Skartvedt’s photo wins first prize at Cambria Fall Juried Art Show

The results are in from the Fall Juried Art Show at the Cambria Center for the Arts, with Judith Skartvedt taking top honors with her photograph titled "Illusion."

Skartvedt received a $150 first-place award in the exhibit, which runs through Oct. 30.

Second place ($100) went to Claudia Solomon for her oil painting, "The Last of the Apricots," while Judy Schuster took third place ($75) for her acrylic painting ("More Skye"). Tom Gould's acrylic "Abstraction" earned fourth place and a $50 award.

Honorable-mention prizes of $25 went to Tish Rogers ("View to San Simeon Point," acrylic), Linda Dunn ("Sunset Shades," oil), Carolyn Chambers ("Product of Two Functions," mixed media/yarn), Mary Summers ("Early-Morning Cattails in Winter," oil), Sal Buongiorno ("Chinese Village," watercolor), Jeanette Wolff ("The Games We Play," collage/mixed media), Sue Nash ("Late Pieta," pastel) and Michael Ackerman ("Good Morning," acid patina/copper).

I was particularly struck by this photograph because of the balance of both composition and light and movement within the work.

Jarred Pfeiffer, juror, Fall Juried Art Show

Of the winning photo, juror and Cuesta College art professor Jarred Pfeiffer said: "I was particularly struck by this photograph because of the balance of both composition and light and movement within the work. At first I thought it was a photograph of a mountain with the reflection on a body of water. Only until further investigation did it reveal the entire subject. It's a visually stunning photograph."

Skartvedt, a retired airline flight attendant, and her husband, David, a retired airline pilot, raised their family in Connecticut while flying out of New York. After frequently visiting relatives in Cambria, they moved here permanently this past July 4 weekend.

"Photography has been my passion for several decades," Judith Skartvedt said. "More recently, I have pursued learning photo-editing techniques and infrared photography. This photo, 'Illusion,' was taken with a Nikon D70 converted camera and edited with Photoshop Elements and Nik filters."

The arts center is at 1350 Main St., between the East and West villages in the Old Cambria Grammar School. Hours are 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.

Details: 927-8190 or www.cambriacenterforthe arts.org.

Source: Skartvedt's photo wins first prize at Cambria Fall Juried Art Show

Canon SX400 Infrared Converted

You are looking at a Manufacturer Refurbished Canon SX400 digital camera that has been professionally converted to a dedicated Infrared camera by Kolari Vision.

The Hot Mirror, which blocks Infrared light, has been removed, and was replaced with a 720nm Infrared pass filter, which only lets Infrared pass. This means there is no need to hassle with a tripod and a long exposure time. Hand held infrared pictures can be taken without the need for a tripod or bright sunlight! The autofocus has also been calibrated and the camera will expose properly as well.

Camera is also available with a full spectrum filter or other infrared filter, like 590nm, 665nm, and 850nm.

The SX400 is a great little camera and offers true custom white balance. With powerful white balance, vivid color infrared pictures are able to be captured with ease.

Sample pictures were all taken by this camera, the only edits performed were channel swapping and levels adjustment.

With a large 3 inch Live view LCD composing images directly in IR is very easy! The lens on this camera is also very good, especially for infrared! The lens is a very wide 24mm focal distance for great wide angle shots and comes with optical image stabilization to assist in handheld shots. The lens is also crisp in IR with good sharpness at the edges and no observed hotspot. With a 30x zoom the lens gives you a powerful zoom making composition easy.

Great for video as well, the camera supports full high definition video at 720P.

Perfect for a first time IR camera or small IR camera to bring along with your regular gear.

The camera focuses great, even on close shots. Even though it is a point and shoot, this little camera takes amazing IR pictures. With a little postwork performed, the camera can be used for great false color. Black and white IR photos can also be achieved directly in camera.

This is the best budget Canon point and shoot we have found.

Camera also comes with a tutorial CD for some basic and intermediate IR false color techniques as well as a photoshop action suite to automate adding false colors.

The camera is listed as refurbished, it has been taken out of the box for the conversion process, but is still in mint, like-new condition.

For US shipping, we use USPS Priority mail. Shipping is calculated for each buyer and is the actual shipping cost only, free handling. Item usually arrives in 3-4 days after payment is received.

Cameras are made to order, allow up to a week for order shipment

Source: Canon SX400 Infrared Converted

Milán Rácmolnár's Rome in Rosy Infrared

2016-10-09 6 Share

Rome is known for its rich history and culture that the world is fondly familiar with; however, there is a side of the Roman capital yet to be seen. Roman goddess Venus graces Rome with love and affection by musing the Hungarian photographer Milán Rácmolnár to paint the city in old rose.

© Milán Rácmolnár

Hi Milán! Welcome to Lomography! Let's start off with your series "Rome in Infrared". What was your reason for visiting Rome?

First of all I really love this city. Second, I was planning to do this series for a very long time and I wanted a frequented city that has well known tourist sights. As my plan was to change the image of the city these spots were good point to make a connection in the viewers mind between the city and this "new" perspective.

© Milán Rácmolnár

Your infrared series paints Rome in another sort of light, leaning on ethereal fantasy. Where did you get the idea of making a series in which Rome is bathed in pink?

I have been experimenting with infrared photography for years. I have another series, Invisible Light that captures the human body in infrared light.

And I was always seeking for new topics which can fit this kind of technique. In the case of big cities almost everybody have images in mind even if one hasn't visited them yet. For instance, we tend to do photographs that are very similar of Rome, Tokyo or Paris, because we want our audience to recognize the city behind the pictures. So, I wanted to do an alternative cityscape that could change this image of Rome even just a little.

© Milán Rácmolnár

Rome is known as the eternal city; its history and culture spans for almost three millennia. Marble white and red comes as strong, identifying colors. For you, how do you think does the color pink fit the personality of the city?

These are my favorites (see photos below, from left to right). I like the first one is because here the normal life collides with this surreal vision; the second image is as if it's cut out from a fairy tale; the last one, simply because I like the structure of this image.

© Milán Rácmolnár

As a landscape/travel photographer, what do you usually look for when photographing a scenery?

The unusual.

© Milán Rácmolnár

Moving on from photography, may you share us your experience there? What was the most memorable?

Strange as it may sound I love the plants and trees of Italy.

© Milán Rácmolnár

What did you love about the city during your stay? Did you learn something (about anything, in general) when you were there?

Well this time it was a pretty brief stay. I shot this series in less than 47 hours. I've learnt that you can never trust a metro ticket machine.

© Milán Rácmolnár

There are a lot of Roman gods and goddesses. Which among them would you liken to the city?

I would pick Venus and Flora.

© Milán Rácmolnár

Lastly, what's next for you? Will you be visiting another city soon or do you have a new project you'd like us to know about?

Of course I will visit another city but my main focus now is on a 3D vs reality series and on a series that is shot in UV light.

Visit Milan's website, Behance and Instagram for his latest works and updates.

written by Ciel Hernandez on 2016-10-09 #culture #people #places #infrared-photography #rome #milan-racmolnar #travel-stories #italy #pink #old-rose

Source: Milán Rácmolnár's Rome in Rosy Infrared

Aerochrome/Infrared Photography by Zak van Biljon

South African photographer Zak van Biljon was born in 1981. He spent half of his life in both cities Johannesburg and Cape Town. In 2003, Zak has graduated as best student at the National College of Photography. One year later he left South Africa and emigrated to Europe where he lived in Rome and London before he moved to Zurich, Switzerland. Today he's working as a commercial and fine art photographer.

Aerochrome infrared photography of Lions Gate Bridge.

With exceptional skills in contemporary advertising as well as diverse modern art projects, Zak van Biljon specializes in both digital and analog photography. His latest body of work includes a great collection of aerochrome and infrared photography. He captures different places and landscapes in red and pink colors, which provides a fascinating, surreal perception of our world. A few examples of Zak van Biljon's aerochrome and infrared images can be found below. For more, please visit his website or follow this talented photographer on Instagram.

Chairs, an image captured in Milan, Italy. Aerochrome infrared image – Red Mountain. A Canadian lake in dark blue shades surrounded purple hills and mountains. What a breathtaking view of the Matterhorn in Zermatt. Mountain view at Pontresina. Via Martiri della Libertà, Lombardy. Valvestino – photography by Zak van Biljon.

All images © by Zak van Biljon. Do not hesitate and discover more mind-blowing work in our Photography section.

Source: Aerochrome/Infrared Photography by Zak van Biljon

'Dustbuster' telescope uncovers hidden stars

Interstellar dust that blocks astronomers' view of space is no match for the European Southern Observatory's "dustbuster" telescope, which just revealed this dazzling view of several stars that have hidden in the cosmic dust until now.

The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), located at ESO's Cerro Paranal Observatory in Chile, took this new image of this cloud of gas and dust, called Messier 78 (M78), which resides 1,600 light-years from Earth. Astronomers call M78 a reflection nebula, because it reflects the light from nearby stars.  ESO scientists created this video of the stunning nebula to showcase their research.

VISTA is specially designed for this sort of dust-busting work. It sees light in near-infrared wavelengths, which passes straight through the dust. Other wavelengths of light are either blocked or absorbed by interstellar gas and dust.

This new view of the star formation region Messier 78 (M78) was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. This image shows blue regions of light from the hot young stars, streams of dark dust, and red jets emerging from stars in the process of formation. M78 is the big blue region on the left; another nebula by the name of NGC 2071 is the smaller region on the right. ESO

In visible light, M78 looks like a bright, glowing cloud with a few stars scattered throughout. But VISTA's near-infrared observations reveal countless other stars speckled in, around and beyond the nebula.

Stars in the new photos from VISTA show hot, young stars that glow with bright blue light, as well as red jets spewing from brand new stars as they form. M78 is a well-known star-forming region. Its cold, dense and dusty clouds make it a "prime location" for new stars to form, according to ESO officials.

These photos show how parts of the nebula M78 appear at different wavelengths. In the infrared images from the VISTA telescope (lower row), the dust is much more transparent than in the visible light pictures from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope (upper row). ESO/Igor Chekalin

Since its first observations in 2009, ESO's VISTA telescope has discovered countless objects in space that were once hidden by cosmic dust, including several star clusters in the Milky Way.

Original article on Space.com.

Source: 'Dustbuster' telescope uncovers hidden stars

Hurricane Matthew Looks Just Like a Skull in This Menacing Photo

Hurricane Matthew might have looked grim from space, but infrared video of the Category 3 Storm makes it look downright sinister.

Just as Matthew made landfall in Haiti on Monday, dealing a still unknown level of damage, the storm appeared to take the shape of a skull, gritting its teeth. Meteorologist Stu Ostro first noticed the occurrence: 

Source: Hurricane Matthew Looks Just Like a Skull in This Menacing Photo

Aerochrome/Infrared Photography by Zak van Biljon

South African photographer Zak van Biljon was born in 1981. He spent half of his life in both cities Johannesburg and Cape Town. In 2003, Zak has graduated as best student at the National College of Photography. One year later he left South Africa and emigrated to Europe where he lived in Rome and London before he moved to Zurich, Switzerland. Today he's working as a commercial and fine art photographer.

Aerochrome infrared photography of Lions Gate Bridge.

With exceptional skills in contemporary advertising as well as diverse modern art projects, Zak van Biljon specializes in both digital and analog photography. His latest body of work includes a great collection of aerochrome and infrared photography. He captures different places and landscapes in red and pink colors, which provides a fascinating, surreal perception of our world. A few examples of Zak van Biljon's aerochrome and infrared images can be found below. For more, please visit his website or follow this talented photographer on Instagram.

Chairs, an image captured in Milan, Italy. Aerochrome infrared image – Red Mountain. A Canadian lake in dark blue shades surrounded purple hills and mountains. What a breathtaking view of the Matterhorn in Zermatt. Mountain view at Pontresina. Via Martiri della Libertà, Lombardy. Valvestino – photography by Zak van Biljon.

All images © by Zak van Biljon. Do not hesitate and discover more mind-blowing work in our Photography section.

Source: Aerochrome/Infrared Photography by Zak van Biljon