Pop For The People

 

© 2021 Luke T. Bush

Inspired by the works of Andy Warhol the Plattsburgh State Burke Art Gallery has exploded with pop art by local artists. The exhibit will be on display until March 12.

Due to the pandemic Plattsburgh State Art Museum is closed to the public but faculty, staff and students may visit at reduced capacity. If you belong to that listed group you can visit from at Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m in the John Meyers Building.

M.I. Devine curated the exhibit. Saranac Central High School students under the mentoring of art teacher Amy Guglielmo have contributed works.

For more information call 518-564-2474 or visit https://www.plattsburgh.edu/plattslife/arts/art-museum/museum-exhibitions.html.

 

 

Project Peacock

 

© 2021 Luke T. Bush

The pandemic added to the insufferable winter weather has forced me to spend more time than usual in my apartment. It’s bad enough frigid temps wear and tear on me when I’m outside but also my camera has a rough time. And with my comorbidities I have to avoid hanging around most places so I don’t catch something in the air or on a surface.

I’ve been getting back into closeup/macro-photography, the art of making the small big. One main problem is greater magnification means less depth of field, the area in focus with a subject. DOF can be narrow as a millimeter or less. A shallow part of the object is sharp while the rest is a big blur.

Enter focus stacking. I carefully take a series of shots, focus “slices,” meticulously working from front to back. Then I open that series of images in a focus stacking program that combines the sharpest part of each image, magically making the area of sharpness deeper.

A friend used to raise peacocks and he gave me some feathers. Now with focus stacking I can now really explore their color and details.

 (Click on each image to enlarge.)

 

 

 

 

 

No More Rusting And Buzzing

© 2021 Luke T. Bush

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY – 2/10/21

An information kiosk that has been deteriorating for years – a symbol of wasted taxpayer dollars – has been removed from City Hall Place.

As I have detailed in a previous post the kiosk and others like it were installed around around the city as the PlattInfo project. Visitors could walk up to the kiosk – it roughly resembled a chrome coffin standing upright -- to check the viewscreen for details on local restaurants and other businesses.

Two major problems with the project. The software was proprietary, meaning the city had to go to the original coder to update or make changes. When the kiosks started to fail the city would probably have to pay the coder to make fixes. The other problem was new technology made the PlattInfo service obsolete. Visitors could get the same info more conveniently on their cellphones and tablets.

The City Hall Place kiosk stood next to the Verdantique Park plaque, creating a study in contrasts. While the plaque stood the test of time rust ate through the kiosk’s chrome exterior. Repainting the kiosk didn’t help: the rust returned. The viewscreen was usually dark. On occasion ghosts would appear, advertisements floating up, in some cases for businesses long gone.  You could hear electricity still feeding into the unit, a constant buzzing. 

Estimated cost for each kiosk ran from $2500 to $20,000 dollars.

The last time the City Hall Place kiosk attracted any attention was when a little girl was amazed by a giant spiderweb spread across the viewscreen hood..

So add PlattInfo to the other grand mistakes the city has made without enough forethought.