This is one issue that transcends parties. You find these meddling dogooders on both sides of the aisle. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you have a R or a D by your name your just as likely to grab a hold of this rubbish and shout from the rooftops “it’s for the children”. When are we just going to say no to these jerks that want to micromanage our lives, because they aren’t going to stop. They won’t be happy until they completely regulate every little facet of your life. Till everything and everybody is homogeneous as Velveeta. And Velveeta sucks.

From Nighttime

And one more.

From Nighttime

Optical illusions illustrate just how much processing the brain does on the raw inputs that our eyes take in and even provide a window into the types of data crunching that the brain does. It goes beyond simple optical illusions though. Our brains can internalize and adjust for things that we don’t even understand and have never even spent any time thinking about. For an example lets look at miniature photography. If some one shows you a photo of diorama of small models, no matter how detailed the models there are subtle cues that your mind picks up on that tell you your looking at miniatures. This is so reliable that you can create photographs and even video that fool you into thinking that you are looking at a miniature. Some great examples of this were posted on Jalopnik.com this week here and here. The trick is playing with the depth of field of the photo. Basically this is means that the photographer is adjusting the area of the photo that is in focus. The lenses that are used and the conditions that miniatures are photographed under mean that most photographs of miniatures have a very narrow depth of field meaning that only a small portion of the photo is usually in focus. A clever photographer can manipulate this depth of field to make big things look small. The method used in the above links was done by using tilt shift lenses, meaning that the photographer can not only adjust the depth of field but the plane of focus. But there is an even easier way to do it, it’s not quite as effective but it’s much cheaper and is an even better illustration of how easy it is to fool the parts of the brain that process vision. All you have to do is take a photo and blur most of the photo. Here’s an example I cooked up in a few minutes in GIMP.

From Fake Tilt Shift

That one came out pretty good. better than this one.

From Fake Tilt Shift

I kind of like these too even if the effect is more subtle.

From Fake Tilt Shift

From Fake Tilt Shift

Even more reasons I find it hard to trust what I see.

Just about caught up. Last weekend we went to Metropolis to shoot the Superman Celebration for Con Trek. My favorite shots.

From Con Trek at Metropolis

From Con Trek at Metropolis

I showed you this one to you before but I like it so much I’m including it again.

From Con Trek at Metropolis

From Con Trek at Metropolis

From Con Trek at Metropolis

I’ve got some more nice ones I’ll post during the week.

I took a few trips to LA in May. Instead of doing all of the touristy stuff I headed out to the mountains. Southern California is gorgeous. I could never live there but I love to visit.

From Los Angeles

An hour out of the city and your in God’s country.

From Los Angeles

From Los Angeles

Digital Photography tip #23: if the photo doesn’t pop like you think it should try black and white. A lot of the photos I took off the Angeles Crest Highway did have the drama that I remembered. Maybe it was the haze. A lot of them could be salvaged though by converting them to black and white and fiddling with the filter color.

From Los Angeles

From Los Angeles

It’s become a yearly tradition for Dad and me to go the car show in Granville each May.

From Granville 2009

From Granville 2009

From Granville 2009

From Granville 2009

We went to Louisville to shoot Wonderfest for Con Trek. Of course I took pictures.

From Con Trek at Wonderfest