I haven't done anything with fractals for several months, but it's good to see that there are lots of people around here that are fired up about them.

Here's a cryptic message for you: Be careful with university writing professors.

Check it out: [link]

What do you think?

My thoughts: [link]

I know that I have written about this a bunch of times already, but here it is again anyway: [link]

I haven't done much here at all this year...

Building fractals has become more work than fun for me. It doesn't provide the escape that it used to. In some ways that is good because there was a time when I was spending an unhealthy amount of time on the computer.

I have done a little photography this year but I haven't put any of it here. I have put it on my blog at keithmackay.com, if you are interested.

3 of you have informed me that more of my art has been "stolen". Before I say anything else, I must say thank you for keeping an eye out for this sort of stuff. It feels good to know that I have friends here

Anyway, I used to get angry when that happened. It is still happening. There is a fresh slide show of my stuff on slideshare.com. It still bothers me, but not like it used to.

It is sort of pathetic when you think about it. It may not look like it, but slideshare.net and desktopnexus.com are social networking sites like this one. You upload slide shows or wall paper images and then get praise and feedback on what you have uploaded. There is nothing wrong with the social networking aspects of places like this. I have made some good friends over the years, a few of which I have had the privilege of meeting face to face. That's cool. It becomes pathetic when we become so obsessed with the feedback that it twists our sense of morality to the point where we are willing to accept praise for someone else's work. That's messed up.

Slideshare.net seems to be built for that sort of behavior. Not only do you "gather" images to place into slide shows, but you also put music into those shows. Anyone who was alive during the Napster trial knows that you can't do that with copyrighted music. To their credit, slideshare.net was quick to resolve my reports of copyright violations.

I have heard some say that I should be flattered when my stuff is stolen. I look at it this way: I have had my car stolen twice and I didn't find that very flattering, so why would I be flattered when an image is stolen? Theft shows a deep lack of respect towards the one being stolen from. That's not flattery.

My wallpaper images have been removed. That's a hopeful sign, but I still have to wonder what that person was thinking.

Thanks for reading.

Later,
Keith

I have done much here lately but I am still alive.

Happy new year

[link]

My review of the program is here [link] or here [link]

I have been pondering fractal art...

Please share with me what you believe to be the newest, most unusual or interesting fractal art.

Thanks

I don't check my messages often enough. I had a look today and saw quite a pile, most from the 10th. I wondered, What the heck happened on the 10th? It was a Daily Double!

The other thing that I don't do enough of is thanking everyone for the views, faves and comments. So, Thanks!

I feel a little guilty when I see the praise on that image, with comments like, "it looks so real". Just between me and you, the Dahlia was a real flower. The image was made with an imported photo of a Dahlia that was growing in my front yard. UF 5 has a photo importing capability that I was learning how to use. Now I have confessed, so there. I hope that doesn't cheapen the image too much.

To tell you the truth, I have pretty much become a lurker on the community sites. I used to thrive on the attention and interaction, but those days are over. Don't get me wrong. I still appreciate the attention, but in the old days I was addicted to it. Seriously, it was a problem, so in a way, I am sort of happy that it took me 5 days to see the daily deviation. There are other things in life...

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you and you.

I have been playing with Ultrafractal 5 and written a little about it on wedreamincolor [link] If you are interested, check out my personal blog at [link]

My idreamincolor.com web sites have been down hard since yesterday. When I went to complain about it I saw a notice saying that there was a fire in the data center.

[link]

I know that not too many people visit my forum or wedreamincolor, but they are down along with a few other sites that I host. Sorry about the inconvenience. Fires are terrible things and I am sure that they are doing everything that they can to get the server up and running.

I have been selected as the Renderosity Artist of the Month. Read about it here: [link]

I am no longer an editor but I still believe in the calendar...

Fractal Universe ® 2010

Call for Submissions

This is an open call for you to submit your fractal artwork for
consideration for inclusion in the Fractal Universe ® Calendar 2010.

We have just now been notified by the publisher that the Fractal Universe
® Calendar is a go for 2010.

*Please note that the deadline for submissions this year is May 10, 2008*

We would like to stress again this year that this is a commercial venture,
and not a contest. The publisher will ultimately decide the final 13 images
that will be included in the calendar.

All the information you will need is detailed on the following website:

"Fractal Forum" www.fractalforum.com


Please make your submissions and any additional enquires you may have
via the contact form on the above website.

This message has been posted to some of the fractal art mailing lists and
forums. If you think it may be of interest to others please feel free to
forward it, as it is written here, to other 'net sites where fractal artists meet
to share and discuss fractals.

Thanks and good luck!

Panny Brawley

Please read about it here: [link]

My sincere thanks to FarDareisMai and Sophquest for the DD. It feels great to get all of that attention for a day It makes me want to build another image

Thanks to everyone for the comments and favorites

Occasionally I'll go into what I used to call a "slump". That's when I am less interested in building fractal based art or when I can't build anything interesting. I guess that I am in a slump right now, but this time it's different. In the previous slumps I would get back on the computer and eventually find myself lost in an image. That's a good thing. Getting lost in the creation process and feeling like I am creating something cool feels good.

I had a couple of weeks off of work over the holidays so I had plenty of time to loose myself in an image. I tried, but it didn't happen. I found myself getting bored with Apophysis, which isn't usual for me, but I also couldn't get into an Ultrafractal image either. In the past I would become a little frustrated or alarmed at my lack of creativity and I would try to pull myself out of it. Usually I would try a new formula or something, and then I would get sucked in and get lost in the creation process. This time it was different. This time I didn't really care.

In the past I would put an image on Renderosity and get all sorts of strokes (that doesn't happen here) then I would be feeling all good about myself and be motivated to build another image. I built a couple of images over the holidays, but I was not interested in showing them any place.

After being obsessed with fractals and places like DA and Renderosity, I have to say that this is an unusual way for me to be. I am almost ready to pull the plug on my account here. Frankly and selfishly, in my current state of mind I am having a hard time seeing the value of this place. What stopped me was my commitment to the calendar. I still enjoy that and I need to keep an eye out for images from you that would look good in it. I also need to build my own images for it but that's not pressing right now.

I don't know. Maybe my lack of obsession with building fractals and my lack of craving for your attention is a good thing. We'll see.

Another blog entry: [link]. Comment here if you are interested. Thanks

Please take a look at my latest blog entry [link] to see if you can see the space shuttle flying over the US on Wednesday

I have been impressed with some the 3D flames that have been coming out of 3D Apophysis and I congratulate the artists who have been successful with it.

I have spent some time playing with it and found it to be frustrating. I wish that I knew how to create the amazing art that many of you have been creating. I know that there are tutorials and scripts that would help me along, but I am avoiding those. Call me strange, but when I create a piece of art, I want to own it. I want to take credit for it. The scripts and tutorials that I have seen come with strings attached. The authors demand that credit be given to them. Some even become irritated when they recognize some element from their script or tutorial and do not receive credit. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to have to give credit to anyone for my art. Imagine if I wanted to sell a piece that came from some else's script and that person demanded credit whenever the script was used. How would I go about describing that piece while trying to sell it? "It is my art but give credit to Joe Scriptwriter for creating it". That doesn't make sense.

The script and tutorial writers need to cut the strings on the stuff that they make publicly available. Strings are dangerous. Imagine if someone did make real money on art that was created with a script that they didn’t write. Would the script writer be right to ask for their cut of the money? In the Ultrafractal world people do make real money on formulas that are created by other people. UF formulas are much more than x+y=z. They are complex programs, with conditional branching and looping logic. Some have thousands of lines of code. The UF formula writers provide their formulas with no strings attached. In fact, the ones that I know would be thrilled to know that one of their formulas was used to created a marketable piece of art. They wouldn't resent it. There are several formula writers who do not share their formulas, which is their right, but the ones who make their formulas publicly available do so with no strings attached.

No wonder I am frustrated. I don't know how to use Apophysis. If I use a publicly available script or tutorial, I can only take partial credit for what I create and I wouldn't feel good about offering if for sale. Why bother? I'll try to figure it out on my own.

[link]