Gasket Photography

(See also: Polyhedra Photography)

The contents of this page are © Copyright Gayla Chandler and may not be used without her permission.

[Click on the images for an enlarged version]

lots of fractal branching in the foreground the fractal dimension of the Canyon itself is ~2.25 clouds are instances of natural fractals

The left and center photographs were taken at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on Hermit's Rest Route at daybreak. The photo on the right was taken on Desert View Drive that leads to the East Rim of the Grand Canyon. All of the photographs are real. The movement of the page is from Winter through Autumn. Plant names will be provided when I can get them from horticulturists.



a piece of a mountain looks like a mountain symphony of fractal branching with fractal landmass in background roots, capillaries, lungs, rivers, are all examples of fractal branching

The first image was taken in misty rain around Trail Overlook at the South Rim. I couldn't risk taking my Sierpinski tetrahedra out in that weather. The other two were taken on Hermit's Rest Route. Sometimes, there just weren't any good places to set the tetrahedrons. These photos are rich in natural fractal structures with statistical self-similarity. If uncertain about the concepts of natural fractals and statistical self-similarity, there is a link to Paul's Self-Similarity page at the top of this page. It is a short page that won't take much time to look over, and it should add meaning and context to many of the photographs. The photographs basically juxtapose the geometric fractal Sierpinski's tetrahedron with natural fractal structures in the environment. Geometric fractals use different shapes than natural fractals, and they grow in different ways. There are many types of fractals.



notice that the stage-3 is made up of four stage-2's the arcing of the large limbs carries through to smaller limbs not sure if this knarled branching is fractal

The above three photos were all taken at Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, located outside of the small mining town of Superior, Arizona. The plant on the left is some kind of aloe or agave. In the middle photo, a stage-4 Sierpinski tetrahedron is sitting on the limb of a River Bushwillow tree. To the right, a stage-3 and a birds nest complement each other nicely.



the stage of growth (4) can be counted in the layers of this face-on view (start in the center with zero) the Sierpinski tetrahedron is made up of similar parts at infinity, every tiny piece of the Sierpinski tetrahedron will look like the whole structure

The left and middle photos were taken at ASU in Spring 2003. The structure on the far left is exceptionally tiny, with a total edge-length of 8 inches, made up of 256 1/2-inch tetrahedra set tip to tip. The center photo shows a nearly birds-eye view of the stage-3. The 4-color stage-4 on the right is set against Scarlet Macaws at the Phoenix Zoo, taken in Spring 2001. The macaw at the top was in full wingspan moments before I snapped the picture. The tetrahedron is painted in Cerulean Blue hue, Naphthol Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium, and Deep Permanent Green.



all ferns are instances of natural fractals there is nice fractal branching beneath these leaves not everything in nature is fractal, but a lot is

The left image was taken in a dark, dense thicket of Everglades National Park. The middle and right images were taken at the Morikami Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Florida. In the center, the red flowers are Pentas (Pentas lanceolata). Moving right, the yellow flowers are Allamanda (Allamanda cathartica), and a little further back, is Fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum). The Morikami provided the names.



the reflected clouds, rocks, branching in plants, are all examples of natural fractals this poster is copyright University of Bremen waves in a rough (but not frenzied) ocean are fractal

Sections from both images were used for the poster sitting between them, which I had no part in making, am merely showing it here. The image on the left was taken at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Florida. The poster was made to publicize a lecture series presented to high school students in Bremen, Germany, to stimulate interest in higher mathematics.



this Sierpinski tetrahedron family was made especially for the ocean a rough ocean wave is made of increasingly smaller waves that look just like it the edge of the water makes an ever-changing fractal coastline

All images were taken on the beach at Boca Raton. There is a para-glider in the sky in the left and middle photos. The photo on the right is included because it seems to shimmer, an effect apparently created by the sun on the wet sand combined with the fuzziness, giving a surreal effect. It was either dusk or daybreak, and I didn't use the flash. For some reason, when this happens, the camera takes a "lighter" picture without the flash but cannot capture lines sharply. These were taken in the block of 1000 North Ocean Blvd. in Boca Raton, Florida.



chunks of rough rocks look like rough rocks pieces of this tree resemble the entire tree lots of fractals here...

Moving into Autumn now, these photos were taken in Sedona in October 2002. The middle photo shows a beautiful branching structure that looks a lot like branching in the body. At this time, I had begun experimenting with stacking the structures.



the stage-2 Sierpinski tucks nicely into the stage-3 the mountain in the background is an example of a natural fractal

The left image was taken at a commercial trout fishing spot just north of Sedona on Scenic Route 89A. The beautiful coppery-red bush on the right is a dead or dying Manzanita. Thriving Manzanitas stay green all year long.



fractal branching of roots is visible in bottom-left corner enlarged image reveals nice fractal branching math models set in nature can visually intensify the structure within nature itself

Taken in Oak Creek Canyon in November 2002 along scenic Hwy 89 in the Switchbacks between Sedona and Flagstaff, the left and middle photos show turning Maple leaves. On the right is a stage-2 Sierpinski tetrahedron poised with the brilliantly turned leaves of an African Sumak.


The contents of this page are © Copyright Gayla Chandler and may not be used without her permission.