Category: Photos & Art

Liquid Sculpture — High-speed and Fine Art Photography of Drops and Splashes.

Luis was thinking snow when the weather got cooler in Denver earlier in the week, but I bet he wasn’t thinking of it like these Snowflake and Snow Crystal Photos.

Amazing.

Another great photo from Astronomy Picture of the Day!

Click photo to enlarge.

NewMexiKen managed to take 56 out-of-focus photographs this morning of the new Sweetie, his parents and sister. Funny how not checking to make certain the lever was on Automatic Focus can turn a simple task into a frustrating nightmare.

Fortunately others, wiser than I, were present.

Perhaps some knowledgeable reader can tell NewMexiKen what these flowers with the striking blue color are. They were found along the walkway to the Panda Pavilion at the National Zoo.

It’s a quarter to four and NewMexiKen can’t sleep. Wandering around the house in the dark just to stretch I look out and see a gold-to-orange moon setting over the city lights. That would make a wonderful photo I think.

So I get the still new Nikon out and try — foolishly, of course — to take a picture while holding the camera. After two tries I realize that isn’t working. So I get the tripod and set it up. I’m in front of the house trying to hurry. The moon is getting too low (how come it seems to move so fast when you don’t want it to?) but finally I’m ready.

Flash!

I have no idea why it flashed. Damn camera seems to have a mind of its own, one more clever than mine I fear. What I can’t figure now is why the sheriff hasn’t shown up yet to see why I’m taking flash photos outdoors at four in the morning. To pay back all the neighbors whose lights flood my yard I’d say.

The photo isn’t good — not sharp at all. But I thought you might like it. (It’s well cropped.) I’ve titled it, “The View at Four with Flash,” or “Are You Sure Ansel Adams Started This Way?”

Nikon has made major upgrades to the firmware for the D70. These include the auto-focus and design of the menus.

but it sure can buy art. Sam Walton’s daughter Alice bought Asher B. Durand’s lovely “Kindred Spirits” at auction last week for $35 million. It was sold by the New York Public Library to raise funds.

Reportedly another interested party was Bill Gates.

Here’s a look at the painting, in case you wondered what $35 million gets you these days.

Chimp art.

Walter Mossberg has his “annual guide to buying a digital camera.”

Key points:

• More megapixels don’t always mean better pictures.
• [I]gnore digital zoom completely when shopping for a camera.
• Be sure your camera has both an optical viewfinder and an LCD viewing screen.

… was born on this date in 1889.

Named after his great-uncle, Missouri’s first senator, Thomas Hart Benton was born on 15 April 1889 in Neosho, Missouri, an Ozark town of 2,000 people. … In 1935 they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Benton directed the Art Institute until 1941, and where he contiued to live for the rest of his life. Albert Barnes, the Philadelphia collector, purchased some of his paintings, which raised the level of public success for the artist. Benton published his autobiography, An Artist in America, in 1937. He completed several murals in the midwest and on the east coast. Shortly before Harry Truman’s death in December 1972, Benton finished a portrait of the former President. Thomas Hart Benton died on 19 January 1975 in Kansas City, the day he completed a large mural for the Country Music Foundation of Nashville.

National Gallery of Art

Click on the painting to see larger version.

NewMexiKen had been wanting to organize the photos on my computer for some time and finally got it done (mostly) this week. At the moment there are 4,010 digital photos and more than half are of the four sweeties — my grandchildren, the oldest of whom is four.

I’m considering software to enable you to view all 2,149 grandchildren-related photos and will let you know.

The Best of PhotoJournalism 2005. Lots and lots of great photos to click.

NewMexiKen never thought of it this way before, but the very informative and useful book Photographic Composition (Tom Grill and Mark Scanlon) describes photo composition as the grammar and syntax of the visual arts.

A language without any rules or conventions is unintelligible. In the verbal medium, the applicable rules and conventions are called grammar and syntax. Effective communication requires that all parties involved know and employ the agreed-upon grammar and syntax patterns. …

In the language of the visual arts, grammar and syntax are called composition, which we define as the controlled ordering of the elements in a visual work as the means for achieving clear communication.

The authors believe that visual communication was much more primary until the invention of the printing press and that since humans have unlearned much of their ability to express themselves visually.

NewMexiKen has ordered a new camera and is reviewing the online literature in preparation for its delivery next week. I thought this was pretty good advice:

When using the viewfinder
When operating the diopter adjustment control with your eye to the viewfinder, care should be taken not to put your finger in your eye accidentally.

Anyone have anything negative to say about the Nikon D-70?

Dangerousmeta! has a lovely set of sunset photos taken this evening in Santa Fe.

The NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.

the art critic known as Sister Wendy was born on this date in 1930. See the PBS web site Sister Wendy’s American Collection. Also, The Writer’s Almanac has a few paragraphs about Sister Wendy.