ClicksyPicsWiggle animations and anything old timey!

1864 - Aiken's Landing, Virginia (vicinity). Young girl at Aiken house

I fell in love with this image when I found it about 6 months ago.  Since then, I’ve struggled to imagine what to do with it.  She’s too stern to smile, her hands are fixed and her dress is too complex.  Then I noticed a bit of a wind blur where the ribbon on her dress is, and it occurred to me - the movement can be made primarily in the environment.  I focus too much on the subject when, sometimes, manipulating the environment can give it more of a real feeling.

Some details struck me when working with the full sized image.  She was married, and she was a very hard worker.  She’s young, yet her hands are scarred.  One nail appears to be just growing back in.  Her face shows a hard life, yet her hair and dress are immaculate, despite the windy day.  So I guess because of all these details, it was important to me to get her right.  Seeing things like that make the person more real to me and, hopefully, more real to you as well.

Check out the original here. Find out how these are created here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

This is a bit of a spoiler for my next animation, but I wanted to share an illusion I see often making these.  Notice how her dress looks blue, then orange? And the brick looks orange, then blue?  This animation only has one colored frame, the second frame has no color.   It’s just an illusion, the brain filling in the gaps.  Most are not so pronounced because they have more colors.

The only thing I dislike about this blog layout is the restrictions on the sizes of the images I can post.  Horizontally they can only be about 620 pixels before they start to slide into the margins.  I will eventually try and learn enough css to be able to expand the actual photo page, until then, click on the image and it will take you to the big version.

View the original at the loc website here.

1863 - Falmouth, Virginia. A muss at headquarters, Army of the Potomac.

I absolutely fell in love with this image when I found it.  It’s so rare to see such a candid and funny shot from this era.  When I got to working on it, I realized this image had something that no other image I have yet to find has, motion.  At first I thought it was warping, and it was a bit warped, but the movement you see is actually the movement of the soldiers.  The first image was taken, then the angled image was taken a split second later, with artistic and skilled timing.  In each side, the men move ever so slightly, blurring some areas and creating motion in the image.  I do hope to find more of these, it’s a wonderful effect and impressively creative stereoscopic photography.

What I never figured out is why in the world that guy on the right is digging a hole.

View the original image here.

View the original at the Library of Congress website here.

See the original at the Library of Congress here.

I chose this one because the uniqueness of his pad, it reminded me a bit of the plant walls like the kind you see here.

View the original image from the Library of Congress here.

To find out how these are created, go here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

View the original image from the Library of Congress here.

To find out how these are created, go here.  Get page updates on facebook here.

I was amazed at the clarity of this image.  There is considerable fading, but it’s impressively sharp for the time.

To find out how these are created, go here.  View the original image from the Library of Congress here.

Brandy Station was the site of the 1863 Battle of Brandy Station, the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the American Civil War as well as the largest to take place ever on American soil.  Wiki There is an interesting entry on the battle at americancivilwar.com as well as several additional photos.

View the original image from the Library of Congress here.