Two Images in December SCA Show

The SCA Project Gallery will be having its last show beginning November 14 with an opening from 6-9 pm. It will be up through December 18th. The gallery is located at 281 S. Thomas Street in the Pomona Arts Colony Area and is an excellent exhibition space, which will be sorely missed. I opened my first show there in the summer of 2010 and this Blog really began with that show. I will miss them.

I will have two images in the show. That of the "Cormorant Diving" from Yangshuo in 2012 and "Prayer Wheel" from the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, both in China.

Cormorant Diving 16 x 20 Ultrachrome Ink - $200

"Diving Cormorant" is a favorite of mine because it is an intersection of several favorable conditions, the most notable of which is that there was virtually no ambient light for this picture. That meant that virtually all of the light was provided by the flash at a favorable 1/10,000th of a second, stopping action. Aside from that, everything was on manual, including focus. I was simply checking earlier photos to see if they were in specs. Otherwise, the auto features were too slow for these conditions. After many misses, I timed this dive correctly. Note the thread in the lower right of the picture. It is the one that binds the cormorant's throat so that it can't swallow anything that it catches. The fisherman permits it to eat after a night's fishing.

Originally, I had intended a much less active image, more along the lines of the meditative composition done by Lisa Kristine. But it was not to be. We didn't get on the river until we had lost the glow of the sunset.

Prayer Wheel 36 x 40 Ultrachrome Ink - $300

This is a well-used prayer wheel found along the "Kora" or pilgrimage route around the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, Gansu Province, China. I like the tactice "well used" quality. It is large, heavy wheel and I tried to have the image reflect that. In fact, this is "quad" or set of four 16" x 20" images. (You will see four natural dividing lines on the actual print.)

So don't miss the opening on November 14, 6-9 pm. There will be a variety of other good things to see. Bob Pece always does a good job as curator.

This is part of the Second Saturday art walk, so come early to get good parking. I'll be there about 6.

DIMENSIONS: Supplement - Until January 31!

I've replaced several prints in my current show at the Forum Bookstore with recently printed 3D Anaglyphs (the red-blue glasses kind).

I've always been intrigued with ways of creating 3D images. The red-blue glasses kind has been with us for quite some time. I remember that was the way the 1953 thriller "House of Wax" with Vincent Price achieved 3D. It worked quite well. It used a stereo cinema camera with red and blue filters. It was shown with two linked projectors, one showing the left (red) image and one showing the right (blue) image.

What is less well known is that it is possible to make a stereo pair with just one camera. The several images in the DIMENSIONS show taken by me were taken with a single lens camera and then combined in Photoshop coding for left (red), right (blue). The trick of course is to take a sequence of two pictures the width of your eyes apart. I find that the brain is quite tolerant in combing these into a 3D image.

What is less less known is that it is possible to make a stereo pair from a 2D movie. The trick here is to find a movie with a lot of panning shots. You then extract two shots about the width of a pair of eyes from the movie and then combine them as above in Photoshop.

The results are quite dramatic. In part this is due to the brain's tolerance in combining the stereo pairs, but it is also due to the fact that the pan-based extracted images can be emphasized to show depth, in particular, depth extending in front of the picture plane.

So I invite you to stop by the Forum Bookstore this week to see seven examples of pan-based 3D anaglyphs. I think you will find them intriguing also. There are plenty of 3D glasses at the bookstore, so you won't have any trouble viewing them. For those who have not seen the show, there are several other 3D anaglyphs created from sequence-based (or pair-based) images.

For those who would like to view them online, let me know and I'll mail out glasses to the first 10 requests. (That exhausts my current supply. Sorry. They are, of course, available online and at party stores.)

If you can't stop by my show and have glasses you can see these anaglyphs online here at my Flickr account. The URL opens a slideshow of the album with the now familiar "Ken Burns Effect." If you are wearing your glasses, I think you'll be surprised at the 3D Information that can be garnered from a 2D film!

Forbidden City: Perspective

Printed on fabric, 27"x 60", this is also a 3D anaglyph, hinting at the scale of the Forbidden City Palace in Beijing. The near objects "float" in front of the picture space.

As with my 3D prints in general, I take two pictures separated by the width of one's eyes, then make anaglyphs of them in software.

It's possible to control to some extent whether parts of the image extend "in front" of the picture-plane towards the viewer or whether they are contained "behind" the picture frame. This image has a dramatic extension towards the viewer.

This appeared in my Cal Poly Downtown Center Show in 2004.
The show is up through January.

Pelicans - New Print

Taken at Lake Nakuru. Incredible wetlands.
Near Nairobi, Kenya

Good News! The Show Has Been Extended Through January

This gives me a chance to include some different items, including a 3D print on fabric from the Forbidden City that has quite a dramatic 3D effect showing the scale of that palace. I use a single camera to take binocular photos and merge them in software producing "anaglyphs."

Several of these are in the show in smaller sizes. Take a look at earlier postings on this blog for some examples.

Tuesday Fly By (and Flash Sale)

I'll be at the show this Tuesday, December 16th,  1-2 o'clock before I head off to Northern California for the holidays. I'd welcome a chance to see folks I've missed.

The show is up until the end of the month, but this is the time you might want to purchase one of the prints. Most are $100 (framed and matted) and there are a variety of matted but unframed prints of similar quality and subject matter for $35 and $50. They would make excellent gifts.

For those who join me on Tuesday, I'll provide an additional 10% discount on all items.

The Forum Bookstore handles all of the sales and a portion goes toward their excellent projects. If you purchase a print in the show, it will remain until the show closes at the end of the month, marked by a red dot. The matted but unframed prints may be picked up immediately, however.

Size, medium and price information are now on this blog for each of the thirteen featured prints, starting below the audio tour link. The same information is on the labels beneath the prints and on the back of the unframed prints.

The Claremont Forum Bookstore is in the old Packing House on 1st Street. The show is up during the month of December.  During the week the hours are

Sunday - Thursday • 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Friday - Saturday • 12:00 PM - 9:00 PM

The Claremont Forum Bookshop & Gallery is located on the first floor of the
Claremont Packing House at the far west end.

DIMENSIONS - Matted but Unframed Prints Available

There are a variety of prints in 11x14 and 8.5x11 inch formats available unframed but formatted. View them here. The larger prints are $50 each; the smaller, $35.