Randy S. Little
http://www.rslittle.com
On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 5:55 PM, Andrew Davidhazy <andpph@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Trevor et al.,
Jay Mark Johnson uses a camera equipped with a linear array - it may be (I don't remember exactly but maybe a Spheron?) a panoramic camera that he does not pan with but rather the images of subjects cross across the linear array of photodetectors. He can adjust the rate at which the sensor is sampled so he can record faster than the images move thereby stretching the proportions or slower and then compressing the proportions. Objects in the background that do not move are reproduced as "streaks" and thus sometimes these cameras are called streak cameras but in fact they are that only when applied to recording time or time vs. distance
I am somewhat "bugged" by the fact that these cameras and image making techniques are called line-scan because if anything is a line-scan it is focal plane shutters or CMOS cameras that use a "rolling shutter" approach to recording. They truly scan an image by moving a slit or linear array or similar over an image.
Not realizing the difference between true slit-scan recording vs. recording with a stationary slit (called strip photography usually - in film terminology but I don't see why not also in the digital realm) got an author for American Photo magazine in difficulties when he wrote and article about JM Johnson, myself and Rick Graves in the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of the magazine. The article was called TIME WARP. The author included a brief tutorial at the end of the article that actually did not describe how the photographs were made but rather how a moving slit type "slit-scan" camera works. Rick apparently was "inspired" by my early experiments and applications to panoramic, peripheral, and other approaches when he made his own 120 format strip camera. And he made wonderful sports photographs of cars and people and also other subejcts. Truly knows his stuff. If you know him say hi to him for me. We both "pushed back" when we saw the preprint of the article but it was too late - they went ahead with it anyhow.
Not to take anything away from JM Johnson. He saw the potential of the Spheron (?) camera and applied it in his own way to a variety of subjects. He deserves to be recognized for that. One thing that tends to get in the way is his or his promoters overly ambitious and eloquent "high art" words that he uses to describe the deeper meaning of the images. I think his photos of the seashore are superb in their own right. No need to exude poetic about them! But probably he would not have as wide of an audience and recognition if he had downplayed the mystical content of the images. ;)
I recall a piece written by AD Coleman on Taking yourself seriously. If you all would like to see it I can post it I hope with his bessings. It appeared in Pop Photo in the 80's or even earlier.
Anyway, I have lost my train of thought ... my sailboat was lifted out of the water for the winter and the in-water photographs I had bought a Nikon P&S UW camera for never turned out right. Camera battery latch broke and the camera leaked - twice went to Nikon and they returned a new one under their warranty plan - but I lost maybe 10 weeks waiting to see salmon in Lake Ontario cruising by my sailboat's keel. Besides the camera, S30, was (is) a battery hog. Oh, well maybe next year I will try with a higher end camera.
OK - once again, if you want to read what AD Coleman had to say let us (me) know!!
Oh, there is yet another variation of slit scan or strip photography. When the result is accomplished by extracting one or two lines from a series of photographs(usually video frames) and stacking those lines on those perviously recorded one can also make the area from which the lines are extracted "move" in space while the images move and so on ... mind boggling!!
enough!!
click
andy
On Oct 20, 2012, at 1:06 PM, Trevor Cunningham wrote:
> Came across this...made me think of Andy:
> http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/jay-mark-johnson-spacetime
>
> Know much about this unit, Andy? Is this guy doing multiple exposures here?
>
