-simplification, but not entirely wrong either. The point is learning, growing, and often that isn't fun, and not easy either.
Even for the absolute pros at the game, the fact remains, the soul, aka the higher self, the player who is looking at the screen and holding the controller, would probably prefer to be doing something else than this crap now. Their ultimate reward is when they can log off and know they've really achieved something this session.
But I totally dig that graphics engine.
To cultivate the right instrument of perception, there must be no comparison, for when you compare you cease to understand. If you compare, approximate, you are being merely Competitive, ambitious, and your end then is success in which inherently is failure. Comparison implies a pattern of authority according to which you are measuring and guiding yourself. The oppression of authority cripples understanding. Comparison may produce a desired result but it is an impediment to self-knowledge. Comparison implies time and time does not yield understanding - J Krishnamurti
Epic Fine Art Laguna Beach Victoria Beach Sunset LAndscape Seascape: The Golden Ratio in Dr. Elliot McGucken's Fine Art Photography: Nikon D810
More on my golden ratio musings: facebook.com/goldennumberratio
instagram.com/goldennumberratio
Greetings all! I have been busy finishing a few books on photography, while traveling all over--to Zion and the Sierras--shooting fall colors. Please see some here: facebook.com/mcgucken
Let me know in the comments if you would like a free review copy of one of my photography books! :)
Titles include:
The Tao of Epic Landscape Photography: Exalt Fine Art with the Yin-Yang Wisdom of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching!
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography
And I am also working on a book on photographing the goddesses! :) More goddesses soon!
Best wishes on your epic hero's odyssey!:)
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after, thusly providing symmetry over not only space but time, and exalting life’s foundational dynamic symmetry. Robust, ordered, symmetric growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life—in the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in the arrangement of nature’s discrete elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which they and all their vital sustenance, as well as all the flowers and nature’s epic beauty, had been created—the golden ratio.
Parts of 9 different procamera photos combined in iColorama.
(A Self Portrait is calculated & displayed to read as art. A selfie is a mode of conversation, inherently contextual and often ephemeral. Selfies may also be self-portraits, and both may also be art.).
Fall colors in Mono County yesterday.
The fall colors this year have been somewhat disorderly, with early-turning trees that have already dropped leaves mixed with remaining green trees and peaking oranges and yellows. But that's more normal than not. Nature is inherently chaotic; it doesn't follow predictions, our desire for order. That's part of the adventure and reward of nature photography: the capacity for what you discover to exceed your preconceived expectations.
Film isn't really either good or bad, or at least its effects are neither. Some films have really strong characteristics to them, take this Lomochrome Purple for example. It is easy to love, it is easy to hate, it is easy to dismiss as a gimmick film.... except it isn't really gimmicky at all. No film/lens/filter/processing technique is really gimmicky. What is gimmicky is how photographers use them. So even though it took my like six months to load up a second roll of this stuff after I tried it for the first time back in the spring, it wasn't because I thought the film was gimmicky, or bad or whatever. I was just slowly mulling over its characteristics, brainstorming potentially the best way to use those features, letting my imagination figure out a way to make it work best. That is what it all comes down to in just about everything in photography - you. Can you figure out how to use the light? The lens? The film? The Photoshop filter? These things are neither inherently good nor bad, gimmicky nor genius. Rather it is how they are employed by photographers, matching them up to ideas and content and subject matter. If the film works, it is because you made it work. If the light is good it is because you used it well. Holgas are only crappy cameras if you use them like crappy cameras.
Remember all that, it will help.
As for this image, it was raining so hard my Holga was the only camera brave enough to come out and play with me. I happened to be feeling in the mood to work with this film again. The rest, as they say, is photography.
Istanbul 2010, provia 400
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Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.
— Denis Waitley
Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Unified Theory of Absurdity as imagined by Deep AI
Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson has proposed a unified theory of absurdity in which he suggests that absurdity does not exist in the universe, but it is a product of human perception. Tyson argues that we, as humans, have a hard time accepting the nature of the universe and, therefore, we create absurdity to fill the void of our understanding.
According to Tyson, humans have a natural tendency to apply the human perspective to everything, ignoring the fact that the universe is vastly different from anything we can imagine. He notes that we often think in binary terms, such as good and evil, black and white, and life and death. However, the universe operates on a scale that we cannot comprehend, with phenomena that defy our simplistic understanding of the world.
Tyson asserts that human beings find it difficult to comprehend the nature of the universe, and we often struggle to accept its vast complexity. In our quest to understand the world around us, we create absurdity to fill the gaps in our understanding. For example, we often assign meaning to random events, such as seeing patterns in clouds or finding significance in coincidences — to try and make sense of our world. But this can lead to a misinterpretation of the reality before us.
Tyson explains that we often create absurdity as a coping mechanism for things that we cannot understand. Tyson suggests that we do this to feel in control of the universe, even when we are not. Additionally, Tyson argues that absurdity arises when humans try to impose their will on the universe. He notes that we often create absurdity by assuming that we know what is best for the universe, even though we cannot possibly know what the universe needs.
Tyson believes that the universe's inherent absurdity to us is a result of our limited perspective. We try to translate the universe into something that fits into our preconceived notions of how things should be. However, the universe operates on a scale so vast that it leaves us both intrigued and utterly confused, but also endlessly entertained.
Finally, Tyson posits that the universe is inherently absurd to us because it exists beyond our comprehension. He suggests that, instead of creating absurdity to fill the void of our understanding, we should be open to the mysteries of the universe and embrace the unknown.
An Alternative take on the seemingly Boundless Absurdity of the Universe
By contrast, other prominently deranged and deluded theoretical physicists believe that quantum entanglement, the phenomenon where two particles become connected and behave as one, is the cornerstone of a competing unified theory of absurdity. According to their model, they argue that the universe is full of absurd, entangled particles, each part of a cosmic joke that we humans are not meant to understand.
This alternate theory goes on to suggest that the unpredictability of quantum entanglement is what gives rise to the absurdity of everyday life. From the inexplicable behaviour of our pets to the bizarre behavior of our politicians - everything can be traced back to the strange and unpredictable behavior of these tiny particles.
This outlandish and preposterously controversial school of theoretical physics goes on to posit that the universe may, in fact, be one giant, tangled web of absurdity. They suggest that everything in the universe might be entangled and that it's only our limited perception that prevents us from seeing the interconnectedness of all things.
To take this alternative theory to its ‘logical’ conclusion, we could say that the universe is one giant cosmic joke, and that we are all just characters in a farcical play that is constantly unfolding. From the smallest subatomic particles to the most distant galaxies, everything is part of this grand absurdity, and nothing is quite what it seems.
As to the more widely accepted view, Tyson's unified theory of absurdity concludes that absurdity is nothing but a product of human perception. Overall, Tyson's theory of absurdity is a refreshing perspective on how we, as humans, interact with the universe. It encourages us to approach the universe with an open mind instead of trying to impose our will upon it. By acknowledging the complexity of the universe and our limitations in experiencing it, we can experience beauty in life's most absurd moments.
(Compiled from three separate fictitious summaries generated by DeepAI with some minor editing)
The image above was based off of three separate AI images created in Dream by Wombo, then stitched together with extensive manually cloning work in PS. A minimal oil paint filter was also applied in PS. Finally, the low-res pixelated image was smoothened and then re-sharpened in Topaz DeNoise.
Megan Fox's tattoo is a quote from Shakespeare's King Lear (Act V Scene 3): "[We will all] laugh at gilded butterflies."
- It is said by Lear, as he & his daughter Cordelia are being led to prison. Lear realizes that he has been betrayed by Regan and Goneril, and now expresses contempt for the life of the court that he has left behind. (Butterflies being inherently beautiful, to gild a butterfly is an act of human arrogance and folly, typical of the high life).
Here is the full quote, from the last act of the play:
"No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage.
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too-
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out-
And take upon 's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th' moon."
Read more: wiki.answers.com/Q/What_did_Shakespeare_mean_by_%27We_wil...
They've been digging out all the stones in the driveway to the parking lot behind my uni building the day before yesterday. They've been putting them back in yesterday, and patting them today with some flattening thingie that made a lot of noise.
I ran into the facility manager yesterday and asked him what they did that for. He said there were some bumps in the paving (which I never noticed) and that they flattened them.
Now if it was for me, some bumps, as in speed bumps, would have been pretty appropriate since the bike shed is on the other side of the driveway, and some of the automobilists are already way too fast without the bumps, so that you risk your life when passing the driveway while walking from the bike shed to the entrance.
I guess in the end it all boils down to 'provision of employment', like the rest of the holes they've been digging throughout the city. Deficit spending, economic crisis, and all. Putting two guys to work for 3 days by doing work that's inherently unnecessary. Yet I know at least five places off the top of my head in Rotterdam which need a fix more urgently than this driveway.
Maybe I should tell them about the security risk for pedestrians crossing the driveway, so that they can paint a couple of white stripes, put up some warning signs or install a neat traffic light.
Oh well, what do I know.
This could be titled "Jesus Needs a Jet" or "Spring Water Will Make You Rich" This photo is my tiny rant about the seemingly endless commercials by millionaire televangelists begging for money through blatant scams. They seem to be multiplying on cable these days.
For me there is nothing inherently wrong with televangelism. There are many godly Christian leaders who use television to advance their heartfelt beliefs. As a retired broadcast executive I can say that television makes it easier for a façade of godliness to be presented, when behind the scenes, all that is truly occurring is a fleecing of unsuspecting sheep. (Gotta' have that mansion oh yeah and don't forget to throw in a private jet)
The core cause of most televangelist scams is the belief known as the health-wealth gospel. Televangelists are the primary propagators of the idea that it is always God’s will for all Christians to be perfectly healthy and financially wealthy. The essential message of the health-wealth gospel is that if you give money, God is obligated to bless you with health and wealth.
Sorry if you find my rant offensive. That is not my intent. It's just that these guys are so full of it that I go crazy every time I'm offered magic spring water or a prayer cloth saturated with blessings which take effect when I send in a starter gift of only $49.95...
I wish they would all follow the advice given by George Burns as God in the classic 1977 movie, "Oh God!"
"You take these answers and give them to Reverend Big Mouth and you say that God says he's a phony. And also tell him, if he wants to get rich, fine, tell him to sell earth shoes. But, personally, tell him, I'd like him to shut up."
In life some things are inherently obvious and others can be relatively clandestine. Such is the case of danger. We sometimes miss the signs that would suggest that a decision could be perilous, a friend might actually be foe, or a route might be precarious. It would be unhealthy to suggest that we perpetually constrain trust but likely just as unsound to allow trust to run free and unbridled. A good rule of thumb? Get to know your environment, your chosen path, and those you would have surround you as well as you can before you lower your guard completely. For the thing that seems most docile may well be the slayer in disguise. #capebuffalo
Looking at the tags I had for this shoot, I saw "SOOC" and just started HOWLING.
Oh, what an innocent time, 2009. How naive we were!
Back then, you still had folks fighting about film versus digital, as if one was going to defeat the other.
Straight Out Of the Camera, the foolish notion that there was something superior about a photo that didn't go through any processing.
Sure! Sometimes it happens! It's great! But who cares!
It's indicative of the debate as a whole. Folks on both sides used their position as a way to claim a kind of artistic superiority. Which is just so...human, innit?
When I decided to post this image, I spent a good ten minutes..."translating" it for my current tastes. Warmer, dropped out some highlights, tweaks here and there.
What I didn't realize then, every photo, film or digital, can benefit from processing. That a photo w/o processing is no better or worse than one with processing. That no technique (or lack thereof) or tool makes a photo inherently better. All that matters is 1) did you enjoy the process and 2) do you enjoy the result.
The rest are just tools. How the magician achieves their illusion...that's just smoke and mirrors.
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Despite being inherently photogenic I've tried without success to photograph the Thomas Heatherwick Paternoster Vents several times. Also know as the 'Angels Wings', at least this shot of them is pleasingly abstract.
Click here to see more of my 'alternative' London photos : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157647920607519
From 'Learning to look at sculpture' by Mary Acton, "At the end of a narrow pedestrian alleyway off Paternoster Square near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London are a pair of stainless-steel “angel’s wings” 11 meters high. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the sculpture actually serves a practical purpose: It provides ventilation for an electrical substation below ground. Cool air is sucked in through grids on the ground, and hot air is conducted through the sculpture and released high overhead.
“The commissioner had been exploring options that involved creating a single structure that housed both inlet vents and outlet vents,” Heatherwick wrote. “It made a large bulky object that dominated the public square around it, reducing it to little more than a corridor. As this was a sensitive location near St. Paul’s, we decided to make it our priority to shrink the visible mass of the vent structure to a minimum.”"
© D.Godliman
Sometimes when you sneak-up on butterflies for a close photo, you get more than one chance instead of them directly taking off.
This means you can either try a new angle/composition, or just get even closer - but there is another option: focus stacking.
Typically focus stacking is done in the studio with a stationary (ie dead) subject and the camera on a rail and a huge number of photos, but that's not really that interesting to me. Instead, I prefer to battle the inherently short depth of field of in situ macro shots by taking multiple shots from the same angle with slightly different distance to the subject, resulting in different parts of it being in focus. Feeding these shots into stacking software like Helicon Focus or Zerene Stacker (I prefer the latter), it can then combine the sharp parts into a single image and give a bit nicer DoF.
Here is a pearly heath (Coenonympha arcania) which allowed me to take two shots without moving which I subsequently combined into one using Zerene. In fact it stayed so still that I managed a four exposure focus stack as well - you can find it in part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51864238895/
This one really has some nice detail on the beard and moustache so if you're watching this on a computer, try and tap L and then Z on your keyboard to zoom in close.
Ngl, the name's from a song, and the concept is sort of from the new Dracula series. Just the Blood telling bit, not the whole look he's got going on there.
So, this might be a new thing. A fantasy world, and the beings who live in it. This was the first I came up with, so it's only right he kicks the whole thing off. So, story time.
'In your travels in this mystic land, you may come across a being known only as the Bloodteller. Though aligned with neither the light or dark forces of this world, he is to be avoided at all costs. Though not inherently dangerous, his powers can have...undesirable effects on people. Through just a drop of blood, he can see your life, all that it holds, and all that it will hold. This ancient art, known as Bloodtelling, was thought to be long dead, the rest of the bloodtellers hunted to extinction centuries ago. But every so often a traveller emerges, claiming to have met the Bloodteller, and to have received horrifying predictions at his hands.
'Our meeting was written, written in its purest, most tangible form. It was written in the blood!'
So that's the Bloodteller. Horrifying fellow to be honest with you. But while building him, I did discover something rather exciting. Mecabricks now has the ability to re-colour printed parts, so that's definitely something I'll be taking full advantage of. So, let me know what you think, and if you'd like to see more of this fantasy world :D
With workers around the world burdened by joblessness and stagnant incomes, Marx’s critique that capitalism is inherently unjust and self-destructive cannot be so easily dismissed. Marx theorized that the capitalist system would inevitably impoverish the masses as the world’s wealth became concentrated in the hands of a greedy few, causing economic crises and heightened conflict between the rich and working classes. “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole,” Marx wrote. (C) TIME
Apparently these frogs are not inherently poisonous. Rather, they get their poison from their prey, like ants and mites.
Whether this log was originally felled for timber or if it was cut to clear a blockade in the canyon, I am unsure. Either way, it inherently notes some type of human intervention in nature. Recently I had an interesting conversation about deforestation with a few friends. We spoke about how the unregulated timber industry often clear-cut entire regions of trees for lumber. There was little thought put into recovery of the habitats or environment. In many cases, had park or forest management not been established to regulate or stop those industries, these environments would be trampled and leveled completely. There's a rough estimate that only 25% of the United State's original primary old-growth forests remain. And in the case of the largest and some of the oldest trees on earth, the Redwood and Sequoia trees, only 5% of the original coverage remains. Most of which is on public and protected park lands. The effort for conservation is an on-going battle, as those timber companies would turn those remaining groves into logs at the nearest opportunity. Through education, awareness, and visiting to observe the splendor in person, we may have a better understanding as to what we are saving for the next generation.
The light of the ultimate
All we need is the morning. As long as there is sunrise, then there is the possibility that we can face all of our misfortunes, celebrate all our blessings, and live all our endeavors as human beings.
Spirituality is something that has become necessary in these troubled times. Yet it is inherently superfluous.
We need it to remind ourselves, to bolster ourselves, to integrate ourselves, to fulfill ourselves.
If we could simply acknowledge the mystery of night and the glory of morning, we would need neither civilization nor spirituality.
We may think mornings are so common they are unworthy of veneration, but do you realize most places in the cosmos do not have mornings?
This daily event is our supreme goodness. Greet the dawn. That is your miracle to witness. That is the ultimate beauty. That is sacredness. That is your gift from heaven.
That is knowledge that life is not futile. That is enlightenment. That is your meaning in life. That is your directive.
That is your comfort. That is the solemnity of duty. That is inspiration for compassion. That is the light of the ultimate.
Sometimes when you sneak-up on butterflies for a close photo, you get more than one chance instead of them directly taking off.
This means you can either try a new angle/composition, or just get even closer - but there is another option: focus stacking.
Typically focus stacking is done in the studio with a stationary (ie dead) subject and the camera on a rail and a huge number of photos, but that's not really that interesting to me. Instead, I prefer to battle the inherently short depth of field in macro shots by taking multiple shots from the same angle with slightly different distance to the subject, resulting in different parts of it being in focus. Feeding these shots into stacking software like Helicon Focus or Zerene Stacker (I prefer the latter), it can then combine the sharp parts into a single image and give a bit nicer DoF.
Here is a pearly heath (Coenonympha arcania) which allowed me to take four shots without moving which I subsequently combined into one using Zerene.
This one really has some nice detail on the beard and moustache so if you're watching this on a computer, try and tap L and then Z on your keyboard to zoom in close.
Quite an amazing read! Especially that last paragraph.
Taken on the quite amazing rooftop of the place I intern.
It's a lot of work maintaining the illusion that gay men are inherently stylish, well-dressed creatures. But lord knows someone has to do it.
Bill a traditional Stickmaker in his workshop. 5th August 2020.
I’ve been looking a traditional stickmaker for over a year after I broke my shepherd’s crook. I photographed Bill in his workshop in deepest rural Lincolnshire where I’d taken him my crook to get it repaired. If I’m lucky it’ll be ready by the autumn and instead of an inherently weak wooden handle, this time it will have one made of Buffalo horn which looks like Whitby Jet when polished and is much stronger than wood!
Nikon D90