Gaia's Brain

The idea for an image of Gaia's Brain has been floating around for awhile and several flights were made trying to capture an image that would serve as its basis, but none of the proposed sites for the photograph produced anything publishable. After much work I got the aircraft in the right place, at right time of day, at the right altitude, and right angle to bring the idea to life. Taken from an altitude of between 50' and 100', the photograph is of exposed bedrock that is highly fractured, weathered, and eroded. The eroded rounded bedrock has the appearance of the convolutions found on the surface of the brain and by processing the image with tilt shift software and presenting it in black and white this effect is highlighted.

By presenting an image suggesting a physical brain and implying that it can be localized (to the bootheel of New Mexico), the photograph reiterates some of the early ideas about he anthropomorphic nature of the Gaia hypothesis that were very controversial. Primarily, that planetary homeostasis and the feedback loops that maintain it requires an underlying intelligence to create and maintain the system. Evidence suggests otherwise.




Click on photograph to enlarge and open in a new window, but the image looks best when Viewed On Black



View on Black

Combining tilt shift processing with low level aerial photographic views of the desert

Flew back across the bootheel to Playas Valley this morning for some more photography. Below are several images of drainages in Playas Valley processed with tilt shift software. Most of the photographs were taken at an altitude between 50' and 100' AGL. This technique works quite well with low level images and is recommended it to anyone photographing the landscape.

Of course the Border Patrol was there as usual as backup.

Click image to enlarge


Inverted tilt shift modified desert drainage. Inverting the photograph gives the appearance the drainage's rise out of the desert floor.


Desert tilt shift


Draining the Desert

Tilt shift low level aerial photography

Tilt shift photography is an optical technique requiring a special lens. The lens is moved relative to the plane of focus resulting in images where the center is in focus and the margins are out of focus. Similar effects can be created using a large aperture and a shallow depth of field. With the advent of digital cameras and computer processing a similar effect can be created by shoving 0s and 1s around. This method is used to create tilt-shift miniatures, resulting in life size objects appearing as miniatures. In many cases high angles are also used to help create the impression of looking down on a miniature. This makes this technique especially well suited to aerial photography. Since parts of the image are defocused the photographer can draw the viewers attention to specific parts of the photograph. An online tilt shift image processing resource where the photographer can manipulate their own photographs is TiltShift maker. Several images from the Flickr site have been electronically tilt shifted and are shown below and a slideshow of tilt shift images is in the side bar near the top of the page. As you will note from the image gallery, landscapes seem best suited to this technique.

Original Aerotrekking aerial photograph
Tilt shift modified Aerotrekking aerial photograph
click to enlarge
Original photograph of Playas siding on the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad
Tilt shift modified aerial photograph of Playas siding
click to enlarge