Dark Matter

Scooters!

2009-07-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

I walk around Pioneer Square daily. I love all the different scooters that I see.

Nostalgia

2009-07-01T23:43:00.001-07:00

Found this in a SX-70 that I purchased from CraigsList. Wish this service was around still.

Skate Jam at Snowboard Connection

2009-06-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Tali

2009-06-26T23:58:00.001-07:00

I'm starting a nice collection. I'd like to share.

The Soul of Instant Photography

2009-06-22T22:31:00.001-07:00

As seen with a Polaroid Land Camera Model 330

This camera has been a revelation in Composure, Composition and Light.

Medium Format - A different format

2009-06-21T08:13:00.001-07:00

It's called Medium Format film, but there are a number of actual crop sizes that fall under that banner. The previous batch was from a 6x6 (cm) square format. The other popular crop size is quite a bit smaller, but still falls under the name Medium Format, 6x4.5 cm. You can see its the more familliar landscape wide-format that we're used to.

It's really all about the resolution obtainable when we put the image on a bigger piece of film. See this example at wikipedia for a size difference.

Here's the first batch from a beautiful camera, the Mamiya 645 PRO.

A new batch of film

2009-06-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

New obsession: Medium Format

The decreased Depth Of Field is the obvious part, but there is just something about this format.

This first batch is with a Twin Lens Reflex Mamiya C330 It was inherited from Tali's grandfather who was quite the landscape photographer. These are the results from the first few batches.

Prologue continued: Yes, this applies to your life

2009-05-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

In mathematics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain dynamical systems – that is, systems whose states evolve with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved, this behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.

Chaotic behavior is also observed in natural systems, such as the weather. This may be explained by a chaos-theoretical analysis of a mathematical model of such a system, embodying the laws of physics that are relevant for the natural system. -Wikipedia "Chaos Theory"5/12/2009 (this is not my favorite definition by far, but it will work)

I would like to continue my last post first, before I collapse the coming thoughts into form. I'm sure many of you, except the true geeks, won't have much interest in Chaos Theory and how it might apply to your life. Needless to say, your reaction may be that of indifference, or perhaps you have a story playing in your head that tells you that you can never understand this stuff (stuff = anything smart sounding). Well let me reassure you, I have no intention of walking with the greats of mathematical theorem or the rhetoric that they are bound by. I'm not here to baffle you with bullshit just to sound smart. I'm only a visitor here myself, a visitor on a tour, and a guide with a map.

It occurred to me that for a very long time now humanity has been living under the segregation of scientific knowledge. A hierarchy if you will, those who had the money, motivation, curiosity, and time held the latest discoveries. Even in today's instant information society, the true research into the most hidden and fascinating processes of our existence are done in universities and corporations behind doors closed by propriety. Of course things are on the change, as the Internet becomes more and more live. It also seems there are some of us who's natural curiosity has been switched off. Looking at all the chaos and stimulation in our lives though, why not? Who gives a fuck about some of the insane math that goes into this stuff. Predicting weather patterns? Christ, give me a smoke and a bottle of bourbon. The dope of the masses is religion: what does this stuff have to do with any of that? It's what we've been lacking, true understanding of what science has been doing for the last 300 years, and how it applies to life. We've gotten so caught up in "Practical Application" (how can we monetize this and failing that, how do we use it to blow you up?) of research that we've forgotten what practical really means.

In the following posts, I will attempt to demystify the mystified, bring psychology and sociology a new understanding, and collapse mathematics and religion into something non-mystic.

-That'll be enough for now

Hey Feigenbaum! We're not done yet

2009-05-11T03:12:00.000-07:00

"TURBULENCE WAS A PROBLEM with pedigree. The great physicists all thought about it, formally or informally. A smooth flow breaks up into whorls and eddies. Wild patterns disrupt the boundary between fluid and solid. Energy drains rapidly from Large-scale motions to small. Why? The best ideas came from mathematicians; for most physicists, turbulence was too dangerous to waste time on. It seemed almost unknowable.

There was a story about the quantum theorist Werner Heisenberg, on his deathbed, declaring that he would have two questions for God; why relativity, and why turbulence. Heisenberg says, "I really think He may have an answer to the first question." - CHAOS 1987 James Gleick

PROLOGUE

I've been reading up physics' and mathematics' exploration on this idea of Chaos. I started the conversation a few months back with my quickie on Fractals and Karma. Looking back, it’s evident to me what I was trying to say, but I'm not so sure that I even knew the measure of this hydra at that time. Elegant as the piece may have been, it was a half-explored idea, based on intuition's shapeless and fascinating beauty. Not that exuberance should be censured, quite the contrary, but we must attend to inspiration to realize the possibility of freedom whispered to us.

Apologies aside, I'm feeling overwhelmed and humbled with an understanding of what I feel to be a paradigm shift in human consciousness. Like a sailor on his first extended voyage, my legs and stomach are weak with a young man's lack of confidence of skill at his chosen profession. Replete with the joy of a poet, as yet tempered by the vast emptiness in front of me. Perhaps someday I will compile these articles into a book, but for now as the author learns to trim the sheets he asks the reader to employ a measure of empathy.

Lastly, I'd like to qualify all this by admitting that none of this may be new. I haven't done the exhaustive research required by scientific law to discover and cite proper authors. Where possible I will link to articles and books which I've based my thoughts upon. I plan to write some portion of this diary in the 1st person, uncited except for my own intuition about certain principles discussed. Just as the pioneers of Chaos discovered, they were left isolated in academia as neither mathematicians nor physicists. It’s seemingly plausible that in humanity's current fascination with self reflection and spirituality someone has already overturned this rock and looked beneath at the wonders abounding, hidden; revealed. As this series develops, I will strive to draw upon established research and place it in context with the concepts that will be imparted to the reader. I don't claim to be the owner of any of this at all, rather like most scientific study; it is based on the strong back of those who have shared inspiration before. I am the scribe, in the spirit of a child eagerly collecting snowflakes of a sparse early winter snow molding the form of a snowman. There are children up and down the street doing the same, all experience the same snow storm, and our individual creations are invariably as different as the flakes we create from.

Perhaps Albert Einstein was on to something with his quest for a unified field theory. Or perhaps it was life in a box which overtook his mind, unable to create anew. It’s a state we're all familiar with; in fact I hold that we live most of our lives bound by our own beliefs and ideals. Unable to create new thought while stuck in our web of (dis)belief. I think we're all guilty of idealizing Einstein himself. What article or reference to him cannot begin with credentials to the effect of "greatest scientific mind of the 20th century"? In his own time a legend already, the pressure to create was immense. All indications are that he was in fact a human and following his own intuition, with wild disregard to the quantum vogue. Reminiscent of another inventor of similar caliber and similar end-of-life focus: Nicola Tesla. I suppose I'm only trying to extend a nod to great men who've gone before me, and faced the wrath of the scientific cadre. Mentioned, before I start, before attempting to use the thoughts of thinkers past without a degree of credibility myself.

SpectraLight flash diffuser

2009-05-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

I received in the mail today a really cheap, but interesting flash diffuser. Its called a SpectraLight. Simple, versatile and seems to be quite universal. It just straps onto the top of your flash and has a ball joint that allows for all kinds of bounce possibilities.

It came minimally configured with 2 reflective color bounce card stickers that go on 4x4 plastic cutouts, Silver and Gold. It also came with a translucent diffuser for taming harsh flashes. The package came wrapped in a nice nylon case with pockets for everything for protection.

I found it on eBay, and didn't have much hope for it for the low price of 14.99. Yeah its cheap construction, but there just isn't much to break on it. There are some funky contraptions out there on eBay, but the SpectraLight seems quite well thought out. I chose this one because of the versatility and the possibility that I can manufacture my own color cards. Verdict: good buy

Here's some samples of it in action, and results. Nothing spectacular, but its just a quick test.

Oh yeah, and I picked up two lenses from CraigsList today. Here's one of them, Pentax-M SMC 50mm 1:1.7. The other is a beauty, the Pentax SMC 135mm f/2.5 (not pictured)

A new batch of film

2009-05-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

Naruda on Poetry

2009-05-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

And it was at that age. . . poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, not silence,
but from a street it called me,
from the branches of the night,
abruptly from the others,
among raging fires
or returning alone,
there it was, without a face,
and it touched me.
I didn't know what to say, my mouth
had no way with names,
my eyes were blind.
Something knocked in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first, faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing;
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
the darkness perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the overpowering night, the universe.

And I, tiny being
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss.
I wheeled with the stars.
My heart broke loose with the wind.

~Pablo Neruda

Personal Power

2009-04-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

The myth of no effect is the idea that we as individuals can't make a difference in such a large world.

The myth of no effect obscures the role we can play in the long-term transformation of society. But the myth also blinds us to our own power in relation to other people. We may cling to the belief that there is nothing we can do precisely because we subconsciously know how much power we do have and are afraid to use it because may not like it. If we deny our power to affect people, then we don't have to worry about taking responsibility for how we use it or, more significant, how we don't.

- Privilege, Power and Difference by Allan G. Johnson

Seattle Sounders FC - First Game

2009-03-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

We've got season tickets to the new MLS Sounders! Here's my first attempt at photographing the team. Score:

Seattle 3 NY 0

Unity of One (a poem to those who may guide me)

2009-02-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

A most delicate balance

Between the human heart

And the quest of knowledge; wisdom, comprehension of desire. This prayer to be sent out from the mind as well as the heart, that we may unite, speak and act in unison. That I may have the wisdom to allow my heart to speak, that my guides choose this mind to whisper graceful guidance; this is balance. Like a river, this mystery which you conjure to view caresses, wanders and sculpts this mind. So cold am I to my brothers and sisters, neighbors and kin. This delicate balance, between love and light, I am alone with you.

This window into you, that I call home

2009-01-28T00:37:00.000-08:00

And not knowing this,
I continue to ask.
Your answers received
through the glass filter:
Of whatever I want,
Of whatever I ask.
Received in my light
The answers I seek
Oh God Bless You!
The perfect arrangement
to a flawless system.

O desire
you dripping cave
your spires built
up through years
and reaching down.
Yearning for an
honest discussion
With its own heart.
To refine these questions
that enslave us.

This Ritual Will Not Be Broadcast

2009-01-27T01:02:00.000-08:00

Compensation for this life in flesh

2009-01-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

Notes from Costa Rica

2009-01-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back, Tali and I took a vacation to Costa Rica. It was a bit of a cleansing ritual for us. New city for her, new house same city for me. I felt we could use a transition respite to give us some perspective on life. I sat on on this post for over a week, to let things sort themselves out in my head. I started this post 4 days ago, and its been sitting open on the same tab in my browser, carefully avoided, computing around it. So Here I am back, again, another attempt at consolidation, distillation, digestion.

I don't really know how to describe this journey to people. The physical Beauty of Costa Rica is indescribable. Very soon after the airport, the mind begins to shut down, unable to process all of the new information. Tali and I stayed at a place called Eco Era, definitely not a resort, though completely comfortable, safe. During past stays in Costa Rica I've lived much more rustically for sure. I know this may seem trivial to people who live in tropical, or more wild climates, but for a couple of city kids the experience is jarring. But now onto the truth that I've put it off long enough. Don't expect anything shockingly interesting, or wild tales of memories consolidated into stories. This experience is something I refuse to compromise on.

There are moments in our lives where we are blessed with visions so encompassing; so outside of current convention, we are compelled to leave behind our heretofore, beautiful but now limited version of life. At one time that version delivered to our mind the what we believed we expected of life. The new vision comes as a fire storm, or a walk into an unknown land. What we bring back from the walk is the same we always intuited, but with truth previously unknown to our minds. After the fire, we are left with the sooty jewels and are left to seperate the illusion and wonder, finally left with the recognition that our mind is still an imperfect tool.

Through that fire, we are released from the bondage of our attachments.

Anymore, I feel as though I am compelled to speak in code when I am asked to address life. In public life, beyond our own consciousness being true to ourselves is an art. Something I did not grasp as deeply as I do now. I have endeavored on the path of discovering art, this is what I have discovered. Sometimes the photograph (code) surprises even the photographer. I see now how the meals we eat along the path require each of us to digest differently. How the fruit we find is unique to where our eyes land within the tree. The paradox remains for those that think luck is a coincidence, that their apparent separateness is the ultimate reality.

If that's not a load of crap I don't know what is. I guess all I'm trying to say is, I Don't Know Anymore. Or put another way, I used to think I was wise. Now I am not sure what wisdom truly is, I only know that I am connected to wisdom. I think that may be enough to pinpoint me on the map, If you were wondering where I'm at. I feel a posting forming about what it means to translate this to artistic expression.

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/butter_fry/sets/72157612647584218/

Old Film

2008-12-26T17:16:00.001-08:00

Some time ago, I purchased a batch of really old slide film. The prints it produces are really wild. Sometimes the colors are so wacked out that I don't know what to do with them. Last night I discovered a way of post processing the shots that turns out pretty cool.

The shot was taken in NY on the Brooklyn Bridge. The slide film was initially Cross Processed and turned out with an extremely green tint. Kind of appealing in itself, but it just didn't do it for me. So last night I tried converting to B/W. I like the old photo look it gives.

Here's another from that same batch of film. This time I like the colors.

Fractals in Nature: Self Similarity and Karma

2008-12-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

It wasn't until the last quarter of the 20th century that the scientific establishment began to understand the meaning of nature's fractal forms. This understanding is owed in part to Benoit Mandelbrot's solution to some age old mathematical monsters that defied the traditional geometric conventions. While I myself do not attempt understand the feedback loop equations that bring us the iconic fractal plots, the beauty of its understanding is not lost. Beauty in itself is not the only point of this exercise fortunately. I would like to plot a path to the harmony between our mind; its patterns and how nature can help us understand the relationship of a part to its whole.

Prototype and Production

What if nature was one unified mind made up of its myriad of individual parts, which together constitute the whole of consciousness? As parts, we identify with our own seperate consciousness as the singular source of understanding in our lives. This seperateness is simply the side effect of being apart. In the picture Prototype, the ice does not know its similar heritage to the leaf, Production Model. While we may see the visual similarities, the ego reels at the concept of nature emulating itself in two seemingly dissimilar forms of mater.

Understanding the fractal Nature

A pillar of fractal theory is the concept of Self Similarity. The concept of natural (and manmade!) forms being all fractal at all levels is quickly sinking into many fields of scientific inquiry. The repetition of patterns, expressed in the generated plots of feedback loop equations is the key to understanding Nature. As we see in this set of pictures, tips of tree branches are self similar in its repeated patterns. Notice the same in the tree as a whole in its companion photograph.

Furthermore, we can clearly recognize the similarity between the two very different trees when viewed side by side. Surely by design! Surely Nature has arrived here after millennia of trial and error by reason. Only the fittest survive. A Miracle?

We view the whole, by examining the details

While this concept is seemingly paradoxical, Nature provides a visual touchstone with which the ego can affix itself for unfolding. Life itself is fractal; Thoughts are fractal in structure, theme, and concept. How many times in your life have you seen repeated themes in seemingly disparate situations? Do you glance at the clock only to find it reads a particular time more often than others? We arrive at many day to day solutions to problems by drawing on knowledge of the past, or other problems.

Karma also can be conceptualized from afar through the lens of fractal theory. Repeated patterns, thoughts, actions, themes in our life, these are but one phase of karma. Fractal repetition from the unattended thought, to the wide overview of one's life can be understood by examining any part of the whole. I will not dwell here; I will leave you the reader, the part, to unfold our unified mystery. View the mountain and its blanket of trees, the rock and its accompanying shrubs.

A shadow's mystery revealed in our veins

There are a number known ways to enlightenment of the mind. I spent some time with a shaman who espoused the concept of "Every action, every thought, every feeling a prayer." Using our fractal code and what we learned about thoughts previously, we might see how we can unlock these patterns through examination. We will use the working definition of prayer here to be: Examination through meditation, which gives rise the deep feeling of love that can only be felt when we accept we are but a part of the whole. Our true heart is given freedom as we rejoin the whole through this symbiotic relationship.

Fear and shame are the fractal shadow pattern outline of meaning and joy.

The innate human need for unity, community, kindred spirit has given rise to the concept of religion. This need is fulfilled when the ego realizes that by examining itself, accepting itself for the beautiful part of a whole it is. All thoughts are part of a whole, larger picture, linked by its neighbors. Indeed we are not parts, but connected to a whole, whose image is mirrored in our own thought-shape.

How can I understand this better?

New thoughts and concepts are always hard to fully grasp for all of us. The fractal nature of thought dictates that we must see continued repetition for the mind to understand the genetic helix of a concept. Nature has been at this for a while; you will never be able to grasp it all. . I'm sure some of what I talked about seemed obtuse to say the least. If in fact, you are intrigued by some of the concepts I talk about in this article, I encourage you to do a little research on fractal concepts and current theory. There is some really exciting work going on, Explore!

Dark Matter: The Begining

2008-12-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

The inaugural post. While I can't say this blog thing will take hold of me, I'll give it a go. What's it all about? Musings I guess. Lots of photography I'm sure.

What do I mean by Dark Matter? In the past science had the Ether, which Webster defines as:

1a: the rarefied element formerly believed to fill the upper regions of space b: the upper regions of space : heavens
2a: also ae·ther : a medium that in the wave theory of light permeates all space and transmits transverse waves

A concept widely accepted during the pre-atomic age. We have since gotten a hold of ourselves and promptly forgot about Ether. Yet fifty years later, only to resurrect and rename this substance to do something more modern: Dark Matter. Which Wikipedia defines as:

In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is hypothetical matter that does not interact with the electromagnetic force, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. According to present observations of structures larger than galaxies, as well as Big Bang cosmology, dark matter and dark energy account for the vast majority of the mass in the observable universe. The observed phenomena which imply the presence of dark matter include the rotational speeds of galaxies, orbital velocities of galaxies in clusters, gravitational lensing of background objects by galaxy clusters such as the Bullet cluster, and the temperature distribution of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Dark matter also plays a central role in structure formation and galaxy evolution, and has measurable effects on the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background. All these lines of evidence suggest that galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the universe as a whole contain far more matter than that which interacts with electromagnetic radiation: the remainder is called the "dark matter component."

How human a thing, to recycle a concept with a new name! Truly, what is more exciting that there being some substance in our universe that can only be described, as yet not captured, but we KNOW it must be there? The tendency of science to have faith in our observations, or physical senses is a biological necessity for all beings. This reliance is the reason for our sentience, our evolution of finer physical senses has allowed us to rise and self reflect. Oh how I pursue you DARK MATTER!

Between the shadows of understanding, Dark Matter