This is what it’s all about

Jackie Robinson In 3-D

With perhaps days/hours to go before the baby, I’m doing a big push on Jackie Robinson to see how far I can get before my life changes so much.  I had a big day in the shop yesterday and took these stereo photos.

Together, they can be viewed in 3-D.  If you were one of those who could left your eyes relax and see those old 3-D, computer-generated drawings, then you SHOULD be able to do this the same way.  I can do it.  But it takes a few moments to get it.

The trick, for me, is to get far enough away from the two photos, so that they are a little smaller than a postcard, held at arms length.  Then you stare, allowing your eyes to relax and not truly focus.  When your eyes are relaxed correctly, you should see double–that’s 4 images.  Keep trying different pressures on your focus until the two center photos become 1 photo and it will be 3-D.  It’s eerie.  When you get it, you will KNOW, so if you are wondering, then you don’t have it.  Remember: Try and make the middle two images merge into one, so that overall, there are 3 photos, and only concentrate on that middle photo–that’s the one that will become 3-dimensional.

How did I take this photo?  With a 3-D camera?  Nahh, with my own camera.  Since I’m working with a tripod, and nothing is in motion, the time lapse between photo1 and photo2 can be ignored.  You couldn’t do this trick with live action, because p1 and p2 would not match.  But in the studio, you just take one photo and then move the tripod 80mm to the right and take another one.  80mm is about the distance between people’s eyes.  The “interpupillary distance”.  Actually, in the population, it’s much smaller for most and is smaller for women and bigger for some ethnic groups.  It runs between 65 and 83 mm.  At 25.4 mm per inch, you do the inch-math.

With the two photos of EXATLY the same thing and yet from two slight different (80mm apart) vantage points, they are about what your brain takes in and processes into one, 3-D image.  The slightly different perspective means that the right eye sees a little further around Jackie’s left side, than the left eye can see.  That info is used by your wonderful brain to give you all sorts of depth and distance information.  Imagine trying to golf without it!  “How far to the pin?”  “Where’s the 150 yd marker?”

And for you Liberals out there, remember, the beauty of the eye and the brain and the depth is pure chance–we’re talking NO INTELLIGENT DESIGN, right?  Don’t even think those words in a public school.

Before you go thinking I’m some kind of techy person, realize that 3-D cameras and looking at “stereo-images” like we are here, originated at about the time of the Civil War.  Stereo view photos were all the rage from about 1870 to 1910.  They looked like this:

They were viewed in a viewer that looked like this:

The slides were available as canned, commercially produced photos of current events and famous places and landmarks.  Think GAF-viewmaster from the 1970’s:

I’m not sure why they fell out of favor.  Perhaps WWI, which destroyed so much of what good was happening in the world around 1914.

Anyway, they did commercially produce stereo cameras for the home-gamer and here is one:

All you need is the ability to take TWO images simultaneously, one interpupillary distance apart.  Now if you search for these things, you will only find, I believe, film cameras from yesteryear.  There doesn’t seem to be any digital stereo cameras available.  There are a couple of guys who have hacked together two digital cameras, but the hack is never simple and the mounting and alignment is never easy.  Both lenses have to point at the same focal point out in space, or the pictures will look hokey–like mine!

What I want to know is why doesn’t SOMEone produce a decent digital stereo camera?  WHY?  With PC’s bringing down photography prices and giving us all sorts of exotic ways to display them, it’s a perfect marriage!  I have searched, but not recently, so it’s possible that there is something out there now.  If anyone knows of a product, comment in please.

For Jackie fans, Jackie may be getting his first paint today on the lower legs and shoes and pants.  It’s always the single biggest, quickest change in the statue and for a medium that goes crawling by in the hundreds of hours, this is a welcome thing.

Yankees 2009 Team Salary Payroll

Here are the MLB team salaries going back to 1993.  Figures are from USA Today.  Notice where the Yankees are each year and by how much.  It’s breathtaking:

The Real Jackie Robinson

A Jackie Robinson tree grows in Brooklyn

And this is what we did with the tree:  (Sorry about the load times for those with slower connections).

A photo of the early going: just get that head shape down and begin to draw on the nose location and start to dig down and define it.  Until the nose is perfect, and there’s enough meat to do the other stuff in the right places, nothing else matters.

Everything looks too big and too thick because it IS!  But you have to start defining and establishing the features.  Remember, it’s take-away, so you always err on the side of BIGGER.

Somewhere around here I started to “recognize” “The Man” and not just “A Man”.  It’s a big moment.

Never touch the ears until the very end.  Last.  Because I said so.

Still a long, long way to go from here.  I have 3 other photos still in the camera, that are beyond this point.  The whole head came down and narrowed in size 10% at least.  The hat was re-worked to lost about 30% of its volume.  The ears, etc.  Come back and I’ll have the newer photos in here.  Merry Christmas!

Jack-in-the-Hood

Jackie Robinson statue

Here is the raw 14″x11″x11″ block of basswood glued up and ready to be transformed into Jack Roosevelt Robinson’s head.  We’re already a few hours past this point in reality.  The rough out went faster than ever, thanks to new tools I purchased but the detail work is crawling.  Just crawling.  I’m having the “yips” about getting into the actual do-or-else stuff.  I haven’t done this kind of work in a year now and I’m low on confidenct and have found that when I get home from work and only have a few hours to play with, that I fritter away that time as a way to avoid getting into it.

This happens in the sculpting business.  You have to punch through, even if it means sitting there for hours and not doing much more than looking at photos and being scared to remove wood.  At some point, you will spot “easy” wood to remove and by doing that, you will be drawn in and eventually, you will get into the “zone”.

“The zone” is that hackneyed phrase that is used mostly in sports and sometimes in music.  It can be applied to any task, in my opinion.  It is, to me, that point where your brain stops processing “noise”.  Noise is anything not central to the task.  Once you stop processing noise (tired, time to do something else, worrying about x, hungry, what’s on tv), you get focused on the task or piece and instead of working on it with really only partial attention, you bring more of your abilities to bear on the task.  This feeds a loop in that, once this happens, results will quickly flow; results at a much faster rate than you are lately accustomed to.  Once that happens, you are going to be excited by the progress and that feeds your attention lock and stengthens it, leading to more and more positive results as measured against time.

Once you see the effect of this, the things that were creeping into your thoughts and distracting you begin to melt away.  You are less and less interested in them.  It gets to the point where even if you work very late and might ordinarialy be concerned that you will be tired for work the next day, in this case, you won’t care.  You will lose most of your concer with, and thoughts about, time.  You know you’re in the sweet spot and are enjoying that and thinking about time will only hinder you, so out it goes.  Now, you’re in “The Zone”.  You get a lot done.  You’re excited about it.  Your confidence soars and as a result, sticky problems are toppling one after the other, as you plow through the project.  It’s a great feeling.  It’s an energizing feeling.  It can spill over into other areas of your life.

Trouble is, getting in there the first time.

Jackie Robinson’s Million Dollar Legs

Early Robinson.  And clean for the most part.  Tonight, he was under piles of sawdust as the process of finding legs inside those wood blocks continues.  As you can guess from the position of the legs, this piece is going to be more of a pose, than an in-action.  Many hours of thought over a long period of time went into this decision and I could lay it out for you in detail if you want to read on.

Robinson’s batting pose is very “wooden”, for lack of a better term.  It looks posed.  It doesn’t look all that natural or fluid.  In short, it looks wooden.  And what I do is try to make wood look like people.  So a person who looks wooden to begin with?  No way.  Bad pose.

The other pose that folks associate with Jack Roosevelt, is running the bases.  Either the arms-akimbo-stopping-short-down-the-3rd-base-line-to-mess-with-the-pitcher, or, the slide into home on the steal of home.

Another problem with the “running” pose, is that to be truly running, you are leaving the ground each time you push off of either leg; that’s the definition of it.  So the statue wouldn’t have any way to attach to the ground unless you contrived it to be at the point of landing on the lead leg and that leads to the problems that the center of mass is then WAY off the point of attachment to the ground (base).  Technically, it’s murder and the look might be more awkward than effective.

These are, no doubt, iconic Robinson photos and/or poses.  But a statue that depicts baseruning, unless done just exactly correctly (and maybe not even then), might look very strange.  It’s too big of a gamble on a piece that may take half a thousand hours or more.

The other objection I have to the baserunning angle is that it slights the man, somewhat.  It’s as if you are saying, “this guy is in the Hall of Fame because he was fast”.  No.  That’s not right.  He is in the Hall of Fame for being a great all-around player.  He played gold glove type defense at several different positions, including first, where he was not accustomed to playing his first year.  He ran well, true, but he also hit something like .306 for his career.  And he was on the Dodger pennant winners in 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956.  In 1950, the Dodgers lost on the last day of the season to the Phillies.  On the last day of the 1951 season, Robinson’s homer in the last game, clinched a tie with the Giants, requiring a 3-game playoff to break the tie.  You’ve heard of that playoff?  It went 3 games and it seems, The Giants Win the Pennant.The Giants Win the Pennant.The Giants Win the Pennant…etc.

He was a great all around player is my point.  He should not be cordoned off into the “speed” wing of the Hall of Fame.  He makes it easily in any era and on his complete game.  That is why, I have chosen to depict him at ease (somewhat of an accomplishment in itself, for this man, and many others), holding the bat on his shoulder and looking up as if to pose deliberately for a camera.  On his face, a little look of satisfaction; a look that only a veteran big-leaguer can have; not so much a look of professional competency, but more like professional pride.

So, no batting stance and no baserunning hijinks.  A deliberate pose.

To make up for the lack of action on this one, I am considering a radical pose for the next piece with one thin, solitary attachment point to the ground.  The idea that this extreme delivery photo may be posed for photographers is being researched currently.

You Gotta Look Sharp

Here’s a few articles on pitch tipping, a hot topic around here lately. Here’s a quote from one of them:

Lefthander Andy Pettitte was an integral part of the Yankees rotation in 2001, posting a 15-10 record with an ERA of 3.99. But Pettitte got bombed against Arizona in the World Series, going 0-2 with a 10.00 ERA. In nine innings, Pettitte gave up 12 hits and 10 runs.

“He was tipping,” Torre said. “We knew [Arizona] had picked up on something, but when we looked at our video, we weren’t seeing it. We realized later it was because he was tipping in the early part of his windup, and our guys were only filming his delivery. We changed the way we did our video after that.”

Click to launch the original article in a new window

I love it. I mean, here’s genius Joe Torre basically admitting, “…yea, we messed up and lost the World Series”. I’ve always felt that this has to be the biggest baseball story ever NOT written. And to me, it just reeks of the media’s pro-Yankee bias. The writers are all a bunch of little boys who do not want to contemplate, even for a minute, that their “heroes” Torre and Pettite, are to blame for losing the Yankees another, nauseating World Series ring.

Other mere mortals would have been run out of the country. Torre? Stottlemyre? They are guilty of malfeasance in this case and yet you never read a word about it, didja? Nope. Everyone clams up and talks about what a cheap little hit Gonzalez got off of Mariano (another who can do no wrong despite blowing 3 postseasons: ‘97 Alomar HR, ‘01 Throwing ball into CF in G7, ‘04 getting ball with lead over Sox), but no one mentions the Yankees’ own part in the story.

And in baseball terms, it should be a HUGE story. But it isn’t. Why? For generations, you could read about the A’s having the Giants’ signs in the 1911 World Series, and also stories about whether the 1911 World Series was cooked, because gamblers got to the Giants. I think the Giants were probably dirty back then. McGraw was not above it. He had a man take money to the umps before the famous 1908 Merkle-replay game. And the A’s certainly were not above it as they threw the 1914 series to a seriously inferior “Miracle” Boston Braves team. After that double cross, Connie Mack KNEW he had a dirty team, but he didn’t know which ones, so he sold it all off. People still erroneously blame Mack for the fire sale, but he had no choice; he had dirty players and he couldn’t say for sure exactly who it was. And look at Eddie Collins: He was on BOTH of the dirtiest clubs in history: The 1914 A’s and the 1919 White Sox–and yet he was considered to be beyond reproach. Amazing. It must have been mighty frustrating to be on the level and see that going on around you in the days when, remember, the difference between the winners’ and losers’ share, was a journeyman’s yearly salary.

Anyway, my point was pitch-tipping and why wasn’t it getting more play in NY in 2001? But we all know why, don’t we? Suuure.

And some will argue (and do quite convincingly) that it isn’t such a great advantage as you might think. But tell that to the 2001 Dbacks. It IS a big deal. It does cost you ballgames. Sure, not everyone wants the info, but that doesn’t mean you don’t try.  When teams steal signs from the scoreboard (very common throughout baseball history), typically, one in three or four, does NOT want the info.  They feel it does more harm than good.

And not everyone is immune to tipping.  In fact, some pretty good twirlers tipped. Koufax tipped everything out of the stretch for his entire career. It didn’t matter. Bunning tipped during his perfect game no less! It didn’t matter. Pedro and Randy and Schilling have all tipped or been suspected tippers, at one time or another in there HOF careers. It happens.

It happens because throwing a pitch is a physical act and you may very well do things differently for different pitches and it isn’t just about the old high school pitcher, “…wrapping the curve ball”. No, not at the top level. Any wrappers have long since had a high school coach yell that out of them (High school coaches can yell, yes?). No, it’s a glance into a glove. It’s a finger waggle outside the glove. It’s the glove open or closed or wiggling or held high or held low or looping in the stretch or it’s a breath or facial tick or something that is consistent but not overt, and you don’t even know you are doing it.

I think it’s great fun to try and call pitches but the TV coverage is so lousy that you don’t get a chance. The director cuts to a closeup of the runner, the batter, the pitcher, the manager. It’s stupid. I want to see the shot from CF, over the pitcher’s shoulder, EVERY time. I want to see the sign put down and the location, and then see the catcher move to the location and set the target, and most of all, I want to see the pitcher’s full regimen each time. But the directors in the truck don’t get that and they never will.

How would I cover a ballgame?  First off, the camera would never be anywhere except over the pitcher’s shoulder.  Only VERY noteworthy things would trump that continuous shot.  I owe that to the intelligent baseball fans watching.  And almost NO crowd shots, please.  Never.  They aren’t the story.

As the batter is walking up to hit on each at-bat, the announcer would have to review that last AB’s pitch selection.  If there is none, then the “book” on that batter, from that pitcher should be reviewed.  You want to get fancy and show those montage shots of all the pitches?  Now’s the time.  But I’d be satisfied with a verbal, “…here’s Joe Blow, Webb started him with the sinker away last time and then sinker in and then slider away.  Let’s see…”

That’s it!  That’s what I want.  Why is that so hard?

Click here to open another story in a new window

Click here to read yet ANOTHER story in a new window

Click here to launch the 2001 series stats from baseball-reference.com

Babe Ruth In The Papers

Click here to open the story in the Washington Post in a new window. You may have to register a username and password but it is not a big deal.

This is the photo that is currently on the front page of the Washington Post’s Sunday Metro section:

Before I go any further, let me make sure that I take time to thank the staff at the Gaylord National Hotel inWashington, DC for their tremendous professionalism and attention to every detail. These people are the standard for their industry. I have, in all honesty, never seen such elan in my life. It was a real treat. With the hotel slated to open in a few days, you could ride on the energy of these folks as they readied their jewel of a hotel.

I would also like to thank Michael Hudson of Gaylord Hotels. He is a throwback to a more civil time in America and in business. He is a true gentleman and a visionary in his field. You don’t run into too many people like him and it was my good fortune to have done so. Thanks Michael, for everything.

This is a shot someone took for me with my camera during the installation.

The Babe Ruth statue is now permanently on display at the Gaylord National Hotel & Resort in Washington, DC at the new National Harbor area.

I went down there on Tuesday and stayed until Thursday and The Babe was installed and well received. The Washington Post came by and did a story on the hotel opening and included a fair amount of interest on the statue. I was not sure how much would run on the statue but I was pleased to have folks in Washington DC call and tell me the good news.

The full story of the statue and everything surrounding it is on the Birrerart.com website:

Click here to open the Birrerart.com website up in a new window

Other things that were noteworthy while I was down there was the fact that the Nationals has declared the sportsbar in the Gaylord as the official sportsbar of the team. Because of this, they had sent over the last home plate used at RFK stadium so it could be permanently installed at the entrance to the sportsbar. Here are a few shots of that and the Washington Post getting their story at the time:

That’s Michael Hudson, Director of Brands at Gaylord Hotels, with homeplate from RFK Stadium.

And here is the laying ceremony while the PR folks take photos.

***
The Gaylord National Hotel is so immense that it is difficult to photograph it all in one frame. The atrium that overlooks the Potomac River and Old Alexandria, Virginia, on the opposite bank, is 18 stories high. There is a village of little shops and fountains and trees and restaurants all inside the enclosure. It is so big that you mostly aren’t aware that you are inside.

Here is a view of the upper part of the atrium. These gaslights are 20 feet high. The scale is just hard to fathom.

On the 24th floor, there is a state of the art nightclub and one of the unique features is, believe it or not, the men’s room. Here are the fixtures and the view is outrageous. The Washington Monument can be seen while you are, well…ahem, you know. It’s just one of a myriad of details that make this hotel one of the most amazing in the world.