Grey walls

 

Doorways

 

This empty store front beckons a look inside.  Presented as a 3d relaxed view stereograph.

 

Flush fill cap

 

Slightly recessed

This flush fill cap has skinny "fingers".   Installation slightly below sidewalk level keeps this oil tank cap from being tread upon by wayward soles.  That allows the non-ferrous metal to acquire a slight patina.

 

Fill cap keys are used to screw and unscrew these caps.  These keys come in different styles, typically two way or six way.  The two way usually fits only specific fill cap models.  A six way key may fit up to ninety percent of the caps it encounters. 

 

Double vee gas

 

Square GAS cover

This 'double vee' GAS cover is seen in the street beneath our feet.  

 

A close look in the upper left corner reveals a small "ej", the  EJ company corporate logo.

BPM worn

 

Dinged and dented

 

A well worn =BPM= PENALTY ||FOR|| REMOVAL cover seen in the street beneath our feet.  This one is not as pristine as the one seen earlier.

 

 

 

 

Smoke plume

 

Smoke on the horizon

 

The smoke plume from a distant fire spreads across the horizon.

For the stereogrammers, the scene is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

 

Smoke on the horizon (in 3d)

 

The warehouse fire that produced that smoke plume was located approximately 18 miles (29 km) from where these photographs were made.  The smoke plume, carried by the prevailing wind, is about 9 miles (14.5 km) long. The top of the plume is at about 2000 feet (600 m).

 

 

Two panes

 

Ripples in glass windows

 

The sunlight shining through a window on the sunny side of the building reveals the patterns of two window panes in a window on the shady side of the building. 

 

It is hard to tell if the patterns in these glass panes are the same or different.  They could be the same, one glazed with the pattern facing in and the other facing out.

 

 

Gravel pile

 

Big rock fence

The gravel piles at a construction yard are presented as a relaxed view 3d stereogram. 

East and west contrails

 

Heading west

 

The contrail from a twin engine jet airliner heading west is colored by the setting sun.

Heading east

The contrail from a twin engine jet airliner heading east is colored by the setting sun.

 

The east bound airplane was photographed about five minutes after the west bound flight.  This was enough time for the sun to set even more and change the coloration of the contrail.

Tree chomping

 

Down but hung up

As the beavers larder up for the winter, they will chew down trees to get stores for their pantry.  They are great chewers but sometimes do not have the greatest of aims.  When the top of a toppled tree gets hung up in a nearby neighbor, and is too high off the ground to be chewed, they will leave it, uncut up.  This is one of several such exemplars they left behind by the pond.  It is presented here as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

 

 

 

Splintered stump

A closer look at the chomped upon section reveals the secret of beaver chewing methodology - chew around and around until the trees topples of its own volition.  By then, the center of the tree is so weak that it pulls itself apart.

 

 

Teeth marks of the chomper

A closer look at the splintered end of the toppled tree.  Look at those teeth marks!  Each chomp takes out a piece of tree that is two to three inch long and about one-half inch thick. 

 

 

Falling tulip tree

 

Tulip tree in autumn

Sunlight from the setting sun makes the already bright fall foliage of this Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree) even more colorful.

 

Color on the bank

 

River reflections

 

The young tree growing out of the river bank could not wait to show its colors before its elders.

River seen

 

Building across the river

 

We don't give out awards or points, but if we did, we would give them to whoever has a good / accurate description of how this image was made.

This topsy turvy river scene is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

 

Caution - do not step on cracks

 

A bridge to cross

 

Spending some time by the river at the end of the day is a great way to relax.

Before you ask, yes, I have been across and back - very carefully.

 

Cocooning for winter

 

Getting ready...

This  Lophocampa caryae (Hickory Tussock) moth is cocooning itself onto a board in preparation for overwintering.

 

 

...ready.

 

These three Hickory Tussock moths have cocooned themselves and are ready for the cold.  

 

Squash the spotted

 

on the sidewalk

 

on the fence

 

The bright red underwings of this one inch sized spotted insect were very obvious as it flew in to land nearby.  After posing for several photos, showing off its spots and patterns, it hopped away.  Looking up this bug revealed that it was a Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula), an invasive species that causes damage to fruit and nut crops.  The infestation is primarily in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England states and it is spreading.  The recommended action, when spotting a spotted lanternfly: "SQUASH: Kill the insect".

 

 

 

Sun dog in the clouds

 

Sun dog and halo in 3d

The clouds from a distant tropical storm do not prevent a sun dog and halo from being seen through their haze.

This parhelion is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.  

 

 

 

Contrail in the sky, too

 

Zooming along

 

A two jet engine airplane leaves a contrail against a high hazy sky.  This is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph. 

 

Contrail in the sky

 

Up above

 

This twin jet engine airplane contrail is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

 

Switch in place

 

No longer in use

 

 

The remnants of a narrow gauge railway and switch have been left in place at an industrial site that no longer uses their light railway to move its heavy equipment between buildings.  

 

Silver twist

 

Corrugated and twisted

 

Although it resembles a lozenge twist candy, or garganelli or torchietti pasta, or possibly a modern sculpture, this is a section of corrugated metal pipe (CMP) seen by the side of the railroad.   But more than that,  how was that cylinder twisted into a this shape?

 

A note for Mom

Dea rMoM

I Love You@

OH  Yesits

True 

IL o ve Xou

 

 

Book marks, receipts, postcards and other paper ephemera are sometimes found in books being re-sold.  Those come out; the more interesting items get a post.  This note is no exception:

Dear Mom, I love you, Oh yes, it's true, I love you.

Wonderfully expressive, artful, and, it rhymes, too!

 

This note was found inside the book "NeuroTribes" by Steve Silberman.   The subtitle of this book is "The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity".

 

For the completists, this is the back of the note: 

 

the back of the note

 

The note paper is thin; the front missive bleeds through when the back is scanned.

 

A flute for you

 

Un verre pour toi, un verre pour moi!

 

C'est vrai!  Brut impérial rosé - une boisson des plus rafraîchissantes pour célébrer une étape importante!

 

Rays on the water

 

Late afternoon stereogram

 

Haze and clouds create crepuscular rays as the sun heads towards the western horizon.  This sun-setting sight is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

Hot day clouds

 

Afternoon clouds

The afternoon's heat raises clouds but no rain.  This cloud-ee scene is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

 

 

 

Track in the rain

 

 

A tire tread impression left in the warm asphalt does not get washed away by the rain.

 

Seen in the wet street beneath our feet.

Waclaw Szpakowski - Rhythmic Lines (01)

Waclaw Szpakowski (Wacław Szpakowski - October 9, 1883 to February 7, 1973) was an architect who lived and worked in Poland and Latvia.  Aside from his professional work, he was also a 'doodler'.  His "doodles" are sinuous line figures that meander and wander across the pages of his notebooks.  

 

The year 2023 marks 140 years since his birth and 50 years after his passing.  These anniversary years have been noted with the exhibit "Vaclavs Špakovskis. Rīgas piezīmju grāmatas." at the Latvijas Nacionālais Mākslas Muzejs in Riga (https://www.lnmm.lv/) from March 2, 2023 to April 30, 2023.  The exhibition is of unprecedented scope and breadth.  It features his notebooks and line drawings, a number of which are seen publicly for the first time. 

"A10" (1924) - Waclaw Szpakowski

At first glance, his lines seem to be of random lengths, making 90 degree left and right turns when they wished.  A studied look reveals them to be intricate patterns shown as line drawings.

Szpakowski transformed many of these "doodles" from his notebooks into precisely drawn line figures.  He called these "Linie rytmiczne" [Rhythmic Lines].  He drew these using a Graphos, a technical drawing pen made by Pelikan.  The result was a uniform, unmodulated, one millimeter thick line. The gap between neighboring line segments would be four millimeters.  In effect, these were squares.  He often used 4x4 squares graphing paper.   Szpakowski created some of his line figures from repeated mirroring and flipping of horizontal and vertical portions of his design.  A look at these figures shows they could be fractals, maybe resembling the Sierpinski Triangle, or Greek key patterns, flat sheet heating elements, folded antennas, Hilbert space-filling curves, or, musical / sound waveforms?  

Szpakowski called these figures "rhythmical lines".  Tracing the lines can lead to a meditative quality to that experience.  In an interview, artist Anna Szpakowska-Kujawska, his daughter, says they should be called "linie psychiczne" (lines from the psyche, lines of the psyche) as they often reflected his moods and feelings when he drew them.  These figures have a devoted following and have a home on the web (see selected links below). 

 

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These "rhythmical lines" lines can be seen as dividing a space into two parts or two areas – above and below the line.  They are also repetitive and can be viewed as waveforms.  His figures are made up of a positive half cycle, a negative half cycle, together forming one full cycle / period / wavelength.  Each line drawing represents one wavelength or several wavelengths, complicated in form as it may be.  It also has connectors at the left and right end of the figure.  These allows the figure to connect to copies of itself, creating a line, or a wave train, "ad infinitum".

 

By enclosing the line figure in a rectangle, we can examine the physical and mathematical properties of the figure.

 

R = number of rows = y-axis

R1 = row 1 = uppermost row

Rn = row n = bottommost row

C = number of columns = x-axis

C1 = column 1 = leftmost column

Cn = column n = rightmost column

A = area = R x C = number of squares in figure

slope = delta y-axis / delta x-axis = R / C  


P = perimeter = 2 x R + 2 x C

LL = line length = number of line segments (each segment is one square in length)


SOH CAH TOA
tan = opposite / adjacent
sin = opposite / hypotenuse
cos = adjacent / hypotenuse

slope formula
m = (y2 – y1)/(x2 – x1)
y = mx + b

An m × n matrix: the m rows are horizontal and the n columns are vertical. Each element of a matrix is often denoted by a variable with two subscripts. For example, a2,1 represents the element at the second row and first column of the matrix.

 

=====================================================

 

Szpakowski was prolific with his figure drawings.  For this study, we select his "A10" from 1924:

 

"A10" (1924) - Waclaw Szpakowski

 

 

This figure is enclosed in a rectangle to define its size and shape: 

A10 - enclosed by rectangle

 

Enclosing the figure allows us to color the parts that are separated by the line.  Contrasting colors are used to visually separate the areas above and below the line.  Here, yellow is used for above the line and pink for below the line.

 

A10 - colored in yellow and pink

 

Horizontal lines are overlayed on the colored figured to create a grid:

A10 - with grid lines

 

These colored squares in each row and column are counted.  The columns repeat three times (three wavelengths) so we can look at just columns 1 to 26.  The resulting numbers:

 

 

A10 - number of colors by rows and columns

 

R = 25 (number of rows in enclosed figure)

C = 78 (number of columns in enclosed figure)

 

A = WxH = 78 x 25 = 1950 (area is the number of squares in figure)

RA = W/H = 78 / 25 = 3.12 (ratio of columns to rows)

 

P = 2(W+H) = 2 x (78 + 25) = 206 (perimeter)

 

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Coloring the figure makes it easier to see the structure and patterns within figure A10.  On the left side, we can see the initial form A.  The horizontal flip of this form is to the right of it. The resulting pattern (the form A plus the horizontally flipped A) makes one wavelength that is repeated; in A10 it repeats three times.  The initial form A appears six times, three times as itself, and three times as its horizontally flipped image.

A10 - wavelength equals form A plus horizontal flip of form A

 

=====================================================

 

 

Looking at the bounded and colored A10, we can see that some rows are all yellow, some are all pink, and the rows and columns are mix of colors.  We can examine the color distribution (yellow and pink) for each row for the whole figure by graphing:

 

A10 - graph of yellow and pink colors by row

This reveals a distribution pattern.  The values of rows 1 to 13 are repeated in rows 13 to 25 but with a horizontal flip of the rows 13 to 25.  For example, row 3 is 33 yellow and 45 pink; the corresponding row 23 is 45 yellow and 33 pink, and so on.  This distribution can also be presented as:

A10 - graph of yellow and pink colors per row

This second graph reveals the oscillation of the colors on each row. looking across the columns within the waveform.  In rows 3 through 11 and rows 15 to 23, there always 33 columns of one color and 45 columns of the other color, the color depending on the row.  In the middle, we can see that there is an equal number (39) of both colors.  We also note that there are an equal number (975) of yellow and pink squares.

 

=====================================================

 

 

Similarly, we can examine the color distribution (yellow and pink) for each column in one wavelength for the whole figure by graphing:

 

A10 - graph of yellow and pink colors by columns

This reveals a distribution pattern.  The values of columns 2 to 13 are repeated in columns rows 15 to 25 but with a flip of the columns 15 to 25.  For example, column 2 is 3 yellow and 22 pink; the corresponding column 15 is 22 yellow and 3 pink, and so on.  This distribution can also be presented as an oscillation of the colors across the columns within the waveform.  In columns 2 through 13 and columns 15 through 25, there always 22 rows of one color and 3 rows of the other color, the color depending on the column.  In column 14 (the middle of the waveform), we can see that there 1 yellow and 24 pink.  We also note that there are an equal number (325) of yellow and pink squares in the waveform.

A10 - graph of yellow and pink colors by columns

 

=====================================================

 

This closer look at the figures created by Waclaw Szpakowski reveals that not only are his figures composed of repeating waveforms but within these waveforms are also many smaller forms; together, these create the greater waveform.  There are also symmetries and regular oscillations.  This gives us a clearer insight into what he was thinking as he created these figures. 

 

=====================================================

 

 

More about the times in the life of Waclaw Szpakowski can be found at several web pages; these include:

https://waclawszpakowski.pl/    Website dedicated to the work of Wacław Szpakowski

https://culture.pl/en/artist/waclaw-szpakowski  Wacław Szpakowski  - Biography 

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Laughing clowns

 

At the balloon races

 

Meet three of the clowns at the The Balloon Water Race.  This one had just three types of clown heads; different paint schemes make them look different.

 

 

Wide board door

 

Overgrowing

 

 The sliding door at the side of the barn will soon be overgrown by the grape vines.

 

I spin for you

 

Curbside at the carnival

 

Seated in the shade, these carnivaleers do not seem to notice the behemoth Round Up ride performing in front of them.

 

 

 

White on beige

 

 

 

The afternoon sun illuminates a wall painting "in the style of" Mark Rothko.  Located on the back side of a bridge pier, it is well hidden from the public view. 

South End Office

 

Empty, for now

The South End Office has been closed for over a year.  Its 'mid-century modern' architectural style invites the passing-by camera to click off a few. This portion of the front facade is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

 

Witer water cover

 

Just WATER

 

At first glance, this WATER utility cover was read as WITER.  Closer examination of this scene beneath the feet on the street shows that the I is really a worn and one-legged A.  

 

The typography holds interest.  The counters in the letters A and R are filled in, and, the kerning seems to be "off" just slightly?