The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

The Pentagon Timelapse Animated GIF (2001-2005)
|| 9/1/2009 || 5:00 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

Still frame from The Pentagon Timelapse Animated GIF featuring USGS aerial photography from 2005
Click the image above to watch the animation

Last night I was going through one of my external hard drives and rediscovered a cache of “old” satellite imagery. I rarely publish any entries that use satellite imagery due to copyright issues because, generally speaking, the company that owns the satellite also owns all the pixels and this prevents me from legally creating derivative works. Today, however, I decided to test the boundaries with this legacy satellite imagery of the Pentagon and feel that this creation is protected under the fair use doctrine of US copyright law. You can always contact GeoEye if you are interested in purchasing satellite imagery from the IKONOS satellite.

The Animated GIF below features 9 frames consisting of 7 satellite images from the IKONOS Satellite (2001-2002) and two public domain aerial photographs from the USGS (2002 & 2005). It begins with satellite imagery taken four days before 9/11/01 and ends with a USGS aerial photograph taken in September 2005. The frames in between show the aftermath and the subsequent rebuilding of the Pentagon. I did my best to line up the building in my image editing program, but it’s not 100% perfect due to the angle in which some of the imagery was taken.

I have chosen to place the The Pentagon Timelapse Animated GIF “below the fold” so that visitors to the front page of this website are not downloading the somewhat large file. Please be patient while it downloads……

+ MORE

Wasilla, Alaska is literally off the map, the Google Map that is
|| 9/4/2008 || 8:34 pm || Comments Off on Wasilla, Alaska is literally off the map, the Google Map that is || ||

The Republican Party’s vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Tonight this website had a visitor from Wasilla, Alaska who looked at this statehood-related map. Upon looking at the city on Google Maps, I found out that Wasilla is a border city where the imagery of the geography shows only a portion of the city using new high-resolution imagery. In some ways, this map proves that Republican Party’s vice-presidential choice was literally off the map.

UPDATE – Due to the presidential election, Google has updated their imagery of Wasilla, Alaska.

Related Google Map Entries:

+ MORE

The Grand Design Lenz Quilt
|| 1/13/2008 || 11:20 am || Comments Off on The Grand Design Lenz Quilt || ||

: rendered at 9,000 X 6,000 :
The Grand Design Lenz Quilt

Using the elements from the Lenz Projection I was able to magnify portions of a tessellated Messier 101 Pinwheel Galaxy (a grand design galaxy) to create this fine celestial perspective.

Read more about this project here.

View Details:

+ MORE

The Shanghai Map
|| 8/2/2007 || 10:13 am || Comments Off on The Shanghai Map || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :
The Shanghai Map by Nikolas Schiller

A little over a month ago a Chinese friend of mine moved from DC back to Shanghai, China. While we were chatting on-line I asked her if she’d be able to send me some text in Chinese so I could use it on some maps. The first use of this text was the banners I made a couple weeks ago and today marks my first use of the text on an actual map.

The map was created from a Terra satellite image taken of eastern China on April 4th, 2004. The text simply says “map,” and with the location & text combined, you get the title, “The Shanghai Map.”

Unlike any of the quilt projection maps before this, I decided to use only one tessellation rotated 45 degrees. This switch-up is because I’ve never used Simplified Chinese before on a map and wanted this one to be completely unique. With the colors, text, and type of tessellation, I am quite pleased with this map and I look forward to using the text she supplied me for future maps!

View the Google Map of the area around Shanghai, China.

View Details:

+ MORE

A new change in Washington, DC’s imagery on Google’s servers
|| 7/10/2007 || 9:42 am || 2 Comments Rendered || ||

For the last 3 years I have followed how the aerial & satellite imagery of Washington, DC has been released, redacted, and remixed. This entry marks another important observation and a new discovery in Google Maps.

Last week I discovered the extent to which Google has updated their servers with the 2005 USGS aerial photography. My findings suggest that Google has censored much of downtown Washington, DC by not using a substanial amount of newer imagery.

Continue reading:

+ MORE

Ball of Destruction
|| 9/29/2005 || 9:00 pm || 1 Comment Rendered || ||

: rendered at 12,000 X 8,000 :
Ball of Destruction by Nikolas Schiller

Ball of Destruction

+ MORE

Quilt of Guinea-Bissau
|| 7/27/2005 || 3:17 pm || Comments Off on Quilt of Guinea-Bissau || ||

: full size print, rendered at 12,000 X 8,000 :
Quilt of Guinea-Bissau by Nikolas Schiller

It’s been awhile since I’ve used some imagery that is not aerial photography! Last night I decided to use one of my favorite satellite images from the “Earth as Art” collection. The colorful original satellite image is of Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa, and the colors represent water and different types of vegetation. I decided to use the ol’ Quilt template to make a somewhat intricate design that has two central axises of symmetry. I genuinely like this rendering and will most likely have it printed shortly.

Somewhat related… When I was setting up the scene to be rendered I realized that I could easily make one of these renderings surpass the gigapixel barrier that I’ve recently read about, but I realized that my computer cannot process that much information. I need a G5!

view rendering details:

+ MORE

DC Lenz #3
|| 2/8/2005 || 10:22 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

Thank Spacing Imaging for providing me with that image. Its the same image that I used in the “site map” and on the newly formed intro page. This time I used the fact that the source image had limited resolution (1280 x 1024 pixels) and I multiplied it a total of 36 times to achieve a larger mendala. The lenz was the same size as DC Lenz #2, as well as the same backround layout. This is one of my favorites, but the pixels are owned by someone else. :-(

Last week at the ESRI Federal GIS Users Conference I picked up a MASSIVE print of Las Vegas, Nevada and this week some of my friends began discussing the possibility of going to Las Vegas this spring. The Digital Globe print has all of the mega resorts and even a perfect zenith over the Luxor. I, however, do not have any plans to go there. Its a place I want to go to when I have a lot of money to blow.

So it turns out that the guy who gave me the dinars was actually an ROTC Guy who is studying law in DC. He is currently “undeployable.” I think once he graduates he’ll be off to the front lines. God speed soldier. Bring me back more worthless money that shows the price of liberation.

view detail of the center:

+ MORE

The Daily Render By

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future.

::LAST 51 POSTS::

Fair Use

46 queries. 3.029 seconds.
Powered by WordPress

Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: