The best way to see the effects of those dammed humans… Really, it’s a cool way to view something that is useful and scary at the same time. Go to the link and then click on the [VIEW BOTH IMAGES] box below the aerials. You can then use a slider to compare the 1986 image to the 1998 one.
Piedra del Águila Dam Reshapes the Limay River : Image of the Day.
A friend of mine brought to my attention this nice little graphic from the New York Times online regarding where natural disasters tend to be, based upon historical data. Oddly, I noticed that where I live has a nice big (compared to others on this map), juicy amber circle right over it. I can’t imagine what natural disaster they might be thinking about; even snow comes in manageable amounts here.
We occasionally get minor flooding and once in a blue moon major flooding (like last year with Tropical Storm Lee). Generally speaking, this area is temperate and lovely, with hot, muggy spells in the summer, but no natural disasters.
Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster – Map – NYTimes.com.
I like to restore old photographs using Photoshop. I know that to some people that sort of work can be really mind-numbing, but I really love to do it. I suppose it is because it results in something in which you can see immediate improvement.
This example is a photo my mother had which had a mortal wound resulting from too brisk a removal from a photo album. The patient had been torn completely in two and the emulsion surface had folded in a few spots. You can see above the steps I took to remedy the situation.
I used a background layer (in this case, bright red) and then added in separate layers the bottom and then top halves of the photo to be restored [top left and right images]. After a lot to nudging and moving the two layers up and down over the red background, they finally matched up along the tear line [lower left image]. Then, using the Clone tool – set to use the top two layers – I stamped around and on the tear until it was gone. It is pretty much gone; I did have an issue with the boy’s right hand. Other than that, it is pretty decent. After that, it was just a matter of adjusting levels and making it a nice sepia shade. Below you can see the final photo:
I stumbled across a photo I took in my living room back in the late 80s when I lived in downtown Albany. What a spartan interior! All I had there was a large acrylic painting of mine from college, a teeny shelflet for my TV & stereo, one flat sheet (split lengthwise) for two windows, and two lovely Bertoia Diamond chairs – which absolutely made the place.
My photo is the very first one! Can you believe it?
desire to inspire – desiretoinspire.net – Flickr finds – Bertoia chairs.
Today I trekked up to Glens Falls to drop off a watercolor at the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council. I’m hoping it will sell – while I have a long career making art, I don’t have a long gallery career! It is located in a pretty little building in the center of town, the same city who inspired James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans.
The piece I submitted is a drawing done in Illustrator then hand colored with watercolor. I’ll make 15 of them, so they’ll all be different; Illustrator is a lot of fun to draw with. Not a whole lot different from pencil.
The Members’ Show runs from May 18th until June 22 2012 – Please come see everyone’s art!
digital drawing with watercolor, 1/158 x 10" watercolor paper May 2012 (1/15)
Scientific Illustration | Secretary Bird Sagittarius serpentarius by….
I can’t believe it! I got blogged! Groovy…
Secretary Bird - Scientific Illustration Blog on Tumblr
I just happened upon this series on PBS tonight – it is about all the stuff I am very much interested in. Patterns, nature – and tonight it happens to be about America’s “Food Factory”. Well, well! You can’t talk about that without showing those center pivot irrigation fields.
America produces so much more food than it really ought to be naturally producing, all due to artificially dragging water up out of the ground at rates and volumes so high that we’ll eventually be having wars over the stuff IMO. This is one point brought up; juxtapose this against feed-lot cattle and disappearing honeybees. It’s all quite disturbing.
One method used in the report is contrast between aerial photos of an identical areas in different years (one of my favorite things to do with aerials). It’s nice to make a point with patterns!
Years ago I went to a sales partner meeting at EROS in Sioux Falls SD. During a cool meeting there I got to see some applications of LiDAR in combination with aerial and satellite imagery.
Well – boy have things improved!
Pretty awesome quality! Just think of all the new old data we now could have access to!
Indy Goes Geek: Laser Mapping Helps Archaeologists | Wired Science | Wired.com.
I saw this really nifty real-time Wind Map today. I have nothing more to add to this other than to say it is utterly mesmerizing.
Going way back to the first job I ever had I’ve been aware of the role that water has played in the relationship humanity has with his environment. In that first job I had the fascinating pleasure of being exposed to aerial photography for (essentially) the first time.
When you see water in the landscape it becomes more obvious how great a role it plays. That’s what working with aerial photography did for me.
That first job was making wetlands maps. As the reports for each town came out, it was even more amazing and thought provoking to find out that there was a measurable percentage of wetland. One town we worked on was something like 29% wetland!
I was fascinated to learn why it is so important to conserve wetlands; I think that a lot of the value of wetlands have been brought to the forefront due to the devastating flooding following hurricane Katrina. Wetlands provide storm buffers and wildlife habitat, obviously, but also filter some contaminants from groundwater; all terrifically valuable tasks.
The Water Cycle : Feature Articles.
