Photo of Interest: Solar Receptors of the Future

This image received an Honorable Mention recognition from National Geographic as one of the best science visualizations of 2009. Here is their description:

"Honorable Mention, Illustration: "Back to the Future"

"Created at the Second University of Naples in Italy, "Back to the Future" illustrates the principles of biomimeticism—the idea that nature’s creations can guide the design of future technology.

"Computer-generated drawings of future solar panels, 10 feet (3 meters) tall and 165 feet (50 meters) across, stand behind the organisms that inspired them—the microscopic marine algae known as Licmophora flabellata.

"Shown attached to sand grains in a scanning electron microscope image, these biological solar collectors have a flat, wedgelike form and a glasslike wall—features that allow them to absorb as much sunlight as possible for photosynthesis." 

IMAGE CREDIT: Mario De Stefano, Antonia Auletta, and Carla Langella, Second University of Naples, via National Geographic.

Artdog Quote of the Week

IMAGE CREDIT: Many thanks to Night Humor for this reminder to all writers who are tempted to make their heroes "perfect."

Photo of Interest: Fog at Dawn

Here's another image from the Telegraph Online. They describe it this way: 

"The sun rises as early morning mist covers the landscape of Zaans Schans near Zaandam in the Netherlands."

IMAGE CREDIT: Wim Denys/Solent News, in the Telegraph Online, Photos of the Day for Sept. 10, 2014.

Artdog Quote of the Week

IMAGE CREDIT: Many thanks to Wedding Photography + Design.

Photo of Interest: Cliff House

"Cliff House," by Modscape of Australia

Here's another image from the Telegraph Online. They describe it this way: 

"Anyone wanting to live on the edge need look no further - architects have designed a cliff house. The five storey modular home is inspired by the way barnacles cling to the hull of a ship, and was developed to hang off the side of a cliff as opposed to sitting on top of it. Australian design company Modscape say the design, aptly entitled Cliff House, is a theoretical response to clients who have approached them to 'explore design options for extreme parcels of coastal land in Australia'. A spokesman says: 'The home is visualised as a natural extension of the cliff face rather than an addition to the landscape, creating an absolute connection with the ocean.'"

You know the view has got to be spectacular.

IMAGE CREDIT: the Telegraph Online, Photos of the Day for Sept. 10, 2014.

Artdog Quote of the Week

Here's a Veterans Day love letter to all who have served. THANK YOU!

IMAGE CREDIT: Many thanks to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics Facebook page, for this image!

Photo of Interest: Cantigny Park Luminarias

Luminarias at Chicago's Cantigny Park: illuminated in honor of Veterans Day.

IMAGE CREDIT: Read an article in the Chicago Tribune, about this annual tribute to veterans. I thought it was way cool. And don't forget to thank a vet!

The Evolution of an Internet image

A recent "IMAGE 
CREDITS" example.

If you follow this blog regularly, you'll know that I try to document my image sources as scrupulously as possible, using link-backs and attribution as a "default rule." I always have a bold-face paragraph at the end of every post, for IMAGE CREDIT(S). 

This is in keeping with my "Internet Intellectual Property Philosophy." I think anyone who is on the Internet a lot realizes that any image that is published on the Internet is available for re-use, whether we want it to be or not. 

Screen-capture programs abound, and most images can be clicked on and dragged to a file very easily. Copyright law has not yet caught up to this reality.

I use TinEye to help track down
the origins of images I use.

Consider it publicity, if you like, curse the reality if you're so inclined, but there it is. The only way to keep your images truly "safe" from re-use is NOT TO PUBLISH THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. If we publish it, it's available. 

The photos, design images and other things we can so freely and easily download were created through the skill and work of an artist. Someone bought and learned to use the camera, the illustration program, or whatever, and spent time (sometimes many hours) creating it. I believe that, as intellectual property, these creations (and their creators) deserve respect and acknowledgement, so I publish image credits. 

I recently started a new Saturday Serial feature called the "Photo of Interest." In preparing a post I'd originally intended for the Saturday before Veterans Day, I used my old friend TinEye to help me locate the source for an image I'd found on Facebook in September.

I've posted this large, in the hope you can read the words.

 I found an interesting evolution. The oldest version TinEye could find dates to December, 2012:

The oldest version of this image shows ONLY the image,
which is pretty cool on its own.

The next major change came last May: 

First Change: Words added. But not the words I found,
when I saw it on Facebook.

Next Change: a border. Still not the version I found.

The image above has borders added--still clearly not the one I found. 

It seems to me that this is exactly the kind of boundary-blurring "collaborations" the Internet facilitates best. A person who wishes to express an idea with the perfect image doesn't necessarily always have to create it "from scratch" and in fact may not even have the idea until s/he has one part (for example, a poem) and then stumbles across the perfect match (in this example, a photo). 

Oddly, TinEye didn't find the Facebook image I tried to match. Worse, I myself didn't note the source when I first downloaded the photo (for private use, several months ago). I've scrolled through the photos of my favorite K9 and law enforcement Facebook pages for several hours, looking, and I've come up empty.

So--whoever you are, who found the perfect image to match your poem, I can't track you down at this time. But I appreciated your "Dedication to a Fallen K9," and I hope my readers have, too.

IMAGE CREDITS: The snippet from the Oct. 29, 2014 "Artdog Adventures" post is my own screen-capture image. Thanks, TinEye, for the logo and also for all your help! As noted, I have lost the trail to the source of "Dedication to a Fallen K9." And the final three images are screen captures of parts of my TinEye search.

Artdog Quote of the Week

IMAGE CREDIT: Many thanks to Wedding Photography + Design.

A New Saturday Serial: Photo of Interest

The Shard, with Super-Moon

A full September moon passes behind The Shard, a famous skyscraper in London.

I chose this moon image in honor of the just-passed Halloween, and I hope you'll enjoy it. For now, anyway, I'm out of two-sentence horror stories.

For the next several weekends, I'll share a photo I have found, that I think is interesting, funny, or exceptionally beautiful. The Internet being the Internet, sometimes I won't be able to credit the original source, but whenever possible I'll at least try to tell you where I got it. Today I can!

IMAGE CREDIT: This was one of the "Photos of the Day" for The Telegraph Online, Sept. 10, 2014. It was taken by Peter Macdiarmid, for Getty Images.