Frame & circuit
The Secret Life of Tom Sanders'
Personal Creative Projects
Stereo Photography
I like to take pictures. One day it occurred to me that taking them in stereo would make them twice as interesting. ;)
CREATIVE ELECTRONICS
I've been 'inventing' things since I was a kid. Until recently these mostly remained unfulfilled notions in my head.The arrival of low cost single-board computers, like the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and others, opened up the possibility of bringing some of these ideas to life.
Filmmaking
I used to think I wanted to be a feature film director. Turns out, being 'Chief Decision Maker' on a live movie set usually brings me more stress than joy.But back when this still seemed a plausible ambition, I took a few mighty swings at it...
STEREOSCOPY
After decades as an enthusiastic observer of stereo photography, laser holography and VR, I finally started shooting stereoscopic stills of my own last year.
I'll post some of these below.
For a primer in free-viewing stereo pairs, see this article. Link will take you out of Frame. & Circuit.
Parallel view (II):
Cross view (X):
Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain (May, 2023)
The Sagrada Familia, Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece, is a visual stunner inside and out. Rising above the main structure are numerous towers, some of which you can explore.You're taken up via elevator, then descend by foot, roughly 400 steps, down a narrow spiral staircase.The moment I stepped into this space I knew I had to try to capture it in 3D. Since I shoot cha-cha style, the challenge would be stealing a few seconds - every few steps - to try to get a strong pair of consecutive exposures.There was no time to stop and evaluate as I went; it was shoot and go... All the while taking care to avoid a potentially perilous misstep or - worse - dropping my camera!
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Gaudi's architecture is also on playful display at the nearby Park Guell.
Across from the park awaits a gift shop jam-packed with colorful and imaginative treasures.
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Amanita Gift Shop at Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain (May 2023)
I live in one of those neighborhoods that goes bonkers on Halloween. Everyone on the street stages elaborate, family-friendly displays.We're known as 'The Harry Potter House'...
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Hedwig guards the entry way to the Great Hall.
And, the star of our show... (just ask him!)
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CREATIVE ELECTRONICS
We live in one of those neighborhoods that goes bonkers over Halloween. Homes on our street stage elaborate, family-friendly, displays, ranging from a world-class pumpkin carving artist to an authentic Day of the Dead exhibit with timely original paintings, and many others.
My family's contribution is an immersive Harry Potter display. Each year we add a new element or two, inspired by scenes and characters in the books and films.Most of what we do is either entirely home-made (there's a lot of PVC behind the scenes), or a repurposed and/or significantly modified/enhanced prop. (That's a big part of the satisfaction for us; devising and building our own scenes.)
A few years ago, I began adding custom multimedia and animatronic features to the show. The audio/video and interactive aspects came somewhat naturally to me, but designing, building and coding the animatronics required learning new skills and devising some novel solutions. Challenging for sure, but also lots of fun!
The enthusiastic response of trick-or-treaters - particularly the true Potter fans - makes it all worthwhile.
DARK COMMANDOS
In 1999, my college buddy, Ed Gross, and I were cranking out spec screenplays, trying to bust through Hollywood's big, imposing doors.One day we said, "What would happen if Michael Bay made a vampire movie?" That question gave rise to DARK COMMANDOS, an adventure / fantasy about a team of vampires doing top secret missions for the US Government.Not keen to have this project languish on paper like most of our other scripts were so far, I proposed producing it ourselves as a live action series for the internet. Fifteen thousand dollars and about a year and a half later, DARK COMMANDOS debuted online... And received a satisfying, if brief, flurry of attention.
