Welcome To Josh's Blog O' Thoughts: Art

Back in November I purchased a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT (a.k.a. Canon EOS 350D). It came with a Canon 18-55mm zoom lens which is a great all purpose lens. Gives me great wide angle shots and provides a little bit of zoom for most normal indoor shots. I also purchased a Sigma 70-300mm super zoom lens. While it's definitely hard to keep a steady hand at that zoom, I have been really happy with some of the resulting pictures.

Here is a picture I took of a full moon. I used a tripod and a long exposure for this shot. Being my first moon picture, I was quite pleased with the result.


This is a picture of a goldfinch that was sitting on my mailbox post one day. I was lucky enough that he didn't fly away as I ran in to get my camera. I shot this one without a tripod, but used a high shutter speed and took bursts of photos. Even though some were motion blurred (due to my unsteady hand), I also had several good ones.

If you read Angels and Demons, the popular predecessor to the Da Vinci Code, you were probably wowed, and maybe even dumfounded, at the ambigrams used in the book. As I looked at those things it made my brain hurt just thinking about the work it must have taken to come up with them. For people who don't know, and ambigram is a drawing of a word or phrase that can be read from multiple viewing angles or perspectives. Some ambigrams can be read exactly the same when rotated 180 degrees (this is the case in Angels and Demons). Others make use of the negative space or form a different word when rotated.

Anyway, the man who created the ambigrams for Angels and Demons, John Langdon (recognize the last name), has a VERY cool website where he showcases his artwork and ambigrams. There are some really amazing pieces there. Check it out and you'll be amazed at the work this guy does. It also looks like he can be hired for custom artwork. I wonder how much it would cost to commission an ambigram of my name? That'd be a cool piece of art to hang in my house.

JohnLangdon.net