Imagekind Gallery landscapes

Mount Katahdin, Maine

This is an huge enlargement of Frame 910 of a 1800 Frame, 1-minute HDTV animation that I made in 2008 ... in stereo, or what is called "3D" nowadays ... for use on a two-projector system with polarized glasses. Most "3D" you see today combines both channels as one video file; but with the left and right channel differentiated with red and green glasses ... what I like to call "port and starboard", if you are a sailor. A "polarized 3D system" does this with two video sources; but with light from the left and right projectors filtered 90-degrees apart. Look at a highly-reflective surface with polarized glasses, like water; but rotate the glasses 90-degrees, back-and-forth, and you'll see how this other 3D system works. This Frame is at mid-point in the 12-hour animation, when the thunderhead forms and coils up over the Mount Katahdin (5268 feet) massif ... the northern terminus of the 2175-mile Appalachian Trail. For an overhead view of this 3D model, see the "Mount Katahdin" or "White Cap Mountain" images in the EastCoast Gallery ... just with no atmosphere or clouds in the overhead view.

Mount Evans midday

Mount Evans Massif, Colorado, at midday. This is a view to the east of the massif, from Upper Bear Creek just over the Clear Creek County boundary, near Witter Gulch. The peak in the right foreground is Hicks Mountain. Another perspective of this same 300 square mile environmental model was featured in the National Research Council publication, "Research Opportunities in Geography at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)", on Page 44 (ISBN-10: 0-309-08516-0 or ISBN-13: 978-0-309-08516-8 , 2002) Also, be sure to read the Gallery description for the companion "Mount Evans sunrise" image for the history of Albert Bierstadt and the Mount Evans massif.

Mount Evans sunrise

Mount Evans Massif, Colorado, at sunrise. This is a view to the east of the massif, from Upper Bear Creek just over the Clear Creek County boundary, near Witter Gulch. The peak in the right foreground is Hicks Mountain. If my history is correct, the peak to the left of Mount Evans is Epaulet Mountain, and second to the left is Rosalie Peak ... named for the wife of Albert Bierstadt. Albert Bierstadt painting, "Storm in the Rocky Mountains" (1866) was a view from the other side of the massif, looking northeast toward Rosalie Peak. Again, I recall Mount Evans was originally named Bierstadt Peak; but in honoring Colorado's first governor, the peak was renamed "Mount Evans" and "Bierstadt Peak" was figuratively moved to the west to another peak. Rosalie died in 1893; and Albert died penniless and in obscurity in New York City in 1902. This version of the model was featured in a 2002 Pine Beetle Awareness poster; as the reddish Ponderosa Pine to the left is a sign of a recent infection.

tropical beach

This is actually terrain from northwest of Seattle, Washington ... the point of Discovery Park, looking northeast towards the ship channel into Lake Washington. The terrain is exaggerated; but a tropical environment from another project was dropped in place and used in this rendering ............ When people ask me what the Carribean is like, I respond, "The water is like glass".

from the deck

A panoramic view looking north from Green Cay, Saint Croix, USVI. Buck Island is to the right, the island of Green Cay is to the left, and the town of Christiansted is to the extreme left.

Horseshoe Park

On a ridge just to the north of the valley at Horseshoe Park Picnic Area in Rocky Mountain National Park, and west of Estes Park, Colorado. The brush in the foreground is Gamble Oak; and all the foliage is customized for this model of the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountain "Front Range".

Colorado Shrubland

This is a two-stage environment that I built for Colorado: scrubland with native grasses, sagebrush, cactus, yucca and other forbs; combined with an evergreen forest of pine at low elevation, and spruce and fir at higher elevation fading into "krumholtz", or stunted tree growth. the topography is from the San Juan Mountains, near Silverton, Colorado.

Colorado Grassland

This is a closeup of a Grassland-Spruce/Fir enviromental model that I built for Colorado landscapes; but I used topography from Utah's La Sal Mountains, southeast of Moab. Once the environment is created from foliage and relationships, I can pick it up and place in anywhere in the world ... except in this case, "Toto? I don't think we are in Moab, anymore."

western Colorado

Western Colorado scrubland, as USGS National Land Cover Data (NLCD) classification "Area 51", quite sarcastically; ... as "it exists, but we don't talk about it", ... south of Fruita and west of Grand Junction. High-resolution customized foliage: notice several occurances of the same juniper tree; in the forground, right and mid-ground left! Oops! This same perspective was featured in a 2003 National Science Foundation presentation.

Eagle Valley

Eagle Valley, west of the Gunnison River and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado; and east of Olathe, Colorado. The foliage is arid sage brushland, and customized for this "project".

Elephant Skins

"Elephant Skins", west of the Gunnison River and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison; and east of Olathe, Colorado. The foliage is sage brushland; and customized for this "project". "Elephant Skins" is not on any map; but a locale term used by the local Bureau of Land Management office in Montrose ... a few miles to the southwest of this remote spot.

autumn grassland

A generic terrain with high-resolution customized foliage. Each foliage element is several hundred pixels high; and rendering takes a long, long, long time!

spring grassland 1

A generic terrain with high-resolution customized foliage. Each foliage element is several hundred pixels high; and rendering takes a long, long, long time!

spring grassland 3

A generic terrain with high-resolution customized foliage. Each foliage element is several hundred pixels high; and rendering takes a long, long, long time! ............ This is a slightly different perspective and lighting to "spring grassland 1"

Powder River

Powder River region in north central Wyoming, looking east towards Elephant Butte. This rendering was never field-checked, so the model never completed; and the foliage is not native or indicative on north central Wyoming: it was a test of terrain, lighting and atmosphere ... and some odd foliage thrown in for effect. Sucking the water from out under the landscape for the dissolved methane gas, then dumping the residual water into the local arid draining ... propogating invasive non-native species, and drying up the local wells, in the process ... is not my idea of "conservation". Want to conserve? Drive slower!