Puzzling...

Here are a couple ways that puzzles, art, and printing have been creatively combined. Kent Rogowski created this image for his series entitled Love = Love by mixing pieces from store bought puzzles. Found [Via]

Flowers and skies were taken out of over 40 store bought puzzles and combined to form a series of spectacular landscapes. Although puzzle pieces are unique and can only fit into one place within a puzzle they are interchangeable within a brand.

Kent sells 16x20 limited series runs of his puzzle art.

Last year art and fashion publication, Visionaire, released these puzzles from six different artists for their 51st issue. The large scale 25 piece puzzle with 8 inch puzzle pieces were designed so they could be mixed and matched. Found [Via]

Visionaire, the fabled art and fashion “magazine”, is about to appear in its 51st incarnation. While the issues differ radically from one to the next, each is dedicated to a particular theme that a host of celebrated artists set out to interpret. The latest, published in a couple of weeks, takes the theme of “harmony” and contains six large-scale 25-piece jigsaw puzzles.

Each puzzle can be assembled to reveal the singular image created by each artist, or they can be mixed up together – in “harmony” we imagine – to create wild and crazy abstract pictures.

Just how big is a pixel anyway?

Scott Condray from Visualville was kind enough to share this lesson plan with us from his Photoshop course. This knowledge combined with the fact that our LightJet images files at the equivalent of 4,000 dpi can be a powerful tool when preparing your files.

It’s Not The Size Of Your Pixel… It’s How You Use It!

In this Lesson we’ll explore the concepts of resolution, dpi and ppi.

A pixel is the smallest unit in a digital file. Digital files consist of a series of pixels running the length and width of the file, thus creating a two dimensional image. Open an image file in Photoshop and zoom in as close as you can, (1600% is the maximum) and you’ll be able to see the individual pixels that make up the image. The higher the number of usable pixels per inch, the higher the resolution. Resolution is more about the ability to show sharp image detail and less about the physical size of an image.

Digital capture devices, (Scanner and Digital Cameras) measure resolution in pixels per inch (ppi). Output devices, (photographic printers and printing presses) measure resolution in dots per inch (dpi) they are not equivalents. Scanners and digital cameras create pixels, not dots, however the pixels will eventually be output as dots.

For example:
A 300 pixel per inch scan, output on a printer with a 300-dpi resolution will yield a print that is one inch in size (one dot was created for each pixel).

It might be better to ask, “How big is a dot?” For a printer capable of printing 300dpi, each dot is 1/300 th of an inch. If you print a file that is 2400 pixels by 3000 pixels on a printer that prints 300 dpi, and the printer produces dots that are 1/300 th of an inch then one inch of paper will be printed for every 300 pixels in the file. The size of the print output will be 8 inches by 10 inches. How big is the pixel? 1/300 th of an inch.

If you output the same file on a printing press that produces a 600 dpi output each dot will be 1/600 th of an inch. With 3000 pixels in the file, the press will produce one inch of image on paper for every group of 600 pixels. The total output will be 4 by 5 inches. In both cases there are 2400 X 3000 pixels in the file, but one output device yielded an 8 X 10 and the other a 4 X 5. Which device produces the higher resolution… the printing press.

Think of resolution in another way. Digital files do not have any size other than the space they occupy. How big is an RGB file that is 2,400 by 3,000 pixels? About 20 MB. How big is that? The answer is we don’t know until those 2,400 by 3,000 pixels are output.

So how big is a Pixel? As big as you want it to be. Wouldn’t it be great if everything worked like that!

Lincoln images rediscovered

A little piece of history was rediscovered at the Library of Congress. Some previously mislabeled glass negatives were correctly identified as being from Lincoln's inaguration to his second term on March 4, 1865 by Carol Johnson, Library of Congress curator of photography. You can see a good size crowd gathered outside the Capitol building for the event.

"These negatives add to our knowledge of this special event," said Johnson. "They show what that wet Saturday looked like with the massing of the crowd. They also convey the excitement of the people."

Johnson was prompted to examine the negatives after a Library of Congress patron alerted her to the fact that these visually similar photos had radically different identifications in the Library's online Civil War photographic negative collection. But instead of choosing between Grant and the Grand Armies Review, she opened a new door to the past by looking closely at the images and recognizing Lincoln's second inauguration.

MacBook Air

The much awaited and highly anticipated announcements from the opening of the Macworld Expo have flooded the internet today. One very cool new product they have launched is an ultra thin laptop. The new 3 pound MacBook Air will start shipping in 2 weeks. To get an idea of the size check out this video posted on Gizmodo.

Apple Launches 13-Inch Ultralight MacBook Air- Christopher Null for Yahoo! Tech

As widely expected, Apple is launching an ultra-thin notebook called the MacBook Air. At 0.76" thick at its widest point, the three-pound Air has a wedgelike shape that tapers down to 0.16" thick at the front base. LED backlighting on its 13.3-inch screen, multi-touch trackpad (which offers some nifty features like rotating photos, all in the touchpad), and a backlit keyboard. Specs are decent: 1.6 or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (on a cleverly shrunken socket), 2GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive (or 64GB SSD option). No optical drive (of course), and just one USB port. It'll set you back $1,799, which is on the inexpensive side for ultralight notebooks with specs like this.

ASU Art Museum receives 1.4 mil bequest

Wilhelmine “Helme” Prinzen, who passed away in 2007, left her more than $1 million estate in Paradise Valley to the ASU Art Museum. She had originally planned for her donation to remain anonymous, but later changed her mind to encourage others to consider including the ASU Art Museum in their estate planning.

Prinzen’s endowment will be used to assist and advance emerging artists through exhibitions organized by the museum and purchases of works by emerging artists for the museum’s permanent collection. In addition, the endowment will fund research and education in the area of contemporary art with emphasis on emerging artists.

“The Prinzen Endowment recognizes the ASU Art Museum's history and ongoing commitment to exhibitions, publications and educational programs that focus on emerging artists,” says Heather Lineberry, senior curator and interim director of the ASU Art Museum. “Helme's bequest significantly enhances our ability to continue these programs and to provide extraordinary experiences with contemporary art and artists for our students and audiences.”

Prinzen loved the ASU Art Museum, a place she found that reciprocated her interest in contemporary art, especially that of emerging artists.

“While Helme recognized that showing the work of artists already consecrated by art history or the market was important, she was attracted to our more adventurous approach,” says Marilyn Zeitlin, retired director of the ASU Art Museum and curator of its 2000 exhibition of Prinzen’s work, the first in a U.S. museum. “We were the first to show and collect work by Heidi Kumao, Einar and Jamex de la Torre, and gave the American audiences the first opportunity to see the works of Cuban artists in 1998. Helme liked that we often produce the first printed documentation of emerging artists’ work.”

Avedon show at the PAM

The Phoenix Art Museum continues their great series of loan exchange with the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson with a new showing of Richard Avedon's work. Avedon, perhaps one of the most recognizable names in photography, captured portraits of the famous from Henry Kissinger to Marilyn Monroe. He never stopped working, even up until his death at age 81 he was on an assignment for the New Yorker magazine. Constantly re-inventing himself and his subjects. One of his most famous images "Dovima with Elephants" shown here. The PAM's exhibit opens January 12th and runs until April 20th.

Essence of Avedon: Photographer's evocative works offer insight into his subjects, himself By Richard Nilsen for he Arizona Republic

When he was just 23, Avedon began taking photographs for Harper's Bazaar magazine and turned fashion photography on its ear.

"For the first time, you saw fashion photography taken into the streets," says Dennita Sewell, curator of fashion design at the Phoenix Art Museum, whose collection includes several of the gowns Avedon photographed in his first work.

"Before that, women posed properly in front of a chandelier in a beautiful hotel, or in a studio with perfect hair, but Avedon gave the pictures a bit of adventure.

"He captured this excitement, that if only you were in Paris, if only you were in that suit, if only you ran across these scenes, fabulous things would happen to you, too."

Suzy Parker, Dovima and other models leaped over the sidewalks in the Marais district or stood in evening gown in front of elephants. It was all new, all energy, all somewhat outrageous.

"Mixing that beautiful satin with the wrinkled skin of the elephants was so striking, so unusual for the time," Sewell says.

Kevin Dyer at Celebration of Fine Art show

Kevin Dyer will show in the Celebration of Fine Art, which takes place under the “big white tents” January 12 – March 23, 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona. A resident of Phoenix, this is the 1^st year that Dyer is participating in this prestigious, juried and invitational art show and sale. In it’s 18^th year, the Celebration of Fine Art, a fusion of the best art galleries, art studios and art shows, brings 100 of the finest international and U.S. artists to Scottsdale.

Dyer is known for his “sense of place” photography and has been recognized by National Geographic, Art Talk, American Art Collector and The Art of Seeing and has recently exhibited at the Herberger Theater Center. Dyer received his degree in Media Arts and Journalism from the University of Arizona. “I am pleased to be selected for the 2008 Celebration of Fine Art show and sale. I especially like the show’s personal yet professional environment. It offers me a wonderful opportunity to meet and connect with people who love and buy art,” said Dyer.

The show is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week from January 12 through March 23, 2008. Celebration of Fine Art is located in Scottsdale, Arizona on North Scottsdale Road just South of the Loop 101 in the big white tents.

Good luck to Kevin! We hope it is successful for you. If you are not able to make it to Scottsdale, you can also check out Kevin's on line gallery.

New art from Lindsay Palmer

It is always such a treat to be able to work with new artists and get to be a part of local art scene. Lindsay Palmer is an artist, curator and writer living in Tempe, Arizona. Currently, she is the curator of the Shemer Art Center and Museum. She has a show of her photography coming up the first week of January that will run until the end of the month. Start the new year off right and support local artists!

Lindsay Palmer presents a series of large-scale, color photographs in a solo exhibition, Through a Glass... at eye lounge: a contemporary art space, artist-run gallery in downtown Phoenix. Palmer’s work examines the nature of photography, challenging the medium’s perceived ability to represent reality. Her latest body of work juxtaposes objects from popular culture against an idealized portrait of nature, suggesting a collision between material culture and the environment. In the words of the artist “I expose the landscape for what I see it fast becoming: a backdrop for our metropolis”. The exhibition, “Through a Glass...” questions the ethical responsibility of aesthetic appeal.

Happy holidays!

All of us at Mighty Imaging would like to extend warm wishes this holiday season. We hope your home is filled with love and joy. May you be blessed with health and happiness in the year to come.

Photo Miami 2007

Last week the Wynwood Art District in Miami hosted photo MIAMI. An international contemporary art fair that features photo-based, video, and new media art. The event takes place in conjunction with the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. Although I was unable to make it across country to check out the event, it looks like there was some amazing new work shown. James Danziger did travel to the show, and have many pictures of the work on his blog; The Year in Pictures. Looks like many of the artists chose to create big prints to show their work. That is what we like to see.

photo MIAMI, the only fair during Art Basel Miami Beach dedicated exclusively to contemporary photography and media based art, offers an expansive and immediate overview of these current international trends. It showcases a range of established to emerging galleries, presents curated sections by global artists and curators, and partners with local and international art institutions. This year the fair will host an even greater number of selected exhibitors from 11 countries.

Painted glass photo mat

This is a great way to add a personal touch to your artwork for yourself, or as a gift. You can use items that you may already have laying around the house. Nothing too out of the ordinary that a quick trip to an art supply store couldn't take care of. Instructables is a great site full of these kinds of useful ideas. You may need to sign up as a member to see all the steps.

Painted Glass Photo Mat

Create a great looking Photo Mat, without cutting Mat Board, or requiring any special tools.

Materials Needed
Here's the list of materials needed for this Instructable:

- A Photo to Frame (any size you wish)
- Picture Frame (with glass, precut photo mat not required)
--- NOTE: The picture frame MUST be at least 2-3 inches larger in all directions than the photo you are planning to put into this frame. The extra area will provide the space for you to paint, while still allowing your photo to be fully viewed.
- Acrylic Paint (buy individual paint tubes, or a set of many colors)
- Paint Brushes for Acrylic Paints (in whatever sizes/design you prefer)
- Poster board (or large piece of cardboard)

Misc items from around the house:

- Ruler
- Pen/Pencil
- Double-sided tape
- Scissors

Use photos to make a holiday gift

We are in the midst of the holiday shopping season. If you are like me, you still have people on your list that you are desperately trying to think of something unique and creative to get "the person who has everything". A photo gift could be the perfect solution.

There are many ways you can make your gift unique.

• You can do a large print of a particularly memorable day and have it framed.
  
• If your camera does not take images big enough to do one large photograph, how about making a collage in Photoshop of special memories and turning it in to one big print?
  
• Get a print made of your child's drawing for the grandparents. Printing it on canvas will make it look even more like a masterpiece.
  
• Find an old photo of an ancestor, we can restore it, and then make prints for all of your family members.
  
• You can also purchase a fine art print of one of their favorite locations or a theme that will fit their decor.

You get the idea. There are many ways to make your photo gift personal and memorable. There is still time to order and get it by Christmas. Anything you choose to do will be a one of a kind gift that they will cherish for years to come.

Better color for your photos on the web

This is another reason to love Mozilla's web browser, Firefox. Their latest incarnation Firefox 3.0, which is now still in beta and will launch next year, has an exciting color profiling feature as one of their upgrades. The new version will read the color profile saved in your images and then take in to consideration the characteristics and settings of the monitor it is being viewed on to give a more accurate appearance. This is good news for many photographers out there.

Firefox 3 to enable better color online

The look of images differs between managed and unmanaged applications (screenshot of the same image in Safari vs. Firefox 2), so FF getting on board with color management is great news for designers & photographers who value consistency. For more background on why this is an important advance for the Web, see my notes on the color-managed Safari coming to Windows.

James Cowlin featured in PhotoMedia

If you have never had the opportunity to pick up PhotoMedia magazine, you are missing out on a great photo publication. It comes out four times a year, and consistently prints compelling stories and photography. In their Fall 2007 issue they featured a large spread on James Cowlin and his favorite project, the Historic U.S. Route 89 Society. James wrote and provided the images for the article highlighting the beauty of this unique stretch of highway. If you are up for a road trip, Jim offers 7 different destinations to visit from the Southern border of Arizona and Mexico up through to Southern Utah, along with shooting tips for each location. James has also just launched a new design of his website. Of course, you can also purchase Jim's images through his gallery. Congrats to Jim on all his success!

Border to Border
A photographic journey north on U.S. Route 89, the West’s most ‘Western’ highway.

Here’s are some other facts I discovered about U.S. Route 89:
• The highway traverses all of the geographic provinces of the interior American West, from the Basin and Range to the Colorado Plateau, across the Rocky Mountains and into the Great Plains.
• In addition to the national parks, there are 13 national monuments, one national recreation area, 14 national forests, 22 national wilderness areas, and 20 state parks and historic sites on or near the road.
• Highway 89 passes through three major metropolitan areas: Tucson, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. It also passes through numerous small towns, where travelers can still get a taste of the Old West.

Just driving along this road, you can learn much about the people and cultures that populated the West — from the Ancestral Puebloans and other native peoples on through the Spanish conquistadors, the westward expansion of the United States, the Mormon settlement and the growth of modern cities.

Route 89 provides access to some of the most iconic Western landscapes, but alert travelers can also find some lesser-known gems where landscape and travel photographers can practice their craft. Here are a few starting points for the southern portion of your explorations.

The importance of a portfolio

Tom Miles of Photosmudger has a great post on the importance of always having a good portfolio of your work ready and on hand. Printing some of your images on Kodak Metallic or FujiFlex could make a lasting impression as well. Thanks to Don for the find!

Portfolios - What and Why

Even in this high-tech, information superhighway, digitised, sci-fi, skinny latte, post-modern, post-impressionist, post-everything world there's still a very important place within photography for the distinctly old-school portfolio. There's very little here that will be news to experienced photographers, as without making good use of their portfolio they're unlikely to have lasted long in the commercial world. However for people just starting out, or those whose only real experience of showing their work off is is via flickr and other websites, read on.

Why?

The most important aspect of a physical portfolio lies not so much in the pictures themselves as in the fact that to view it an Art Director will pretty much always have to meet you in person, and this can have as much influence as the work itself. I will go into this aspect in greater depth in a later post, but for now it's sufficient to say that in many areas of commercial photography (advertising/editorial/fashion and so on) your personality can be as important as your work, and you should never miss an opportunity to meet clients face to face and have a good natter.

Holiday digital camera buying guide

The holiday shopping season is upon us. A new digital camera is on many people's wish list. If you are thinking of buying a new camera for yourself or a photo fanatic in your family and are not sure where to start Yahoo! has posted a shopping guide by David Elrich of DigitalTrends that can help. The most sensible advise is to be purchase a camera that most fits your needs. If you plan on making big prints make sure you buy a camera that is 8 megapixels or larger.

Digital Cameras: Buying Made Simple

You've decided to buy a digital camera - or upgrade to a newer, more powerful one. You're not alone.

According to industry experts, close to 30 million digital cameras will be bought this year. And these hefty figures don't include the millions of camera-phone owners who take zillions of snapshots every day.

When you're researching different cameras, manufacturers will state the maximum file (or picture) size you can take. In the case of a 6 megapixel camera, it's 2816 horizontal pixels x 2112 vertical pixels, with 7MP it's 3072 x 2304 and so on. Simply multiply the numbers and you get the effective resolution of the imaging device. We suggest you avoid anything less than 6 or 7MP at this point unless you're looking for an inexpensive camera for the kids.

Pros have access to 21-megapixel imagers in very expensive D-SLRs. You don't have to go this route or spend that much money for great everyday photos, but 6MP should be your minimum. If you plan on making very large prints, such as 13x19s, or you think you might experiment with imaging software, consider 8 or more megapixels. There are no hard-and-fast rules, since so much depends on your final end use.

Creating your own gigapixel image

Photopreneur is a blog that offers ideas, inspiration, and opportunities for photographers on how to market themselves and inventive ways to generate revenue from their photography. If you have never visited them before, you should check it out. You will be dizzy with ideas and might have several "Why didn't I think of that?" moments after an hour of reading. It is a great resource for photographers.

They had a feature on photographer Max Lyons. He specializes in gigapixel photography. He shot his first gigapixel image in 2003 of Bryce Canyon. Technology has helped speed up the once daunting task of merging the many shots taken to comprise the gigapixel image, he developed a software program called PTAssembler. The post has several tips if you are considering trying to create a gigapixel image of your own.

"The software I’ve created to produce these images (originally written in 2003) has no size constraint. From a purely technical standpoint, it would be a trivial matter to produce images of two, 20 or 200 gigapixels."

Of course, it’s not quite that easy. Max points out that while his program has now cut the time to assemble a one gigapixel mosaic from several weeks to just two hours, most of which is automated, capturing each photo “tile” with a long focal-length lens can take “a considerable amount of time.” It took Max seventeen minutes with a six megapixel Canon D60 to shoot the 196 separate images that went into the Bryce Canyon panorama. That in turn creates problems with movement, changing light and depth of field, and can limit the range of subjects that can be shot using this method:

"In fact, if you look at the works of other high resolution photographers, you’ll see that most really large images (gigapixel and beyond) tend to be either (a) of interior, flat surfaces where depth of field, motion and lighting changes are not such problems, (b) scenes that look OK when viewed at tiny size, but have such a narrow depth of field that most of the image is hopelessly blurry when viewed at full size and/or (c) suffer from obvious misalignments and obvious lighting changes…"

What also impressed me about Max's work is his choice for printing his gigapixel files. He uses a LightJet to print his highly detailed images. It is a perfect illustration of the power of the machine. You can read the title off of the books in this shot of the Library of Congress Reading Room. You can't do that with an inkjet.

Turn your image in to vector art for free

VectorMagic, developed by Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is a free online service that will allow you to take any image and turn it in to vector art. If you have ever had to work with placing a logo that was way too small for your layout, this could be a lifesaver. Once you have your new vector image you can download it as an EPS and manipulate it as needed. Since it is now vector art, you can make it as big as you need to for your design or big enough to cover an entire wall. It can be used for photo, but you will loose detail. It takes on an animated kind of pop art type look. We have printed files prepared in a similar style on Metallic paper that looked incredible.

What is vectorization?

Vectorization (aka tracing) is the process of converting a raster image to a vector image.

Raster images are pixel-based, whereas vector image are represented by geometric shapes such as lines, circles and curves.

Deck the halls

Now that Halloween has past, the holiday retail push is on. Any store you walk past or frequent has their own display to promote their holiday merchandise. Trio Display has some great ideas on how to keep your seasonal display creative, fresh, and (most importantly) drive sales. Large graphics of winter scenes or abstracts of holiday themes (like this close up image of a Christmas ornament) can add some visual interest to the shopping experience. It is also another chance for you to promote your company's brand.

The Retailer's Guide to Holiday Themes:

How can you carve a niche for yourself this holiday season? You don’t have to spend big bucks to draw people into your store. But don’t be a Scrooge, either. You should be on the lookout year-round for holiday-season design elements.

Changing out your windows displays regularly conveys to shoppers that yours is a store that keeps up with the times.

If you don’t feel artistic enough to tackle such projects, consider students or recent grads of local design schools. They’re usually eager to add to their portfolio, so have them come up with a holiday concept for your store. If you like it, reward them with merchandise, cash or an internship.

Remember to check out the windows and interiors of stores that are know for great holiday themes. Eddie Bauer, Target and Restoration Hardware are chains that come to mind. But each city and town has its own cadre of retail stores that are known for their imaginative themes. Pay them a visit to get some free lessons.

No more naked walls!

Naked? Bueno! Naked walls? No bueno!

As you know we here at Mighty Imaging love BIG PRINTS. We love making photographs in to really large (huge) prints of astounding sharpness and clarity. With that in mind, we set about the mission of dressing up one of our favorite customers.

Global Spectrum; a leader in sports, entertainment, and facility management, is in charge of operations for the award winning state of the art University of Phoenix stadium. Like many things in the Vally of the Sun, the stadium is brand spanking new. That means that Global's offices were nothing but naked walls. The first thing that we thought of was what a great place for large images. Just imagine how cool a bunch of big prints custom framed would look. Since everybody from the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL to the Rolling Stones have played there, how about tying it in to a theme of the company and the events that take place? Talk about inspiring interest!

Making a great first impression is always a good idea, and these exciting and vibrant event images make the office look fun and creative. Not only do our prints tell the Global Spectrum story to their customers, but it also creates a strong statement and fun work environment for their own people as well.

If your company's walls need to get dressed up here are a few ideas. First pick a theme, whatever you think will make the statement that you want. Not only will this unify the look of the images on the walls, but it will also unify the workplace. You could hire a photographer and have them find quirky abstract shots around the company plant or office. Then make huge prints that would attract attention by being familiar, yet not so easily recognized. Another idea is to collect a group of snapshots from the company picnic or holiday party and make a collage out of them. Your 30x40 lobby print can show that your company is proud of its employees and that you are a close team of workers.

Either way, the walls of your business should never be bare, so let's dare to dress them up!