Integument

Integument - view 2, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Redwood burl, 5.75 X 4.5 inches; turned, carved and sandblasted. This is heading to AAW for the POP exhibit, "Roots," which will be on display at AAW headquarters through the 25th anniversary symposium this summere.

The inspiration for this piece comes from scanning electron micrographs of the seed of Castilleja, a hemiparasitic plant in Orobanchaceae. The outer wall of the seed coat collapses in the mature seed, leaving deep cells that surround the inner seed coat.

I spent a few years as a graduate student learning how to be a SEM jockey. I always enjoyed the surprises that emerged on the screen when looking at seeds and pollen grains at high magnification.

Here are some additional views:

Cape Town Sunset

Cape Town Sunset, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Another photo from Green Point in Cape Town. The sky was so vibrant during this particular sunset. As I recall, I had to lie on my stomach to take this photo from under the rail of the sea wall. Ruined my favorite pair of jeans this evening, but I did get some nice images from the site.

Green point lighthouse at sunset

Green point lighthouse at sunset, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

An alternative title would be: Learning to use Photoshop CS5. This is the second photo I've processed entirely using the CS5 package. I usually process RAW files in Aperture and with the Nik Software plug-ins. This combination usually works very well and is super fasts for processing "easy" images.

This photo was pretty difficult in terms of contrasts between the foreground and background. I've found that Adobe Camera Raw does a much better job of processing the RAW file to bring out the best of the pixels. However, saving the processed "negative" as a TIFF and bringing that into Aperture is a huge storage hog, tripling the size of the file compared to the RAW one.

So, instead of bringing this image into Aperture, I did the processing in Photoshop. It takes longer, but I'm pretty happy with the results. The key is to make the masks accurately. I've learned a lot about obtaining and refining selections for building masks over the past week as I've been struggling to learn how Photoshop works. It's much more complicated than how I usually process images, but the control of where an adjustment is placed is so much better -IF the mask is made well. I bumped the magnification up to 1200X to make sure I masked the edges accurately. Time consuming, for sure, but the effort was worth it, I think.

I don't expect that I will ever sell this image, but, as a learning exercise, it was time well spent.

Image added 19 Jan 2011:



This is a photo of the lighthouse from the seaward side. That's where the light shines. The street side is blocked off, probably to keep the condominium owners happy.

Hanging around

Hanging around, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

This is a street photo I took while in South Africa October 2, 2010. I was on an excursion to Cape Point with Dennis and Gigi Laidler. Trent Bosch and his family were in Cape Town after the AWSA symposium and the Laidlers were taking them to see the sights around the Cape Peninsula on this lovely Saturday morning.

I was in the back seat of a Land Rover when we rolled up to a stop light. This young man was hanging out, watching the traffic roll by whilst casually eating an apple.

The photo was a bit underexposed and so I did a faux HDR treatment, bringing the exposure up by a stop or more and then stacking the two photos together to process in a Nik Software plug-in: HDR Efex Pro. I had not used this software before, but really enjoyed exploring all of the settings. This is my rendition of that captured moment in time.

I like the square crop on this image. The subject is positioned well for looking into the street, and seems totally at ease with the world. The taxi cab stopped in the frame of the glass door, stating where the photo was taken - Fish Hoek. The red phone box draws the eye into the center of the frame and the pedestrian crossing sign completes that line.

The processing gives the image a feel of being a watercolor. Digital photography has so much leeway for digital darkroom processing, which appeals to me. I don't think every photographic image needs to "look" like a photograph.

Winter sunset, and goodbye to 2010

Winter sunset, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Every year seems to go by just a little faster. I wonder if that is because I'm so busy, or if I'm losing track of time as the years go by. Probably a bit of both.

It was a very busy year from all perspectives: work, home, woodturning, photography, music, family dogs. Some of the highlights this year include the adoption of our two youngest dachshunds, Luna and Topper. Having three dachshunds in the house is a lot of fun. My field season in South Africa was also a big highlight - especially the opportunity to go camping with Dennis and Gigi Laidler, and that Steve was able to join me in the field for 10 days. That was his first trip to South Africa and my ninth field season there.

I'm always glad to start a new year, though, and I'm looking forward to the opportunities that will come in 2011. I have a lot of interesting research going on in my lab right now, which should come to fruition during 2011. I'm working on some fun sculptural turnings when I have some blocks of time at home, and I'm really looking forward to playing the new set list with Aisling at our concert at the Upper Arlington Public Library in April.

I hope all my online friends and acquaintances have a happy and prosperous 2011. Happy New Year!

Latest project

Woodturner, originally uploaded by Stephen A. Wolfe.

I've been invited to participate in "Emerging Patterns: an international invitational," which runs May 28 - Sep 01, 2011. John Hill called me last week to invite me. He said they wanted a "medium" size piece - about the size of a basketball. For me that's gigantic, but I have had an idea percolating for a few months now that will be good for this exhibit. So, I started it this week - putting the log section on the lathe, roughing it to shape with an arbortech, turning it true - all this on day 1. Day 2 ws for shaping the outside and doing the layout grid plus most of the hollowing. Today was Day 3 - finishing the hollowing and turning off the foot. The rough size is 10.5 X 7.5 inches, roughly 2 to 3 times the size of my usual work.

Steve has been documenting my progress and I'll post some more pics as I go, but here's one of me finishing the hollowing.

Here's a link to my facebook page album with the rest of the pics: Emerging Patterns Project

Baby, it's cold outside!

Baby, it's cold outside!, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Another photo from Hayden Falls. I love the sculptural effect of the icicles streaming down the fall.

Winter in Hayden Run

Winter in Hayden Run, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Another image from our visit to Hayden Falls.

Hayden Falls

Hayden Falls, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

The temperatures have been very cold in central Ohio this past week or so. Yesterday, Steve and I stopped at Hayden Falls to do some photos of the frozen landscape. I decided to process this in black and white using Silver Efex Pro in Aperture. I think the tones of black and white do this scene justice.

I'm not ready for Christmas, but I might actually put up a tree in the next day or so. I've had a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year. I think it's because I've been overwhelmed with a busy schedule and I just can't face having to put up the tree and then to take it down again in a short time frame. It was different when the kids were little. Now, they don't get into the holiday spirit at all, and it's not nearly as much fun as it used to be. However, our dachshunds will probably enjoy the chaos, so we'll likely enjoy it none-the-less.

Waterman Farm

Waterman Farm, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

This photo was taken the day after Thanksgiving, on a cold and sunny afternoon. I really enjoy walking on Waterman Farm, the Ohio State University experimental farm. It's so nice to have a bit of rural scenery in Columbus, Ohio. The contrast of the city skyline against a working farm is visually interesting, and the open space of the farm helps me to relax amidst of all the bustle of a city.

I recently heard that the long term plans for this area includes taking some of this land to make it into parking lots to replace the ones along Canon Drive as the hospital complex and medical school expand their footprints into those parking areas. I have no idea what the university planners think about the value of land, but this landmark and acreage are more valuable than mere dollars for building footprints and parking lots.

I was glad to see the news that Upper Arlington's application to put a connector road through from Ackerman to Zollinger wasn't funded. From what I read, the university was behind that poor bit of planning. Progress does not mean making every square inch of an urban area a busy and noisy place, full of traffic and people in a rush to raise their blood pressure. We need these kinds of spaces to be left open. I wish there were some visionaries amongst the planning commissions who could realize the value of nature and the ecosystem services such open areas provide.

South Africa video blog: September 19, 2010 - part 3

The third and final part of my video blog about my photo safari around the Cape Peninsula with Nick Laidler. We ended the day at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront in Cape Town. This is always a fun place to visit, especially for the street entertainment. I watched tumblers, a vocal group doing traditional singing, and a Dixieland Jazz band. The restaurants and shops at the waterfront are always worth a visit, too. I hope you enjoy the video - leave a comment and let me know what you think of the new format.

Seascape in Black and White

Seascape in Black and White, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Sometimes a black and white photo tells the story better than a color one can. This image was captured near Port Elizabeth, South Africa on September 25, 2010. I photographed the breaking wave at just the right moment, and the processing with Silver Efex Pro combined with Viveza and Color Efex pro enabled me to bring out the details.

I was out for an afternoon break from the woodturning conference, but it just happened to be along a stretch of coastline that look favorable for Hyobanche habitat. Not long after this photo was taken, I wandered through some dunes and found a population of Hyobanche robusta. The inflorescences were well spent, but it was fantastic to find the plants here. I'm not sure if I'll get any DNA from this collection, but at least I know for future field seasons that I can find the plant in this area of South Africa.

South Africa video blog: September 19, 2010 - part 2

I added music and commentary to this blog entry. I'll be using the same format for the rest of the series, so let me know what you think. Thanks!

In this video blog entry Nick took me to Green Market square. I talked to one of the vendors about their background and found the information to be very interesting. We also went up to Signal Hill to take photos of Cape Town from that vantage point.

South Africa video blog: September 19, 2010 - part 1

My first few days in South Africa were spent on getting organized for the field season and adjusting to the time zone. To help with the transition Nick Laidler offered to take me on a photo safari around the Cape Peninsula. We were to start before sunrise so that we could be in place in time for sunrise. Nick, however, overslept a bit and so we made it only as far as Zandvlei, which turned out to be a fantastic spot for photographing the sunrise.

Here's my first of three video blog entries from that day.



You can see some of my favorite pictures from the 2010 field season on my Flickr account. Click on the link to go to the album: 2010 South Africa

Reflections

Reflections, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

I don't usually use f/22.0, but this image needed a really huge depth of field to capture the foreground and background with great clarity. The Canon EF 24-105 mm f/4.0 L is a good enough lens to get by with this f-stop. The photo was taken at Bass Lake, Indiana.

Steve and I were taking our time returning to Jasper-Pulaski wildlife refuge to see the sandhill cranes at sunset. We decided to take a stop at the lake to see if there were any interesting photo ops. The mirror reflections on the calm lake sure made it worth the stop.