turn-of-the-century color

I've recently discovered the work of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a Russian chemist and photographer who developed a technique - in the early 20th century, no less - to produce color photographs.  He used a camera that took a series of three monochrome images, using red, green and blue filters; later, these images could be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near-true color images.

Thanks to the Library of Congress (beginning in 2000), and photographer Walter Frankhauser and computer scientist Blaise Aguera y Arcas, we can now see composites of the original surviving negatives provided by Prokudin-Gorskii's heirs.  It's simply astounding...

Bashkir switchman near Ust-Katav, 1910

Mid-18 century Trinity Monastery in Tyumen, ca. 1912

Young Russian peasant woman in a rural area along the Sheksna River near the small town of Kirillov

(source - Wikimedia Commons)

chihuly at the mfa

From the new exhibit at the MFA - Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass.

I've never seen an art exhibition such as this, and it was truly a surreal experience. I snapped away like never before (although I could never do it justice!)...until I exhausted my camera batteries.  And, intelligent me forgot to check to see if there were any spare batteries in my camera case before I left (there weren't).

Anyway, I don't have many pictures that I'm incredibly pleased with, but here are some...and I'll be posting more over the next few days.

Persian Wall, 2011

...and, i'm back!

first green dress that i can think about off the top of my head -

Keira Knightley's in Atonement.

still fascinated by it.

lovely analysis of the dress (for replication) here.

I'm also back from a lovely holiday home in England.  It's too bad spring break is so short.  Back to school on Monday...

oscars - red carpet

and...oscars time!

I know I shouldn't have watched the Oscars as much as I should have, given the ridiculous amount of work for this week, but one look at the red carpet and I was a lost girl.  Then the ceremonies started, and.....a lost girl once again.  I simply had to watch, given all the hype that I created for myself through last Friday's issue of the Tech.

 Gwyneth Paltrow in Calvin Klein.  This wasn't my favorite to begin with, but so perfect for her!  Modern, sleek, and oh-so-elegant.

Natalie Portman in Rodarte.  This was easily my favorite red carpet look this year, and numbers among my top red carpet dresses ever.  Did I mention that I have the biggest girl crush on Natalie Portman?

the hair! the makeup! the earrings!

Hailee Steinfeld in Marchesa.  Dear Hailee, thank you for acting your age.  You looked gorgeous, and I loved the detail on the dress.

Sandra Bullock in Vera Wang.  It kind of looked like it was falling off at times?  Maybe that's just because that's how I feel about strapless in general.  Still - she looked great.  I liked the simple hair, too.

Mila Kunis in Elie Saab couture.  A bit low cut, but she looked amazing, and I was excited to see a Saab on the red carpet - not as many Saabs on the red carpet as I would have liked to see (so many Oscar-worthy ones from the last collection!), but such is life.

Halle Berry in Marchesa.  This woman is gorgeous, what else can I say...

violin part 2

more experimentation with camera settings...

me and my violin

 somehow became fascinated by my shiny fingernails during symphony practice.  (well, what else am i supposed to do?).  and then i decided to mess around with the color settings on my camera...

this is cool.

http://twistori.com/

wheel of emotions

created by Robert Plutchik in 1980 - composed of 8 basic emotions and 8 advanced emotions.

yup, I think that would put me in the purple/blue range right now.

eggshell fascination...

Well, I've rediscovered my liking for hard boiled eggs (something definitely related to the minimal amount of clean-up that making hard boiled eggs entails).

I also developed a sort of fascination for eggshells along the way.  Not only because they have a lovely shape (which they do), but also because when you break them, the jagged edges are so awesome!  (Plus, I had fun peeling off the eggshell membrane stuff...which, surprisingly, dries kind of leathery like).  Oh, and I love all the different tonal values in a 'white' eggshell.

the pros of chemistry lab

 see, good things can come from chemistry.

like lab. when you're not avoiding skin contact with half the solutions.

copper(II) sulfate

tetraammine copper(II)

the colors are so gorgeous!

whimsy+england red

10th serpentine gallery pavilion, jean nouvel

i'm not sure how much this red reminds me of the england that is red telephone booths, red double decker buses, and red post boxes...to me this brings to mind a fantastical fairy house. or kites and chinese dragons.  or something.

---

 When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

sonnet #43

[on coloring]

40 giant toads to be painted and put around Hull to celebrate the poetry of philip larkin...

i'm not particularly familiar with any of larkin's works, but this photograph popped up on the bbc website, and there's something fascinating about the toads.  they remind me a bit of the painted elephants in london.

it's funny how much personality identical animal shapes gain when they are painted.  it's like those picture frames we all colored in kindergarten to give to our mothers for mothers day, albeit with a bit more refinement.  i don't know if i can say the same about the toads, since i haven't seen them in real life, but the elephants were the kind that you would just want to hug when you pose in front of the camera.  who can resist?

spring fever, and it's not even spring (yet)

some bright summery things that make me happy (and want to go frolic in the sun!):

monsoon/accessorize, spring/summer 2010

peace.

four posters from london's west end production of the lord of the rings hang on the walls of my otherwise rather depressing dorm room, but this one is by far my favorite.

oh the serenity of galadriel as she hangs above my desk, staring into the unknown distance.

(alas, bad quality pictures because the posters are so shiny!)

seeing red.

after a horrendous week of scheduling issues, things seem to be smoothing out a bit.  plus, i watched project runway on thursday, and that just makes everything better.


i'm so glad amy won!

so this brings me to the subject of red dresses that i like quite a bit.

there is, of course, the vera wang dress that keira knightley wore to the 2006 oscars.  it's not exactly red, but somewhat it that range, so i'll make it count.  i admit, this dress was not love at first sight, but it definitely grew on me.  and vera wang is just awesome like that.  however, i'm still not seeing the complete relation between the dress and john singer sargent's infamous painting of madame x.

i think the red bustle dress from bram stoker's dracula makes it up there, too.  i have yet to see the movie, and do not particularly wish to see it (except for the morbid curiosity in a little part of me), but the detail on this dress is exquisite.  i can't believe women used to wear dresses like this.

somewhere over the rainbow

oh how i love the explosion of colour that is Monsoon/Accessorize.