As the sun sets each summer evening, it sends a shimmering pig up the side of a tall storage building down the street. At first, the pig looks like it’s standing on the sidewalk, then it ascends the wall and fades as the sun disappears.
Brian noticed and identified it a few years ago. I still remember him standing at the window of our apartment, calling me to “come look, there’s a Continue reading
I have an inanimate object in my life: it is an unbroken Brazilian agate geode.
I’m hand-sanding all the way through it with sandpaper (read more about the project here) and have spent so much time with it that it’s taken on a life of its own.
Here are five ways my unbroken geode has come to life.
The geode has water at its center, like an alien being with a Continue reading
There is a finite amount of water on the earth, endlessly cycling through everywhere water goes, from rain to groundwater to sweat to vapor to ice to the sea and back again.
The water that I drank this morning may have been in a sewer pipe last year. It might have seeped through the pores of a neanderthal. But water trapped inside a geode, like a pouch of buried gold coins, has been out Continue reading
“I’m a vexillologist,” an older gentlemen said to me on the BART train platform, “and I’ve never seen that.”
He handed me his card. Vexillology is the study of flag symbolism.
I was on my way to the Oakland Women’s March carrying a large American flag that I had handmade several years ago. I’d never taken it out of my studio. The flag is regulation-sized (3×5 feet) and totally official, except that I reversed the colors: the blue star field turned light yellow, red turned turquoise, and white turned black.
The inverse U.S. flag is a classic optical illusion, and I’d first come across it in a book of visual Continue reading
Exploring something fully sometimes requires destroying it, like the dissection of a cadaver or the excavation of an archaeological site. Once the secrets it holds have been revealed, it can never be put back together.
Geodes–plain-looking, round rocks whose hollow insides are lined with crystals–are ubiquitous enough in museum stores and gem shops that they are easy to overlook. Small, glittering geode slices are found in jewelry; larger ones often quartered for bookends, and the largest are propped up for photo ops. Its designs are occasionally used in mating rituals–e.g., lips and cakes–of high-ranking humans.
A little over a year ago, I stumbled upon a “Break your own geode kit” on Amazon for $24.95. I’m not affiliated with whatever industrial complex is able to Continue reading
What hard-to-reach places can an inspection camera reveal?
An inspection camera, also called an endoscope or a borescope, is a camera attached to the end of a flexible tube. It can go places a larger camera wouldn’t dare. Continue reading
The thermal camera is the fourth in my series of extra-sensory cameras (after underwater, micro, and trail cam), and it comes closest to actually extending the senses: you can literally see something that would otherwise require the sense of touch. Continue reading
While gathering photos from my 2011 Bushnell hunting camera for my most recent post, I was overcome with desire to start placing a camera outside again. Had the animals in the yard changed? How could I use the camera differently? Continue reading
This is the third post on unusual cameras that extend the senses. The first two posts explored an underwater camera and a micro lens.
One of the best ways to observe nature is by being very still for a very long time: Continue reading
I have a small collection of unusual cameras that extend my senses. In my last post, I wrote about my underwater camera. This week, I’m focusing on my Micro Phone Lens. It makes me feel like both a bug and a giant. Continue reading