Another Mirror Image

[Mary Bull]

Hi, All!

Until I can get a tripod and shoot myself again with the Canon G2, I want to share a a snapshot of myself made Christmas, 2004. I was catching my little blue male Burmese cat, Thistle, on the piano top, and I noticed I was getting, in the image, his reflection in the mirror behind him.

So, I shifted the angle a bit and got myself, also.

This is a cropped photo, manipulated a bit in Irfanview for sharpness and color balance, also.

I hope you like it. At Flickr I gave it the title "Three Eyes in the Mirror."

It looks reasonably like me. But my hair is longer now.

Eyes are still blue.

Mary

 

[Don Lashier]

I like it - looks like you're hiding

> But my hair is longer now.

Mine too.

> Eyes are still blue.

Mine too.

the infamous dresser mirror shot. Here's mine, taken in 1960. I call it "New Leica" - it was actually a used pre-war model but "new" to me. I was 14 and had just bought my first Leica the night before at Henry's in downtown LA. I can't find the neg at the moment so this is a scan of a faded old print.

- DL

 

[Mary Bull]

I like it - looks like you're hiding

At the risk of violating the Forbidden Cat rule, here's what I was hiding from:

A second later, he had batted my hand on the G2 very hard, with claws unsheathed.
This photo is cropped, and I see also that I needed to manipulate the brightness a bit.
It's not the one where I saw him in the mirror, before deciding to shoot myself there.
In that, he's in his Egyptian royalty pose.

Well, enough about that--I know I should have started a daughter thread in Layback Cafe for this part of the conversation.

the infamous dresser mirror shot. Here's mine, taken in 1960. I call it "New Leica" - it was actually a used pre-war model but "new" to me. I was 14 and had just bought my first Leica the night before at Henry's in downtown LA. I can't find the neg at the moment so this is a scan of a faded old print.

Don, I like this tremendously!
The hidden Don!

You found your way into photography very early. You know, even in this "faded old print" scan, the image has real impact on me. I feel that I'm there with you.

Mary

 

[Don Lashier]

Mary, that's a great cat photo (ban or not).

You found your way into photography very early.

Actually, I was an old hand at this point. Here I am with my first camera (on the right) shooting Bryce Canyon with my brother in 1953. I started with medium format!

- DL

 

[Mary Bull]

Actually, I was an old hand at this point. Here I am with my first camera (on the right) shooting Bryce Canyon with my brother in 1953. I started with medium format!

I see!

I love you both--such fine little boys!

Mary

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

figure this one out

I still have "my first leica" but I was a little older than 14, and it's a traditional bathroom mirror shot, in a box of old b/w's not yet scanned. Instead, I offer this one, not really as a self-portrait, but as an amusing puzzle. See if you can figure out what the scene is:

scott

 

[Mary Bull]

It is absolutely wonderful!

Because of the bathroom context, I thought of bathwater swirling down the drain, with you waiting at the turn to shoot the descending bubbles.

But then, I saw the apparent office-desk clues.

Next, since I am the widow of a TVA substation maintenance foreman, my brain offered me a reel, or maybe a coil, of wire, again with you at the cone's reversed apex.

And what might be a computer monitor to my left reinforces this idea--I've seen my nephew utterly surrounded by wire when he would have the housing off my computer tower, doing arcane things to make my life better.

The desk-with-work-in-progress idea is reinforced by what resembles files and folders in front of you.

All that swirl--it's what a distorting lens did with the files and folders?

But, I'd better stop here and confess the truth:

I haven't a clue. Except that I now have a face to go with another good-looking photographer, mysterious and entrancing, at OPF.

My word! The delights I encounter on my computer screen!

Mary

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

I thought of bathwater swirling down the drain, with you waiting at the turn to shoot the descending bubbles.

All that swirl--it's what a distorting lens did with the files and folders?

Mary

Squeezing into the drain to see all the bubbles -- that's a thought! I do like to look down the whirlpool when the bathtub drains. Will have to see if can be captured someday.

No trick lens. That little black P&S is a Ricoh GR-D, with a nice prime 28 mm-e lens. One size has to fit 'em all.

scott

 

[Mary Bull]

Squeezing into the drain to see all the bubbles -- that's a thought! I do like to look down the whirlpool when the bathtub drains. Will have to see if can be captured someday.

When you get it done, I want to see!

No trick lens. That little black P&S is a Ricoh GR-D, with a nice prime 28 mm-e lens. One size has to fit 'em all.

Well, then I just have to wait for you to publish the answer.

It's a great photo, Scott!

Mary

 

[Mary Bull]

Scott Kirkpatrick said:

No trick lens.

Then it's a convex mirror?

Mary

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Nope. No tricks.

scott

 

[Don Lashier]

Nope. No tricks.

Scott, that's a marvelous photo. You like to torque minds don't you. Not a clue as to how you did it. My first thought was a fisheye but you ruled that out, then I thought (like Mary) mirror, but such a device should show in the photo itself?

- DL

 

[Mary Bull]

I give up.

Nope. No tricks.

scott

<smiling with pleasure at the puzzle>

I give up.

Mary

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Time for a hint

<smiling with pleasure at the puzzle>

I give up.

Mary

It's definitely not my desk. This was a remarkable looking sight, constructed by an artist and on display in the Childrens' Wing of the Israel Museum. The theme that month was books. There is a mirror involved.

scott

 

[Mary Bull]

It's a wonderful, wonderful photo.

Children's museums are very fine places to be, I think.

Going to tell us any more?

Mary

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Scott,

My wild guess is:
It is a chimney (cylinder) constructed using books with an opening at the side through which you can insert your head to look inside. The top and bottom are covered by plain mirrors to repeat the image indefinitely.

Am I even close <smile>?

Cheers,

Cem

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Scott,

My wild guess is:
It is a chimney (cylinder) constructed using books with an opening at the side through which you can insert your head to look inside. The top and bottom are covered by plain mirrors to repeat the image indefinitely.

Am I even close <smile>?

Cheers,

Cem

Right on. A cylinder, floor to ceiling, diameter about 150 cm, with a little hole to let you look inside. The books' spine were outside, pages inside. There's a mirror on the floor (you can spot it by the scrap of cardboard that lies on it, lower right corner of the picture). I don't think a mirror on the ceiling was needed, since the cylinder was 3-4m high -- the exhibition space is a big room. There are lights inside, inserted among the books. I wish I could tell you did it, but I didn't make a note of it.

In re the discussion elsewhere about how little one can add to a highly developed work of art, that thought never crossed my mind. This was just so neat that I had to show it to someone.

scott

 

[Mary Bull]

It is indeed neat, and I would never in a million years have guessed the set-up.

Mary

 

[Asher Kelman]

Royal Cat: OPF Mascot

At the risk of violating the Forbidden Cat rule, here's what I was hiding from:

A second later, he had batted my hand on the G2 very hard, with claws unsheathed.......
In that, he's in his Egyptian royalty pose.
Mary

Mary,

What can I say! Either we got to lock up the cat or celebrate it once more! Please! Here I made you a present! No one else even think of it!

"Egyptian Royalty Pose" in Polished Iridiium Frame set in virgin rosewood. Mary Bull © 2006

Asher

 

[Mary Bull]

I love you!
It's a great improvement and I shall cherish it always.
I'm going to print it out as soon as I get the cartridges replaced in my HP DeskJet 22C.
<big hug>
Mary

 

[Ray West]

Hi Asher,

I think you and Mary and her cat have just designed the star prize for future competitions.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Well, for a lady who didn't think much of her G2, she does very well!

Wait till you see he nomadic rabbit on dawn patrol!

Asher

 

[Mary Bull]

Ah, you got that one in the e-mail attachment I sent you, huh, Asher?
I do like the way the light falls in that series of pictures, and the lovely little bunny rabbit's alert eye. It's an Eastern Cottontail rabbit. Two years ago I named his father Lucky 13, for escaping the yard-roaming predators.

Or perhaps it was his grandfather, or his uncle or his great-uncle, that I named Lucky 13.

It's nice to live in an "almost-country" area.

Mary

 

[Don Lashier]

Hi Asher,

I think you and Mary and her cat have just designed the star prize for future competitions.

I think we need to bring out the best in cats and have a cat competition. I've got a few entries ready.

- DL < carefully not posting one here >

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

I think we need to bring out the best in cats and have a cat competition. I've got a few entries ready.

- DL < carefully not posting one here >

Mee too!

Cheers,

Cem
(owner of two beatiful ragdolls <grin>)

 

[Ray West]

If there is a pet portrait section, then post in there, I guess, but not destroy this creation of this, the first cat portrait on OPF. I think, like 'the ashes', this has a special significant place in time/space, and should be treated with some reverence.

 

[Asher Kelman]

If there is a pet portrait section, then post in there, I guess, but not destroy this creation of this, the first cat portrait on OPF. I think, like 'the ashes', this has a special significant place in time/space, and should be treated with some reverence.

Thanks so much, Ray, that's how I feel and May deserves it too!

I am looking into a "Pet Corner"

Who would post there?

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

..I am looking into a "Pet Corner"

Who would post there? ..

I would, definitely <bigger grin>

Cheers,

Cem

 

[Mary Bull]

I am looking into a "Pet Corner"

Who would post there?

Asher

I think you already know that I would, Asher. <she said with a smile>

We wouldn't let it overwhelm the more serious work at OPF.

But it's fun to learn more about one another in images as well as in text--knowing about one another's pets is part of getting acquainted. Not so?

Mary

 

[Mary Bull]

I think we need to bring out the best in cats and have a cat competition. I've got a few entries ready.

- DL < carefully not posting one here >

I'm ready to see them! <wicked grin>

Mary