Writing Travel

NPR : Vatican Airline Officials Seize Holy Water

NPR : Vatican Airline Officials Seize Holy Water

Sleepy Geek? Spend less time on the Internet

According to the London Daily Mail of August 25, "People who spend time on the internet or watching television before they go to bed are more likely to FEEL like they don't get enough sleep."

Is this just a post hoc assumption, or is there truly a cause and effect relationship? Could it be that people (like myself) who experience nonrestorative sleep will feel sleep-deprived in any case?

I'll concede that some of my sleepless hours can be attributed to staying up too late reading web pages, but I'm just as likely to read a book into the wee hours if sleep eludes me. Guess that puts me into the minority of people who actually read books and who may indeed spend more time with book in hand than watching television or surfing the net.

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"Stepping Out of Time": Roggenkamp and McMahon open collaborative show in Ohio

Staying with the topic of art and artists, my dear friends Keith McMahon and Priscilla Roggenkamp have opened a new show today, August 26, at Mansfield Art Center. Both are associated with Ashland University, Priscilla as assistant professor of art and Keith as adjunct instructor of art.

According to the Ashland University faculty and staff newsletter Campus News, "the exhibit is titled 'Stepping Out of TIme' and will feature new and recent clay, stone and fabric sculpture as well as mixed media panels. . . . The work will be displayed throughout September. McMahon and Roggenkamp will also be demonstrating traditional stone carving methods at selected times during the first week of the exhibition."

I had been looking forward to attending the opening but couldn't manage the trip. I'm hoping to get there sometime during the show's September run.

Keith and Priscilla work individually and on collaborative pieces at Studio 214 in Alliance, Ohio. They are represented by A Muse Gallery, Columbus, Ohio.

Striding at his own pace: exciting new work by Chicago artist Wyll Mull

Striding at his own pace, Wyll Mull has found new modes of expression in oils and acrylics. Born and raised  in the Appalachian hills of southern Illinois, Mull has resided in Chicago and the city's southern suburbs since the late 1950s.

The self-taught artist has worked in oil and acrylic for more than 30 years. Recently, he has focused on postmodern approaches and novel techniques combining oil and acrylic to create striking abstract effects on canvas.

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Exploring High Dynamic Range (HDR)

When I first saw digital photographs, like the sample below, produced using High Dynamic Range imaging (HDRI), I was blown away.  I immediately assumed this technique is so highly esoteric that only a true Photoshop geek could master it.

In my research on HDR, I found Photomatix Pro and downloaded a trial. The sample photo above (from the Photomatix website) demonstrates tone mapping applied to an HDR image created from three separate exposures.

I've begun featuring some examples of my own HDR experiments on my photoblog, Lanora Mueller Photography.

Here is a pseudo-HDR image produced from a single raw file, a shot I took of the Arkansas State Capitol on an overcast, rainy day:

One more example, an iris from the Arkansas State Capitol gardens. Here, two images were combined and tonemapped to enhance detail.