Photography
DIPTYCH: SHINE
Just as my first contribution to this project, my photo for this week’s diptych was taken at my current place of work, the California Academy of Sciences. However, unlike that abstract image (which was an underwater angle of the penguin tank), this one is immediately recognizable to anyone who’s been inside the building: it’s the massive glass sphere, containing a four story rainforest and hundreds of free-flying butterflies, an iconic image of the institution. This is merely one angle of it, highlighting the combination of natural and unnatural light shining inside.
My partner Nicole’s take on the subject is obviously quite different. The joy of the diptych.
DIPTYCH(S): COLD AND BOLD
Due to a series of factors, our regularly appearing Diptych series has been a little irregular. Here are the past two to catch us up. Expect the next in the series (”Rough”) on Wednesday, and take a look at other entries for these categories via the links on Miss Grace’s blog: Cold and Bold. Thanks, of course, to @uncola for her continuing contributions.
DIPTYCH: SAD
Normally, a photo should be able to stand on its own merits, without need for explanation. But I do think that this week’s diptych — or at least my half of it — benefits from a bit of explanation. I was reminded again this morning of the interesting things you see and the interesting encounters you have when you take the time to walk about the City.
First, the subject of my photograph (the second image below) was suggested to me by a transient man who noticed me taking “arty” pictures of a weathered signpost. He told me if I wanted a really good picture, I should go across the street and look up, look for a sign high on the wall of the crêpe place on the corner.
Now, I actually knew what he was talking about because I had grown up in that same neighborhood, back when The Other was in its late 70’s and 1980s heyday, when it was the greatest underground comedy club in America. But I had forgotten about it, just as the City did when the club died at the end of that decade. “Entertainment nightly” indeed. Once upon a time.
Once again my gratitude goes out to @uncola for her contribution. About it, she said, “Note that on top of the sort of slow-destruction-of-childhood-whimsy-in-the-harsh-realities-of-the-environment thing, ‘where’ is spelled wrong.” Indeed.
DIPTYCH: FRESH
As always, original credit for this project is due Kellee Pigeon and Miss Grace. Check out their rendition of “Fresh” yonder. Here is my collaboration with @uncola:
DIPTYCH: PLAY
Unfortunately the posting of last Wednesday’s “Diptych” was delayed due to some interminable computer hardware issues. But! Here it is in all of its playful(?) glory, thanks to some timely help from my partner in photography @uncola. Enjoy, and peruse other offerings on the subject via Miss Grace.
Hopefully our next offering, on the subject of “Fresh”, will be freshly posted this Wednesday.
DIPTYCH: WATER
Diptych:
1. Anything folded, so as to have two leaves; esp. a two-leaved, hinged tablet of metal, ivory or wood, having its inner surfaces covered with wax, used by the ancients for writing with the stylus.
b. spec. (in pl.) Applied to the artistically wrought tablets distributed by the consuls, etc. of the later Empire to commemorate their tenure of office; hence transferred to a list of magistrates.
2. Eccl. (in pl.) Tablets on which were recorded the names of those of the orthodox, living and dead, who were commemorated by the early Church at the celebration of the eucharist. Hence, The list or register of such names; the intercessions in the course of which the names were introduced.
3. An altar-piece or other painting composed of two leaves which close like a book.
–Oxford English Dictionary
In art and photography, the diptych is the juxtaposition of two images or works together, by the same artist, with the hope that one illuminates the other (the triptych is the same concept rendered in threes). Photographers and bloggers Kellee Pigeon and Miss Grace have created a weekly challenge in which they collaborate on the creation of a photographic diptych. Each takes one photo independent of the other but on the the same general theme — light one week, paper another…once it was green. They then post the images paired together on each of their blogs. The original project description can be found on the blog Not So Small Things.
They have invited other bloggers to follow suit, and I am happy to say that @uncola — photographer, archivist, and author of .intense.drama — has agreed to partner with me.
Our first subject is water. Her image is the second one.
Be sure to visit Miss Grace’s Disgrace to see their take on the same concept, and find links to other bloggers taking part in the challenge.
SCHOOL OF FISH
I got a Flip camera for Christmas. On Monday, my wife and I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Naturally, I couldn’t resist recording a school of fish from the Aquarium’s Outer Bay Tank:
School of Fish from Daniel Ransom on Vimeo.
I also used this as an opportunity to play with Vimeo, a higher-brow alternative to YouTube. I could sign-in via my Facebook account (it’s nice not having to sing up for another online service) and the content is limited to user-created videos. It functions much more like a social-networking site than the barebones (and crude comment riddled) environment of YouTube. So far I’m a fan.
A READING ROOM
While this blog will largely be devoted to technology, it is always worthwhile to look at the past: there is both beauty and wisdom in the old ideas of our great institutions.
One of my favorite aspects of historic libraries is the grand, classical reading room with its soaring ceilings and walls clad in books. Few modern libraries have a public space so monumental, and so wholly devoted to quiet scholarship. The reader is impressed by his or her surroundings; it elevates their condition. I took this picture in the reading room of the New York Public Library:
Locally, I recommend the Doe Library’s Reference Reading Room, on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, for similar grandeur. Would you nominate any other grand spaces?
