Horrid beauty. Symmetry & balance in an area ravaged by my favorite & only subject, Mother Nature.
Like the recent Boston renderings, the colors contained in the source imagery make this image stand out considerably. From what I can tell from the NOAA website, the aerial photography used to make this rendering was taken in the afternoon on a mostly cloudy day. The spots of brightness in the rendering are places where there were holes in the clouds. The dark areas on the ground are the flooded locations. These flooded locations, even the source imagery, are really hard to decipher. Due to the time the photograph was taken and the moisture content in the air, the flooded areas lack some of the detail I was hoping to portray.
When modifying the imagery in Photoshop, I did a simple “auto-levels” to balance out the colors, and surprisingly this change in levels gave some extra clarity to the imagery. If you check out the colors of the source imagery, you know what I’m talking about. Yet, I wish that “auto-levels” in Photoshop had some magical powers that would make the waters in New Orleans go back to their original levels…
When I created the geographic tessellation in Photoshop, I placed the imagery in such a way that the very center of the tessellation was the New Orleans Superdome. I was unable to acquire imagery from NOAA that contained the entire damaged dome in one image (ie, only part of the Super Dome shows up), so you can see how the reflection connects the Super Dome together into a hurricane damaged clover leaf. This centralized geographic identifier makes for some stunning reflections at the center.
Like my earlier experiences using 1st and 2nd derivatives, I have decided to make a 1st derivative rendering using the 6,600 X 6,600 pixels at the center this rendering. I think it’s going to look gorgeous and should be ready sometime tomorrow.
Lastly, like Katrina Quilt & Abstract Katrina, I am putting this one up for sale and the proceeds will go to the disaster relief efforts….hmmm… something that just popped in my head… maybe I could use the money to buy time for a commercial that demands that FEMA director resign. I think that might be a better use of the funds…maybe not… Regardless, heads need to roll and if I am able to help this process, I think I’m helping the disaster relief efforts considerably.
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Right on NiK! I really like this one. Such beauty from such a horrible disaster. Thank you for sharing this with us all. Thats awesome that you’re donating the quilt money to New Orleans. But the commercials not a bad idea either. The commercial might make some people think a little harder about what FEMAs doing, and if they dont know, they may think to look into it or ask about it more. Your choice.
Comment by Meleena VA — 9/9/2005 @ 6:35 pm
Angela & I just donated a bunch of clothing to some friends who are heading down to the Gulf States right now. I sincerely hope that the clothes make to some needy folks….
As for the commercial, Brown was just removed from his hand in the relief efforts and Time Magazine has a nice expose on his dubious resume. The commercial is not needed, well ummm, yet. He’s been removed from the Gulf States, but he still has his job. Hopefully he’ll fall on his own sword and resign.
Regardless, I am really happy you like the rendering ;) I have the next one finished, but the web-ready files have not been uploaded yet. That brings the total to 4 so far, and I’d really like to bring it to 10 altogether. The other day I obtained some NOAA imagery of Mississippi and I have a decent, new idea as to how I plan on preparing the imagery. Just you wait ;-)
Comment by admin — 9/10/2005 @ 3:43 pm