Photography – Page 21 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Athens Day 3: Artifacts and More Ruins

Posted on June 25, 2015 by geek

I spent the majority of the day at the National Archaeological Museum, which has an amazing collection of artifacts. Being a nerd, the highlight for me was the Antikythera Mechanism. However the stone, pottery, glass, and metal artifacts were amazing too. I could have spent more time there, but there are only so many vases and sculptures I can look at in one time period.

A few photos of some of my favorite things in the museum, starting of course with the Antikythera Mechanism. After seeing it, I am very impressed with whoever made it and also with the modern scientists that have been able to understand what it did, at least on some level.

Antikythera Mechanism

There were lots of metal sculptures and other items.

Bronze vase

Bronze head

Pins

There was also amazing carved stone items.

Alabaster pitcher

Statue of a kore

The below was labeled as a bull figure. I think it looks like a cross between a seahorse and real horse.

Bull figure

Below may be one of my favorite pieces. Take heart all artists and craft people, especially if you are like me and go through many trials before getting something right, some day your failed pieces may end up in a museum!

Failed pottery batches

This frying pan was labeled as something that would buried with someone. I would rather not be buried with a frying pan, no matter how pretty.

Frying pan

They were very big on the octopus in metal pieces and painted on pottery. I love cephalopods, so I thought this was really neat.

Gold Octupi

Octopus Vase

The roof spouts cracked me up.

Roof spouts

This piece was labeled as “clay artifact in the form of bunch of breasts or multi-cluster fruit. Probably symbol of fertility.” When I first saw this, I thought it was supposed to be a bunch of grapes or perhaps a pine cone. No where in my guesses was bunch of breasts. I don’t know if that says more about my ignorance of artifacts, my imagination, or perhaps the thought process of the archaeologists studying this, whom I am going to go out on a limb and guess are mostly men.

Bunch of breasts or fruit

Afterwards, I went to the Archaelogical site of Keramikos to view yet more ruins. This was a nice site because it was not jammed packed with people, and I could just wander around the ruins or really all the walls.

Sacred Gate

Wall

Stones of wall

Athens Day 2: Ruins and Hills

Posted on June 24, 2015 by geek

I started off the day by hiking up Filopappou Hill because I heard it had great views. It does! You can see all the way to the sea to the south, and it allows wonderful views of the Acropolis as well as most other parts of the city. While up there, I saw the Filopappos Monument and did a little birding. Then I pushed on to see as many historical sites as possible including Theatre of Dionysos, Hadrian’s Arch, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium, and a few smaller ones that are scattered everywhere. I am not kidding about this. You turn a corner, and there is a very small archeological site. I walked into a store selling everything made from olive wood and realized I was standing on a glass floor and below was ruins, complete with a sign describing them.

It was rather fun to get to wander around Panathenaic Stadium because it was used for the Olympics, yet it is a historical site with stone seats, some of which look like the stone seats at the Theatre of Dionysos. As an engineer, I am in awe that these structures have lasted so long. Some have had to be restored, and the Acropolis is currently case in point. As much as I would love to get photos of it unobstructed from construction equipment, I am kind of amused to see this ancient engineering structure being restored with modern engineering.

Acropolis view from Filopappou Hill

Coastal view from Filopappou Hill

Filopappos Monument, atop Filopappou Hill

Hadrian’s Arch

Panathenaic Stadium

Panathenaic Stadium seats

Panathenaic Stadium passage

Panathenaic Stadium tunnel

Ruins next to railroad with Acropolis in background

Store on top ruins

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Theatre of Dionysos

Chairs at Theatre of Dionysos

Athens Day 1: Plaka

Posted on June 23, 2015 by geek

I got to my hotel a bit before 5 pm, and even though I got no sleep on the plane, I headed right back out to walk around the city a bit. I mainly walked around Plaka, which is one of the old sections of town. I have decided it is not possible to see Athens without getting lost in Athens, or at least in Plaka. I thought Boston had crazy streets, but I don’t even know what was going on in Plaka. Luckily there are monuments or ruins every other block. I would get lost every third block or so because I could never figure out what street I was on, but I only had to walk a few blocks before running into another ruin or monument, so I could quickly figure out in general where I was again using a tourist map. To a certain extent, I was just looking around buildings to find where the Acropolis was, and then used that to navigate directionally. Also, the sidewalks are tiny, so people walk on the streets, but the scooters also drive on the sidewalks, so that seems fair. Cars also drove down alleys that it was not clear to me were actually streets, but evidently they were. I already love this city though. I got lost, but it is just a glorious city in which to get lost.

Aghia Dynamis, a 16th Century Chapel that they evidently just built a high rise around

Monument of Lysikrates

Parliament, with police dressed in riot gear walking in front

Narrow streets of Plaka

Vine covered bridge across buildings

Rebecca Kamen: Fundamental Forces

Posted on April 26, 2015 by geek

Currently on display at the National Academy of Sciences is Fundamental Forces by Rebecca Kamen. Fundamental Forces is an exhibition of paintings and sculptures inspired the process of scientific discovery. The title Fundamental Forces refers to fundamental forces in physics: gravity, electromagnetism, and strong and weak nuclear interactions, and in my opinion, the exhibit really does provide a lovely representation of those fundamental forces. I loved the wire sculptures in particular as they were visually interesting and also looked like things I had studied in chemistry and physics class. Matter Informing Space reminds me of the Bohr model of the atom. The Doppler Effect is an interesting visualization of the Doppler effect, but it also reminds me of a vortex and the Coriolis effect. The sculptures also play with the light in wonderful ways. The shadows created by the wire sculptures and also Portal are incredibly interesting. If you are in the DC area, the exhibit is open until July 6, and it is free to see, so go.

Doppler Effect

Wave Ride for Albert

Cosmos: For Carl

Matter Informing Space

Portal

Sky Diary

Magic Circle of Circles

Matrix 1

Cherry Blossoms

Posted on April 20, 2015 by geek

Cherry blossom time is about one of the nicest times of the year in the Washington, DC area. I took two trips to the Tidal Basin to photograph the blossoms during peak bloom. Below are a few of my favorite photos.

Cherry blossoms

Jefferson Memorial and cherry blossoms around Tidal Pool

Cherry blossoms

Cherry blossoms around Tidal Pool

Cherry blossoms

Cherry blossoms around Tidal Pool (MLK monument is on the left)

Cherry blossoms

Cherry blossoms around Tidal Pool

Washington Monument with cherry blossoms

Snow

Posted on March 7, 2015 by geek

When I took Ferdinand out to play in the snow, I also took photographs of the snow. A fresh coating of several inches of snow has an amazing way of making everything look peaceful and beautiful. I like the way it sort of unifies everything. You are not sure where the grass and plants end and the rocks begin.The snow calls attention to the shape of branches and how thick they are or are not.

Collapse

Posted on January 10, 2015 by geek

One of the exhibits, we visited during Cultural Programs of the Natural Academy of Sciences’s #NAS_sciart was Brandon Ballengée: Collapse. Collapse is a huge pyramid of specimen jars that contain species from the Gulf of Mexico that are in decline due to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was interesting to be able to see numerous species up close, even if preserved, that I normally would never see. However, it was sad to think that all these species are in decline or at least affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Collapse

Crabs

Flouder

Giant sea roach

Octopus

Shells

Fish

Turtle

Void

Posted on January 9, 2015 by geek

I went to an Instameet at the National Academy of Sciences today, where we toured two art exhibits and also the building. One of the exhibits we toured was Imagining Deep Time, and one of the pieces of art in that exhibit is Chul Hyun Ahn’s Void. I have seen this exhibit before, and no matter how many times I see Void, it still freaks me out. It just does. The piece is made of cast acrylic, LED lights, hardware, and mirrors, and while it physically has a size of 90 x 71 1⁄2 x 12 1⁄4 inches, it looks like a tunnel that goes on forever. The photos I have posted below simply do not do it justice. I am very impressed by how the artist was able to create the vision effect, but when I stand in front of it, I keep waiting for Dr. Who, Spock, or some other science fiction character to come walking through the tunnel. I guess it kind of scares me. Yes, I am a wimp. A piece of art that is just lights, mirrors, and acrylic scares me.

Side note: The photo of Void with JD Talasek, the curator of Imagining Deep Time, in front of it, is the only photo posted below that I took with my iPhone. The rest of the photos I took with my Canon 6D. I note this because I find it interesting how the two cameras captured the light differently. The only manipulation I performed on my photos was cropping and some straightening.

A view of the whole of Void

JD Talasek, the curator of Imagining Deep Time, stands in front of Void

The “floor” formed by Void

Edge of Void, where the visual effect hits reality

A selfie in Void

Gowanus Canal

Posted on November 12, 2014 by geek

Last month while in New York, I spent some time walking around Gowanus Canal because I’m an environmental engineer, and I couldn’t resist an opportunity to visit a body of water, infamous for being incredibly polluted. The Gowanus Canal is a Superfund site due to contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic contaminants (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, and metals. However, the Gowanus Canal is also polluted with more ordinary pollutants such as bacteria from untreated wastewater from combined sewer overflow outfalls and other urban pollutants from surface runoff (and possibly illegal outfalls). The area residents are understandably pushing to get the canal cleaned up quickly, and the cleanup is a joint effort between the city, state, and federal government. The area around the canal is an interesting mixture of industrial, art galleries, and up and coming residential. It is actually a nice area. There is a Whole Foods Market next to the canal that has a nice little canal walk on the property, which features signs that say “This is the greenest supermarket in New York State. No smoking, please.” I will take them at their word about being the greenest supermarket, as I did notice solar panels and wind turbines in the parking lot. However I still had to laugh at the irony of the sign. On the bright side, the Gowanus Canal is not so polluted that should someone smoke near it, it is not in danger of catching on fire, like the Cuyahoga River did in 1969. While I was walking along the canal, I spotted a small boat with two people who seemed to be monitoring the water and also two people in a canoe. I guess the canal is safe to canoe on, if you just make sure you don’t touch the water to your skin and most definitely don’t let any get into your mouth, nose, eyes, or any other orifices. The canal does not look that polluted. There are areas with floating trash, but there are very few places where I saw a sheen. When I was there it did not smell either, but evidently especially in summer, it can smell. However, it is a good example of how appearance is not a good way to tell if something is polluted. If you want to read more about the Gowanus Canal, this article in Popular Science is pretty interesting.

Northern end of the Gowanus Canal

Bridge on northern end

Carroll Street Bridge

Stormwater discharge warning sign

A wooden dolphin that had a book attached to the top as some sort of art or memorial

View from the Third Street Bridge

Survey boat

Third Street bridge

People actually canoe on the Gowanus Canal

Barge sitting on the canal

Fourth Street Basin, next to the Whole Foods Market, with some sort of art in the sculpture in the water

Gowanus Canal southern end

Gowanus Expressway

Liquid storage tanks

Sackler: Yarn Bombed and Perspectives

Posted on August 30, 2014 by geek

The Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute was yarn bombed to celebrate the opening of Perspectives: Chiharu Shiota. I actually liked the yarn bombing more, but I am not a person you should ever consult about art. Both the yarn bombing and Perspectives clearly took a great deal of time and work to complete. Perspectives was interesting and thought provoking. It featured shoes tied to string, and the strings were then tied together. Most of the shoes featured notes written by the people who donated them as to why the shoe was important to them. Some of the notes can be read on the Sackler Gallery’s website. The yarn bombing was just awesomely fun and decorative.

Perspectives: Chiharu Shiota

Gallery entrance yarn bombed

Yarn banner above entrance

Gallery entrance column yarn bombed

Entrance gate yarn bombed

Lamppost yarn bombed

Lawn hook yarn bombed