Memory Palace

February 21, 2008 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments

Memory Palace

Memory Palace, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This digital photo collage is an elaboration of Dream Palace, itself a manipulation of a photo of William Randolph Hearst’s over-the-top underground swimming pool.

A memory palace, also called a method of loci, was a mnemonic system used for complex memorization in the days before external memory devices were common.

If you couldn’t write something complicated down, how were you going to remember all the details? A memory palace mentally pairs rooms in the imaginary palace with segments of the material to remember. Often the best mental memory palaces are based on an actual physical place.

If you want to try to construct a memory palace to help remember something complicated, here are some instructions for going about it.

Posted in Bemusements, Photography, Photoshop Techniques

Iceberg

September 14, 2007 by Harold Davis | 0 Comments


Iceberg, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is a reflection of a white iceberg rose bud, photographed on a mirror. I used a spray bottle to make the water drops, and lit the reflection with natural afternoon sunlight.

[85mm PC Micro-Nikkor, 127.5mm in 35mm equivalent terms, 2 seconds at f/51 and ISO 100.]

Posted in Photography, Water Drops

Point Reyes Sunset

September 13, 2007 by Harold Davis | 1 Comment


Point Reyes Sunset, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

What’s a photographer to do? With the sun setting along the coast, however you expose the image the sun is going to blow out. True, in real life the sun blows out when you are looking at it with your eyes as well, and most people therefore practice not looking directly at the sun, even when it is setting. But the naked eye doesn’t perceive the unattractive sharp gradation of color, looking like a solid line, from the sunset sky to the white area of the blown-out sun. Any reasonable exposure for the oceanscape does exactly this awful sharp gradation when processed by a digital sensor.

I don’t really think there’s much choice with this one. You’re not going to salvage it with HDR or multiprocessed RAW, the exposure difference between the sun and cliffs in shadow is too great. So your only move is to expose for the ocean and shore, and let the sun go hang.

I think the photo pretty much works anyhow, and I like a couple of small details, like the bird flying in the sunlight and the small yellow flower on the lower right.

[12-24mm zoom lens at 24mm, 36mm in 35mm terms, 1/200 of a second at f/7.1 and ISO 100, handheld.]

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Point Reyes