August 9, 2010
Quick quiz: Can you identify this Midwest American city?
Can you identify the city shown in this photo? Photo by James Darrell, flying to DFW from ATL. (Click for larger view)
Can you identify this Midwest city? The photo was taken about an hour outside of DFW International, flying in from Atlanta Hartsfield. North in on the right side of the photo. My quick guess was Oklahoma City, but that was when I thought the departure city was Milwaukee (it could still be OKC).
Can you shed some light, and tell why you think it’s that city?
Night flying is cool. While I enjoy flying any time, I really enjoy the views from an airplane at night.
Somewhere in the trunk of film-that-may-one-day-be-digitized, I have several photos of smaller cities along the Wasatch Front in Utah, taken during campaigns and business trips in the 1970s and 1980s. At one time I had a list of the cities in the shots, but that list is long gone. I wonder whether I could identify those cities today?
Historically, it would be interesting, since most of those small towns now are sizable suburb cities.
Chicago lays out in an orange grid of glowing citrine gemstones at night. New York City dazzles from 2,000 feet, looking better than any movie you’ve ever seen, and glowing. Dallas presents a colored outline against the black sky when you come in for a landing (or Fort Worth, with more white lights, if you’re on the west side of the aircraft coming in). Salt Lake City sparkles and spreads up the mountains and canyons. St. Louis is neat rows of lighted pathways broken by the snaking Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Washington, D.C. is a Shining City on a Hill spectacular when the weather is clear, coming down the Potomac River to National (now Reagan).
Which city is this one, above?
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Airplanes, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, photography, Transportation, Travel | Tagged: Airplanes, Aviation, Flying, geography, Night Photography, photography, Travel | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
July 8, 2010
This should be close to the top of “Best Places to Work.”
Condor flight pen observation booth – Amanda Holland photo, all rights reserved
From my desk at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee I could look up to a crystal chandelier 10 feet across. Out the west window was a view over the National Museum of Art, down the mall to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. 25 yards away, over specially-ordered Italian tile, was the gallery to the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body. From my desk at the Senate Labor Committee I looked out on that grand Calder sculpture in the Hart Senate Office Building atrium. A couple of my memorable offices.
The work spaces I miss? That water tank in Shiprock, New Mexico, with the million-dollar view of the Shiprock; that trailer laboratory we parked in Huntington Canyon, Utah. That old dock on the Sawkill in the Hudson Valley of New York, by the old snag where the pileated woodpeckers nested and raised their brood.
Cousin-in-law Amanda Holland took this photo of her work station, above. This is a place where real science gets done. Amanda wrote:
I get to sit here for hours at a time, recording condor behavior. It does not get old. These birds are AMAZING. You can see a couple condors perched on a snag in the back of the flight pen.
Real work, for real good. That’s always the best place to work.
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2 Comments | Biology, Bird Watching, Environmental protection, photography, Science, Wildlife | Tagged: Bird Watching, California Condors, Environmental protection, Life, Science, Work | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
July 6, 2010
Sculptor and conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp playing chess. Unknown photographer, via Concepts into Virtualities
Marcel Duchamp, according to Andrew Stafford:
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the painter and mixed media artist, was associated with Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism, though he avoided any alliances. Duchamp’s work is characterized by its humor, the variety and unconventionality of its media, and its incessant probing of the boundaries of art. His legacy includes the insight that art can be about ideas instead of worldly things, a revolutionary notion that would resonate with later generations of artists.
Also, he liked to play chess.
Marcel Duchamp with chess set designed by his friend, Max Ernst
The photograph at left comes from ChessMate.com:
. . . Marcel Duchamp, enjoying a chess set designed and presented to him by fellow artist, Max Ernst.
To say that Duchamp was an avid chess player would be an understatement. He played at approximately expert to master strength, and it is well known that he had — during the later part of his formidable career as a visual artist — given up the pursuit of art in favor of chess.
Here is an interesting quote about art and chess that is attributed to Marcel Duchamp:
“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art — and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.”
You will also want to see:
- “Half-naked Thursday: Eve Babitz with Marcel Duchamp,” at You Can Hire An Artist. Is it safe for work or school? The photo shows Duchamp in a gallery filled with his works at in 1963, playing chess with Eve Babitz, who is nude. (The museum is identified as the “Pasadena Art Museum,” which would be the Pasadena Museum of Art of California See the explanation from Kathleen Benton in comments; I think it more likely that the museum is the Norton Simon Museum, also in Pasadena, but showing much more modern art and European art. (The Pasadena Art Museum is wonderful, by the way — an outstanding place to spend an afternoon; the Norton Simon is one you must see in your lifetime.)
- “Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel,” by John Cage, at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
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5 Comments | Art, Chess, Museums, photography, Travel | Tagged: Art, Chess, Marcel Duchamp, Museums, Pasadena, photography, Surrealism, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
July 6, 2010
No, literally. Well, okay, 36,000 people isn’t a tiny hamlet. Still, Duncanville, Texas, is a small town in many ways.
Nice fireworks show, nothing super spectacular. But enough for me to experiment with the digital SLR on capturing images. Lessons learned: Yes, the tripod is a must; a “cable release” is essential, too; to get good color, smaller aperture settings work best; exposures over a second work best.
Duncanville, Texas, Fireworks, July 4, 2010 - Big blue blossom
Duncanville fireworks - black hole at the center of a galaxy
Duncanville fireworks - a colored crown
Duncanville fireworks - a blue aster
Duncanville fireworks - four blossoms
Duncanville fireworks - were they trying to portray Cthulu?
Duncanville fireworks - multicolor burst
These are a few of the many shots I took — more successful than in past years (why didn’t I think of the tripod before?). Generally these are the most successful fireworks shots I’ve taken since that old Kodak Hawkeye FlashFun — was it that long ago? — at the Idaho Centennial.
I wonder where those pictures are now?
The idea is to get this down to where I can set up the camera and take shots while smiling at Kathryn, whose birthday is July 4, and who thinks fireworks are for watching, forget about the hassle of photography. She’s probably right.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
July 3, 2010
Bob Dylan at the chessboard, Woodstock, New York, 1964 – low resolution version of the original photo, copyright by Daniel Kramer – Barbara Archer Galleries
A good decade before I got to Woodstock.
Daniel Kramer began photographing Bob Dylan early in Dylan’s career, making many of the best shots available.
This 1964 photo of Dylan playing chess in Woodstock, New York, featured in an exhibition of Kramer’s photographs put on by Barbara Archer Galleries in 2005.
From the exhibit’s biography of Kramer:
Daniel Kramer is a New York-based photographer and film director who is long recognized for his portraits and picture stories in national and international magazines and books. Shortly after opening his first studio in New York City, Daniel Kramer saw Bob Dylan perform The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll on television in 1964. Even after the show ended, Kramer couldn’t shake the image of Dylan from his mind. “I was completely taken by what this man had done and how he had done it. His performance was perfect. With simple, basic tools – his voice, a guitar, and a harmonica, he drove his message deep into my mind. I was aware that I was seeing a very important talent.”
In August 1964, after months of phone calls and letters to Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, Kramer was given the opportunity to arrange a portrait sitting in Woodstock, New York with the twenty-three-year old performer who was by then in the process of becoming an international star. The two men quickly developed a warm and trusting professional relationship that allowed for many extraordinary photographic sessions. “Photography has brought me into contact with many notable people, including Presidents of the United States, and I have happily had the opportunity to meet and talk with prominent people in all walks of life,” comments Kramer. “Although many of these encounters were memorable, my association with Dylan has a special meaning.”
Many of these photographs were first published in Kramer’s 1967 book bob dylan, the first major work about the performer-songwriter (reprinted as Bob Dylan: A Portrait of the Artist’s Early Years, 2001). They were also used on the album covers for Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Biograph (1985) and Bringing It All Back Home (1965), which was nominated for a Grammy and selected by Rolling Stone as one of the “100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time.” A number of rare and previously unpublished pictures by Kramer also appear in the 52-page booklet and packaging that accompanies Bob Dylan’s two-CD set, Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall – The Bootleg Series, Volume 6 (2004) and on the cover of a three-CD boxed set BOB DYLAN the collection (2004).
Daniel Kramer’s photographs have also been exhibited or collected by such museums as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The International Center of Photography in New York, The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., The Experience Music Project in Seattle, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, and in numerous national and international galleries.
An interesting three-way marriage of the young Bob Dylan, a great photographer in Daniel Kramer, and one of the world’s oldest and most respected games of skill, chess. Go see all the photos.
More:
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6 Comments | Art, Chess, History, History images, Music, photography | Tagged: Art, Barbara Archer Galleries, Bob Dylan, Chess, Daniel Kramer, History, Music, photography | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 29, 2010
Moon over Corpus Christi Bay, June 25, 2010 - photo by Ed Darrell; use permitted with attribution
This is the scene that greeted delegates to the Texas Democratic Convention as they left the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, at about 8:00 p.m. last Friday, June 25. (Natural light photo, handheld, 1/60th exposure at ISO 400)
The Moon was near full, and the tide was good for sailing.
Delegates had just heard Bill White accept the party’s nomination for governor.
In my brief period as a Sea Scout, I most enjoyed evening and night sailing. Water is astoundingly quiet at dusk and later, when sailing. In Corpus Christi I got a half-dozen shots and lamented I didn’t have a tripod, to get a better shot of the Moon.
Actually, the tide was on the way out at 8:00 p.m. — it had peaked about about 1:10. But it was still good for sailing.
I thought of Shakespeare:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
(Julius Caesar, Act IV.ii.269–276)
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2 Comments | Democratic Party, Elections, photography, Political conventions, Politics, Texas, Travel | Tagged: Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi Bay, Democratic Convention, Elections, Moon, photography, Political conventions, Politics, Sail Boat, Shakespeare, Texas, Tide in the affairs of men, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 27, 2010
Amazing photo of two Chicago buildings struck by lightning simultaneously, by Chicago Tribune photog Chris Sweda:
Dual lightning strike in Chicago, June 2010 - photo by Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune
Among other things, the photo isn’t perfect enough to suggest post-shutter-snap manipulation — you can see from other photos that the rain drops on the window disappear with a focus farther away.
Blair Kamin writing at Cityscapes discussed skepticism from readers of the Chicago Tribune about whether the strikes were really simultaneous, or instead the result of a very long exposure.
Exactly the sort of skepticism anti-warmists should have exhibited when confronted with the story of a fourth-grade student in Beeville, Texas, disproving global warming, or the story of a Spanish solar energy company sending a bomb by courier to an anti-warmist, and then bragging about it.
Kamin offers a couple of paths by which a reasonable person can determine it was a chance photo, the photographer pushing the shutter release coincidentally with a double lightning strike (see the “postscripts” section of Kamin’s post).
Were they true to their warming science, in the anti-warmist world two camps would be forming. One camp would argue the photograph was manipulated, a clever collage of two different photos, or maybe a clever use of miniatures; the other camp would argue that lightning doesn’t strike man-made objects.
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1 Comment | Climate change, climate_change, denialism, Global warming, History, How do we know what we know, photography, Science | Tagged: Chicago, Climate change, denialism, Global warming, Lightning, photography, Science, Skepticism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 24, 2010
Rachmaninoff Crater on Mercury, NASA photo
Click on the thumbnail image for a much larger version of the photo
News from NASA about a cool picture and feature on Mercury:
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved the name Rachmaninoff for an intriguing double-ring basin on Mercury. This basin, first imaged in its entirety during MESSENGER’s third Mercury flyby, was quickly identified as a feature of high scientific interest, because of its fresh appearance, its distinctively colored interior plains, and the extensional troughs on its floor. The basin’s name honors the Russian composer, pianist and conductor, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).
IAU names craters on Mercury after “deceased artists, musicians, painters and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field and have been recognized as art historically significant figures for more than 50 years.” The process of proposing a new crater name includes gathering fundamental information about the crater, such as the crater’s central latitude, central longitude, and diameter. Justification is provided as to why the crater is of sufficient scientific importance to be named, and details are provided about the name choice, including sources that support the worthy contributions made by that individual. Ten newly named craters join 42 others named since MESSENGER’s first Mercury flybyin January 2008.
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Tip of the old scrub brush to Eric Koenig.
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1 Comment | Astronomy, Music, photography, Science, Space exploration | Tagged: Art, Astronomy, Cool Stuff, Mercury, Music, photography, Rachmaninoff, Science, Space exploration | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 23, 2010
Here’s one way to make study of x-rays interesting:
Miss September - EIZO X-Ray Pinup Calendar 2010 - via A Quantum of Knowledge; ad agency, BUTTER
See this one, a couple more, and a good explanation of x-rays at A Quantum of Knowledge, “X-rated X-rays.
Um, also there is disturbing news for Kermit the Frog.
They are x-rays. Are they still too risqué for use in, say, a senior physics class? Let’s stipulate that the images are sexist (did they do any nude males?). Could they serve any educational purpose? If a physics teacher used some of these in a presentation on x-rays, would the principal and school board complain? Would they get students — males students, especially — interested in studying x-rays?
Maybe the best way to get kids interested, in the best Tom Sawyer fashion, would be to tell them not to go to A Quantum of Knowledge to look at the x-rays. Does your school’s filtering block these pictures?
A Quantum of Knowledge found out about the pictures from Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy. Phil asks the question, “Are they racy?”
Look at the comments there — it sort of boils down to the shoes, doesn’t it? Well, that, and the series of the poses. Any one of the poses might be clinically interesting as an x-ray, but together, they spell “pornography.”
Do they?
In the comments at Bad Astronomy: A discussion of footbinding in China, complete with x-rays; links to more x-rays of feet (presumably female) in stiletto heels; a discussion about whether the calendar photos from EIZO might be photo-shopped or otherwise edited, and not straight up x-rays.
Science nerds, you know?
More:
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1 Comment | Advertising, Education, Pedagogy, photography, Physics, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: advertising, BUTTER Agency, Classroom Appropriateness, Education, EIZO, Humor, Images, Science, Technology, X-ray Nudes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 20, 2010
Sarah Bernhardt, in fur, selling newspapers in Salt Lake City, March 28, 1913 - Utah Historical Society image
Just get the most famous actress in the world to hawk the newspaper on the street.
In this photo Sarah Bernhardt sells newspapers to a group of men in the street in Salt Lake City (probably State Street, but perhaps Main Street; I have not identified the building behind her in the photograph). The photograph is from the Shipler Company Collection at the Utah Historical Society.
In 1913, Bernhardt was in the early autumn of her career, with several movies but not many plays in front of her. She had lost a leg to gangrene from a badly-treated broken knee in 1905 (in Rio), but still acted in plays that she produced herself, and in movies.
The photo is dated 1913. Bernhardt conducted a tour of the U.S. in 1915. One may wonder if the date was misread from a handwritten note.
I wonder: Who are other people in the photo?
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1 Comment | History, History images, Newspapers, photography, Utah | Tagged: History, Newspapers, Photographs, Sarah Bernhardt, Utah, Utah Historical Society | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 16, 2010
Troop 1, Brownsville, Texas, May 20, 1916 - photo by Robert Runyon (The Center for American History and General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin; via American Memory, Library of Congress)
On June 15, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the law granting a national charter to the Boy Scouts of America, which had been incorporated six years earlier. The charter is now encoded at 36 USC 309.
The purposes of the corporation are to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916.
Good goals then, good goals now — maybe more important now.
Have you volunteered to be a leader?
Resources (and councils where I’ve Scouted and volunteered):
- National Council, Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
- Circle 10 Council, BSA (Dallas area)
- Wisdom Trail District (part of Circle 10, for Southwest Dallas County)
- Utah National Parks Council, BSA (Utah, south of Salt Lake County) (where I did most of my Scouting)
- National Capital Area Council, BSA (Washington, D.C. area) (where I was a Cubmaster)
- Great Salt Lake Council, BSA
- Snake River Council, BSA (serving the Magic Valley of Idaho, including Burley)
- BeAScout.org (help in finding a unit to join — but with a few glitches right now!)
- Troop 355, Duncanville, Texas (First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, of Duncanville)
Tip of the old scrub brush to the Bill of Rights Institute on Facebook.
Click here for a larger view of the Troop 1 of Brownsville, Texas, in 1916
Click here for a larger view of a second photo of Troop 1 of Brownsville, Texas, in 1916
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1 Comment | Boy Scouts of America, History, History images, photography | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, Circle 10 Council, History, History images, photography, Scouting's National Charter, Wisdom Trail District, Woodrow Wilson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 14, 2010
From the digital collections at the Library of Congress:
Boy Scout wreath, 1924 - Library of Congress Digital Collection, National Photo Company Collection (Call Number: LC-F8- 28581 (P&P))
Three Boy Scouts and a wreath with the BSA’s fleur de lis, in 1924. Who are the Scouts? What was the occasion? Questions we have in the centennial year of Boy Scouting.
This photo is in the middle of a collection of photos taken at the funeral of President Woodrow Wilson, which was on February 6, 1924. Was this the Boy Scouts’ tribute to Wilson? By the way, Wilson is the only president interred in the District of Columbia (Arlington National Cemetery is across the Potomac River, in Virginia). Wilson’s sarcophagus in in the main chapel of the National Cathedral.
Woodrow Wilson's tomb in the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. - Wikimedia image
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Leave a Comment » | Boy Scouts of America, History, History images, Libraries, photography | Tagged: 1924, Boy Scouts, History, History images, Library of Congress, photography, Scouting Centennial | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 9, 2010
"Hmmm. Sitting here, we might be able to catch a . . . FOUL BALL!" Click thumbnail for larger view
Kathryn scored some great seats, with great parking pass. Rangers ran away with the game, eventually, beat the Mariners 7-1.
Just after I took this panoramic shot, I thought I should put the camera away in case a foul ball should come our way.
And then it did. Fast!
I got a bruise on my left thigh where the little spinning devil first hit, but it spun away and bounced about three rows in back of us. On the way it took out the nachos of the guy next to us. Whoever got the ball probably got a cheesy surprise.
I have the bruise, but lost the ball.
Another surprise: The brätwursts down on the lower level of the Ballpark at Arlington are pretty good — not so good as the bräts at Miller Stadium in Milwaukee last June, but very good.
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Leave a Comment » | Baseball, Life, Personal, photography, Texas | Tagged: Baseball, Life, photography, Texas, Texas Rangers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 8, 2010
Moon over Hopper Ranch, by Amanda Holland
Kathryn’s cousin Amanda Holland writes from her great adventure helping to rescue the California Condor, with this photo of the Moon, behind clouds and haze, over the mountains, from Hopper Ranch.
Here’s where I feel the pangs of leaving biology behind for rhetoric, then politics and law. Probably the best part of research in biology was the places one had to go. The best adventures involve getting to and back from the places researchers must go to get data or samples.
And now, with electronic cameras and cards that will easily accommodate 1,000 photos, images are easy to capture.
Some of the images I wish I could get back: Moonrise over Shiprock*; the rattlesnake who liked to hide in the equipment box at the New Mexico Agriculture Experiment Station; the field of asparagus at the Experiment Station, poking up through the desert for the first time (I wonder if they decided to grow asparagus); thunderstorms at Shiprock and over Kimberly, New Mexico; sunrise in Huntington Canyon, Utah; looking nearly into Nevada through crystal air after a summer thunderstorm near Seeley Mountain. There are a lot more, really.
Adventures past: We remember them warmly. Getting out in the wild, doing the hard, grunt work necessary to learn about endangered species, or save them, or just improve conservation practices, is close to godliness, and among the greatest pleasures life can offer.
More:
- See this photo of Shiprock and Moon, probably by a photography named William Stone; this photo of Shiprock and storm, by Radeka, is good, too; at one time my job was to drive from Farmington, New Mexico, past the Shiprock everyday, to get air pollution samples. The Shiprock rivals Mt. Timpanogos in my personal pantheon of great mountains I grew up with.
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Leave a Comment » | endangered species, History, Natural history, photography, Science, Wildlife | Tagged: California, Condor Recovery, endangered species, Natural history, photography, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 17, 2010
California poppies, near Bitter Creek - photo by Amanda Holland
Kathryn got stuck in traffic on Spur 408 Friday evening. She happily reported that a few bluebonnets remain, covered by now-taller grasses. We’re in the seventh week of our Texas wildflower panorama.
But Amanda Holland’s shot of California poppies in the wild hills near Bitter Creek caught my eye. Amanda’s out saving birds — the best photos of the wild almost always come while you’re on the way to do great stuff, I think. That’s a good reason to find a job that gets you out of doors, and into the wild.
Notice that, even in the wild, in near-wilderness, there are still signs of human actions. See the contrails?
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Leave a Comment » | Art, Botany, History, Natural history, Natural resources, photography, Travel, Wildflowers | Tagged: Art, California, Poppies, Travel, Wildflowers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
