Tag Archives | Photography

Australian Scientist Claims To Have Photographed Dozens Of UFOs

By on May 4, 2013 in News 0

ufosDust on the lens? Magnetic distortion? Or something else entirely? The Australian writes:

A biochemist-turned-school teacher says he captured hundreds of “UFOs” on his digital camera from his Darlington home in the Perth Hills.

Rob Hartland has taken more than 20,000 photos of the daytime sky in the past six months and analysed them on his computer. He says he has identified a dozen different UFOs including round, square and saucer-shaped craft, posting the photos to his website wispyclouds.net for extraterrestrial buffs and sceptics to ponder.

Mr. Hartland, who has a PhD in biochemistry, said he had no history of mental illness or drug taking and that he never altered his photos, though he acknowledged many people would find his claims hard to believe.

The Sunday Times picture editor Jackson Flindell said Hartland’s images did not appear to have been tampered with.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 0

The Hidden Geography Of Optical Calibration Targets

By on February 27, 2013 in News 0

The Center for Land Use Interpretation on symbols strewn across the American landscape which make sense only to airborne machines:

There are dozens of aerial photo calibration targets across the USA, curious land-based two-dimensional optical artifacts made mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, and many are still in use, though their history is obscure.

Most of them follow the same form established by the Air Force and NASA. The pattern painted on the targets is sets of parallel and perpendicular bars that function like an eye chart at the optometrist. For aerial photography and satellites, it provides a platform to test, calibrate, and focus aerial cameras traveling at different speeds and altitudes.

Many of these resolution test targets are found in the Mojave desert of California, one of the principal development and test areas for surveillance aircraft. The largest concentration in one place is on the grounds of Edwards Air Force Base, where calibration targets run for 20 miles.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 0

I Am A Full Woman

By on January 7, 2013 in News 6

A number of years ago, I attended a conference on women in Canada entitled, “Gather the Women.” I was very interested in going, but I had a niggling thought that kept coming back in the middle of the night. I just knew that it would not be a gathering of women, per se, but a gathering of 95% white, Western, middle income women, with a few women of color and a few women on the financial edge sprinkled in. I began to admit to myself that I was sick of attending conferences with names like “Gather the Women,” when they should have been called, “Gather the middle income, white women, and have a conversation that can’t possibly express the interests of Women (big W), without truly including women of color and women who would never even have heard about such a conference in equal measure!”

At the last minute, I decided I would go if the conference coordinators would allow me to present a video montage of faces of diverse women I’d photographed, to remind us all that we have to include these types of voices in future conferences. They agreed. So, I quickly pulled together photos from my desk-top and threw them together with a great piece of music I loved called “Full Woman,” by Rachel Bagby.

At the conference, the montage was shown on a large screen at the end of the first day, and the response was overwhelming. Women were weeping in the audience, and many…

Continue Reading · 6

Vodou in NYC

By on October 7, 2012 in News 17

Mambo Carmen becomes possessed by the Loa Klemezin. Shannon Taggart, 2010.

Often relegated to tabloid news coverage, the Afro-Caribbean religions, such as Santeria, Palo Mayombe, Palo Monte, and Vodoun, are some of the most beautiful and complex spiritual paths that can be found in the world. They have been forged in the sorrow, pain and violence of our colonial history, tempered with the hopes and joys that can only come from true perseverance.  It’s unfortunate that when we hear about them their beauty is usually obscured by patronizing, inept journalism, or, more frequently, by fear mongering, thinly veiled racism.

Maya Deren’s seminal work, The Divine Horsemen, was my first encounter with the depth of the Haitian tradition of Vodoun, and I’ll never forget how it changed my view of  life.  More recently I’ve enjoyed the work of Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold, an anthropologist,  Palero, and Vodoun initiate, whose works on Quimbanda and Palo Mayombe are published by Scarlet Imprint.… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 17

Dallas Cop Suspended for Trying to Confiscate Cyclist’s Helmet Camera

By on September 17, 2012 in News 17

Via CopBlock:
Well, this is an unexpected but welcome turn of events: Dallas Sheriff’s Deputy James Westbrook has been suspended for 30 days without pay following his attempt to confiscate a motorcyclist’s helmet camera. The deputy told cyclist Chris Moore that he was going to take his helmet cam as evidence proving that other cyclists were engaged in criminal behavior. Following Moore’s refusal, Westbrook arrested him for an obstructed license plate, an offense that normally warrants a ticket. Here’s Moore’s video:

Continue Reading · 17

All-American Nuclear Explosion Photos

By on August 7, 2012 in News 4

Photo: US Government Defense Threat Reduction Agency

This photo-article in The Atlantic contains some rare and disturbingly beautiful photos from the era of reckless American nuclear testing.  It includes a few of the really interesting photos taken just a millisecond after detonation, when the explosion is still a relatively tiny ball of plasma.

 

“Since the time of Trinity — the first nuclear explosion in 1945 — nearly 2,000 nuclear tests have been performed. Most of these occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. When the technology was new, tests were frequent and often spectacular, and they led to the development of newer, more deadly weapons. Since the 1990s, there have been efforts to limit the testing of nuclear weapons, including a U.S. moratorium and a U.N. comprehensive test ban treaty. As a result, testing has slowed — though not halted — and there are looming questions about who will take over for those experienced engineers who are now near retirement?

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 4

Americans And The Environmental State In The 1970s

By on January 10, 2012 in News 1

Via the Atlantic, a snippet of the EPA’s DOCUMERICA project, which involved the taking of thousands of beautiful, fascinating, sometimes harrowing photos of how Americans lived and how they interacted with the environment (expanding the definition of “environment” beyond what we usually think of):

As the 1960s came to an end, the rapid development of the American postwar decades had begun to take a noticeable toll on the environment, and the public began calling for action. In November 1971, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency announced a massive photo documentary project to record these changes. More than 100 photographers not only documented environmental issues, but captured images of everyday life and the way parts of America looked at that moment in history. The National Archives has made 15,000 of these images available.

cooling

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 1

Sneaking Into A Russian Military Rocket Factory

By on January 6, 2012 in News 6

rocketWhen you walk by a topnotch military rocket factory and notice that there are no guards on duty, it’s an opportunity for fun. A set of unbelievable photos, via Gizmodo:

Her name is Lana Sator and she snuck into one of NPO Energomash factories outside of Moscow. Her photos are amazing, like sets straight out of Star Wars or Alien. Now the Russian government is harassing her.

It was easy to get in. She just went there, jumped over the fence and got right into the heart of the complex through a series of tunnels and pipes, which was very surprising. After all, this is an active industrial installation that belongs to one of the top manufacturers of liquid-fuel rockets in the world.

And yet, she found nobody. No guards, no security. Nothing. Just a few CCTV cameras here and there in rooms packed with huge machinery.

While some of these zones look decrepit and abandoned, the factory is active.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 6