Michael Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days (1956) was truly an epic… it portrayed David Niven, as Jules Verne’s imperturbable Phineas Fogg, traveling the world in a balloon. Did you see it…? Catch the trailer…
Nowadays, half a century later, a laptop can take one around the planet to beautiful scenes wherever one's fancy might roam, 24x7… almost instantaneously! Satellite café, VIP airport lounge, fancy yacht in the British Virgin Islands, the Louve, the American Museum of Natural History, or, even just your own backyard! My, how technology has changed…
Digital photographers capture gorgeous scenes, put them on the web, and provide you your own balloon a.k.a. Time Machine. The nice thing about this new balloon technology; it lets you go where ever you want, whenever you want. For me, this incredible technical process really stirs my imagination.
For example, the other morning, waking up to the challenging scent of juniper, I spent an hour in Copenhagen trying to absorb tantalizing photography of Kenny Weng. Yesterday morning, Michael Frye, who's been documenting winter in Yosemite, captured amazingly colorful poppies along the Merced River. A month before that, Michael shot the elusive Horsetail Fall, trying to emulate Galen Rowell's incredible shot in Mountain Light. And, of course, there's William Neill – I particularly like his Half Dome and elm tree, winter, Yosemite National Park, California 1990. Mind you, that classic image, fêted at the Ansel Adams Gallery Friday, and laboriously captured on film just 20 years ago, was another milestone of this path from Around the World in 80 Days to Around the Planet in 80 ms...
And, mind you, you can create your own Planet; a computer, the Web, a few favorites, a little time, a topic that really captures your fancy, and the never ending spate of new technologies! For some of you, the name Phineas Fogg may be arcane; the nice thing about this new planet is: you're revitalized, you get to choose your own name, and, clearly, you get to play your own game...
Whether it's art, fine art, landscapes, nature, laptops, technology, blogs, WiFi, iPhone, Kindle 2, or what ever new creation will come about in the next half-century... you have the opportunity to get to know your planet ~ both intimately and rapidly.
As for me, microphone on my head trying to capture a spate of thoughts, dictate them on a screen in front of me (can you recall when Thomas Jefferson used a quill pen to write the Declaration of Independence on papyrus?), occasionally even around my own images, and share a moment of true rapture ... it seems that so many deeply awesome things come together.
Enjoy...Digital photographers capture gorgeous scenes, put them on the web, and provide you your own balloon a.k.a. Time Machine. The nice thing about this new balloon technology; it lets you go where ever you want, whenever you want. For me, this incredible technical process really stirs my imagination.
For example, the other morning, waking up to the challenging scent of juniper, I spent an hour in Copenhagen trying to absorb tantalizing photography of Kenny Weng. Yesterday morning, Michael Frye, who's been documenting winter in Yosemite, captured amazingly colorful poppies along the Merced River. A month before that, Michael shot the elusive Horsetail Fall, trying to emulate Galen Rowell's incredible shot in Mountain Light. And, of course, there's William Neill – I particularly like his Half Dome and elm tree, winter, Yosemite National Park, California 1990. Mind you, that classic image, fêted at the Ansel Adams Gallery Friday, and laboriously captured on film just 20 years ago, was another milestone of this path from Around the World in 80 Days to Around the Planet in 80 ms...
And, mind you, you can create your own Planet; a computer, the Web, a few favorites, a little time, a topic that really captures your fancy, and the never ending spate of new technologies! For some of you, the name Phineas Fogg may be arcane; the nice thing about this new planet is: you're revitalized, you get to choose your own name, and, clearly, you get to play your own game...
Whether it's art, fine art, landscapes, nature, laptops, technology, blogs, WiFi, iPhone, Kindle 2, or what ever new creation will come about in the next half-century... you have the opportunity to get to know your planet ~ both intimately and rapidly.
As for me, microphone on my head trying to capture a spate of thoughts, dictate them on a screen in front of me (can you recall when Thomas Jefferson used a quill pen to write the Declaration of Independence on papyrus?), occasionally even around my own images, and share a moment of true rapture ... it seems that so many deeply awesome things come together.
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