Creative/Inspiration

Alien Life on Other Planets or Stars

Jeff


Aliens - Image courtesy Interdimensional Guardians via Flickr Creative Commons
Aliens – Image courtesy Interdimensional Guardians via Flickr Creative Commons

 

I have often thought that if there are “billions and billions” of stars/planets out there that other forms of intelligent life must exist. After all, what are the odds we would be the only form of life capable of thinking, inventing and exploring? If I had to bet, I would be likely to put my money on other creative life forms out there somewhere.

Then the question arises: Why Aren’t The Aliens Here Already? I mean really, how slow can they be? I would suspect that some other intelligent life would be more advanced than humans on earth and therefore should be here by now. Well…perhaps not.

Adam Frank of 13.7 cosmos & culture wrote the following in an article posted on NPR’s website:

“For today, however, let’s just consider the one answer that really matters for us, the existential one that is very, very freaky indeed: The aliens aren’t here because they don’t exist. We are the only sentient, technological species that exists in the entire galaxy.

It’s hard to overstate how profound this conclusion would be.

The consequences cut both ways.”

Read the rest of the story Why Aren’t The Aliens Here Already?.

Lightroom 6 First Panorama – Las Cruces, NM

Jeff

Readers of my blog may have noticed that I enjoy the outdoors, hiking, birding, etc. My wife and I were recently hiking in the recently created Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks National Monument in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

There were many excellent sightings that I hope to write about in the future, but for now I want to tell you about my very first attempt at creating a Panorama using Lightroom 6.

I have only been using LR for less than a year and I have been making progress in learning about the various tools. When LR 6 arrived with “built-in” panorama creation tools, I couldn’t wait to try it.

The Organ Mountains are very large and cannot be captured easily in one shot so I decided to create a Panorama.

I took the following seven pictures with hopes of being able to “stitch” them together using LR.

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama Picture 1

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama Picture 2

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama Picture 3

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama Picture 4

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama Picture 5

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama Picture 6

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama Picture 7

I wasn’t sure exactly how to accomplish this task so I searched online and found Julieanne Kost’s blog post about it. She is an excellent and gifted instructor. I have used several of her videos before. If you are interested, you can watch her video below:

I heard that when doing a panorama, one should have about a 30% overlap and although I wasn’t too exact about this, I took a guestimation as I captured the various pictures while moving my camera as level as I could across the distant view.

Here is the final result via a thumbnail-ish rendering.

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM - Panorama

You can see a large-sized image here at the link below:

Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM

The image needs a bit more editing, perhaps reducing the “noise” in the sky, etc., but I am pleased with my first attempt. Are you encouraged to try creating a panorama?

Photographic Inspiration – Tales by Light

Jeff

The video below is for a new television series, Tales by Light, which is intended to showcase photography and videography.

Below is the first paragraph from an article on PetaPixel describing this series:

“Want an incredible dose of photographic inspiration? Check out this newly-released 2-minute trailer for the new TV series Tales by Light, a new TV series that follows 5 top photographers as they take their cameras to the ends of the Earth — photographers who have an unquenchable desire to capture and share the wonders of this world with the rest of us.”

Read more about the series at the PetaPixel website – click here

Tales by Light Official Trailer HD from Untitled Film Works on Vimeo.

Photoshop As a Drawing Tool

Jeff

Can Photoshop be used as an overall Artshop?

Did you ever think that you could use Photoshop as an artist’s drawing program? And the good news is, you don’t have to start from scratch! This is an interesting video demonstrating how Bert Monroy uses Photoshop and Google Maps to create drawings of urban scenes. Could this open your mind to more creative ventures?

Inventive Teenagers Improve Our World

Jeff

As a member of an “older” generation, we often hear people decry the work ethic of today’s youths and the changes taking place within our society that we believe are negative. Of course our parents probably felt the same about the things we did “back in the day.”

Below is an inspiring video detailing how Easton LaChappelle, while he was still a teenager, began to design and create prosthetic limbs. Easton now has his own company and is working to make life better for many people who are challenged. I think you will find the video below very inspiring.

Marian Reekie has macular degeneration. When she found out that a Colorado company had electronic glasses that might be able to help her, she traveled to find out what they would be able to provide. Apparently the glasses were not what she was seeking and they cost $15,000.

Her grandson, Christopher Reekie – an eighth grader at the time, said he could create a pair of glasses for her. The video below shows how Christopher was able to initiate a Kickstarter campaign to create the visual enhancement that his grandmother needed.

What can you offer to help others who face challenges?

Can You Believe Your Eyes?

Jeff

Zach King specializes in “Vines” – six-second videos that capture a particular segment of time. These short episodes joined together will demonstrate to viewers why one cannot always believe what they see. Don’t ask me how these were done. Just sit back and enjoy the video magic that will trick your eyes in most of the short sequences.

Thanks to Zach for making these mesmerizing videos and sharing them with us. One thing I would like to know is: “Who cleans up the mess left behind in many of these sequences?”

Can Luck Help Create a Photograph?

Jeff

It has often been said that timing is everything and when it comes to photography, that may well be true in SOME instances. A recent post on the blog Photography Life titled “Shooting with Lady Luck” got me thinking about those instances when I was taking pictures and luck might have intervened.

First let me say that luck favors those who are prepared. There are numerous quotes about luck and anyone who follows my blog on a regular basis knows I collect and publish quotes. You can see my posted quotes here and one such quote by Oprah Winfrey states: “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”

One such picture of mine that comes to mind is the picture below of a Packrat that we removed from our property because it was eating our courtyard plants. Timing was all important as the cage was opened to release the critter and it ran full speed ahead to get away. It was caught just in time at the right edge of the frame.

A Packrat leaving the trap.

Another picture where luck might have played a role is the picture below of the white pelican taken at Grand Teton National Park. When I took the picture, I did not appreciate the pattern that the ripples, light and reflections made on the water and I think they add a great deal to the picture.

White Pelican at Grand Teton National Park

I can go on and on of course and I suppose you could as well. Needless to say a person with a camera needs to know how to operate it to capture the scene at hand in order to render the picture well exposed, have the appropriate depth of field and a well-composed scene. It is always nice of course, to have the fates on your shoulder helping to guide the press of the camera’s button.

Check out the article:Shooting with Lady Luck for more photographic instances of “Lady Luck” helping to guide the camera/photographer.

Do you have a picture story to share about shot you took that incorporated a bit of help from “Lady Luck?“

A-peel-ing Art

Jeff

Artists work with all sorts of media. There are fabric artists, wire sculptors, ceramicists, but very few choose food as their medium. Stephan Brusche, however, finds bananas very appealing (pun). It is one thing to have an idea, but to be able to express it creatively is a whole other thing. These interesting works of art using bananas as the expressive vehicle will demonstrate the creativity and talent of Mr. Brusche.

“Giraffe

“Noah’s

You can see more of the creative work of food artist Stephan Brusche at the boredpanda

The Contemporary Cave Man

Jeff

This is an interesting story of Ra Paulette who found his passion as a Cave Digger. The video episode below was aired on CBS Sunday Morning. Without any formal training or experience in architecture or cave digging, Mr. Paulette has become an expert at designing and building underground dwellings. Although he has been given the title of “Cave Digger,” once you see his work, you will agree he is much more than that.

So spectacular are the designs and executions of these cave dwellings, that an award winning and Academy Award nominated documentary, Cave Digger, was made. You can learn more about the film here:

Cave Digger

Before you do that, however, why not watch the Sunday Morning segment below which I assure you is quite intriguing.


“For the past 25 years, Ra Paulette has been carving out man-made caves from the sandstone hills of New Mexico, and then sculpting these spaces into works of art he calls wilderness shrines. Lee Cowan has the story of an artist who does his best work underground.”

Foodography

Jeff

I am continually inspired by the creativity exhibited on the Internet. Food photography is generally a specialty of photographing food for restaurants, recipe books, cooking blogs, etc. There is definitely a defined skill set to presenting food in a picture so that it looks as good as one would hope it tastes.

Russian artist, Tatiana Shkondina, however uses food to approximate famous works of art representing van Gogh, Dali, Picasso and others. At the site linked below, more of her work is exhibited and the original art work is “linked” for comparison. This is a lot of fun especially for art and food lovers.


Piano Made of Ice

Food-stylist and photographer
Tatiana Shkondina
www.foodphotography.ru


Tatiana Shkondina’s website

See other examples of Shkondina’s food art at DIYPhotography.